Loved it!!!!!! Really liked reading a setting other than London at the height of the Season. Maggie was such a good female lead - she kept her head, was smart and quick with ideas, yet didn't pout when she recognized that Doyle had more experience in something and it would be prudent to bow to his expertise. Adrian was a delight to read and I can't wait to read his book. Yes, the historical facts may have been smudged a bit, but I can imagine that the aristos really would cling to their routines as if nothing was wrong, and that children would be forced into circumstances where they needed to grow up and harden their hearts much faster than they would have outside of war and rebellion. I so wanted to love this book, but I guess it just wasn't my glass of wine. Set in 1794 during the French Revolution, it should have been much more exciting. The characters "discuss" what is happening in Paris, but the events are always in the background.Maggie, the heroine, is interesting, but spouts the strangest asides in her dialog (rather schizophrenic) that have nothing to do with what is happening. That grew old, quickly. Since some of the other characters do this as well, it made them sound too similar, without their own separate quirks. She's attracted to, and tries to be intimate with, Doyle far too fast (a romance cliché, which could be avoided by this talented author) when as a supposedly experienced spy, she should have been leery of him.Doyle is not your usual hunky romance hero, so that was a plus.Victor, the villain, isn't in it enough to increase the tension. Maggie's father was quirky and fun, but also not in the story enough to really flesh him out.Bourne's prose is beautifully descriptive, and the beginning of the novel pulled me in, but it wasn't the rollicking spy-yarn I hoped for.
Do You like book Die Dornen Der Rose (2013)?
much better than "my lord and spymaster," not quite as good as "the spymaster's lady."
—533prerna
Joanna Bourne writes marvelous historicals. She is officially one of my auto-buys.
—poorvi
This was a good story...not too smutty and a very interesting story line.
—Myaisalways
Enjoyed it more the second time around. Originally read in 2012.
—cody
