Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
This plot is ripe with unbelievable twists and turns that would spin themselves into their own stories under most normal circumstances in writing.
First of all I just want to say how hysterical I find it that these books originally had the cheesy male chested Regency romance covers, because these don't really fit that brand.
All three of these stars are for the adventure/spy/politics part of the book. (And Adrian of course, who I'll get to in a minute.) It turns out I'm super grateful to whichever benevolent friend told me to read [b:The Forbidden Rose|7099471|The Forbidden Rose (Spymasters, #3)|Joanna Bourne|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1383019558s/7099471.jpg|7357200] first. If I had started with this one, I don't know that I'd be as eager to continue with the series. (Except maybe yes, because ADRIAN.) As I said, the political intrigue and spying part of the book REALLY worked for me. I love how complicated and complex all the layers of that were and that there were twists and secrets inside secrets inside secrets. I appreciate how Bourne assumes intelligence on behalf of her audience and brings them along for the ride. She is not compelled to explain every detail or person. And it was really interesting to see Doyle and Maggie in this book after already having read their story.
But dear heaven the romance. The romance part of The Forbidden Rose wasn't my favorite part of that because I thought it happened kind of fast, but I enjoyed Doyle and Maggie together. Robert and Annique just kind of squicked me out.
Now Adrian. Holy cow. I said when I finished The Forbidden Rose that I kind of just wanted to jump to his story because I loved him so much. My love grew exponentially in this one. My expectations for his book may now me too high to ever meet. I'm sure he's everybody's favorite though. HOW COULD HE NOT BE??????
All three of these stars are for the adventure/spy/politics part of the book. (And Adrian of course, who I'll get to in a minute.) It turns out I'm super grateful to whichever benevolent friend told me to read [b:The Forbidden Rose|7099471|The Forbidden Rose (Spymasters, #3)|Joanna Bourne|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1383019558s/7099471.jpg|7357200] first. If I had started with this one, I don't know that I'd be as eager to continue with the series. (Except maybe yes, because ADRIAN.) As I said, the political intrigue and spying part of the book REALLY worked for me. I love how complicated and complex all the layers of that were and that there were twists and secrets inside secrets inside secrets. I appreciate how Bourne assumes intelligence on behalf of her audience and brings them along for the ride. She is not compelled to explain every detail or person. And it was really interesting to see Doyle and Maggie in this book after already having read their story.
But dear heaven the romance. The romance part of The Forbidden Rose wasn't my favorite part of that because I thought it happened kind of fast, but I enjoyed Doyle and Maggie together. Robert and Annique just kind of squicked me out.
Spoiler
She spent a good portion of their first meeting drugged and all of their second meeting assuming he was someone else. The entire time (whether she knows it or not), she is his prisoner. After realizing who he is and that she is indeed his prisoner the second time around, she immediately starts having sex with him and the consent in that scene was blurry enough to bother me immensely. She finds out she's been lied to all her life. Her mother died SIX WEEKS prior. She recovered from a major head injury. Her entire world crashes down around her. She loses EVERYTHING. For goodness sake, Robert, give the girl time to breathe. And I don't use "girl" lightly here. SHE IS SO YOUNG. I know her experience makes her older and whatever, but she even reads young and confused. Much younger than Maggie read. And then there's her line at the end about him freeing her with one hand and trapping her with the other (something like that). It was so SPOT ON.That's exactly what he was doing. And I couldn't be excited about that. I really felt like she was trapped and had no choices left.Now Adrian. Holy cow. I said when I finished The Forbidden Rose that I kind of just wanted to jump to his story because I loved him so much. My love grew exponentially in this one. My expectations for his book may now me too high to ever meet. I'm sure he's everybody's favorite though. HOW COULD HE NOT BE??????
This is my first Joanna Bourne book and it was most enjoyable. Her writing was excellent and enjoyed all the action. I could have used a bit more spice and more male point of view. The blindness reveal was very good but her regaining her vision back to total normalcy so quickly was a bit much. I am looking forward to continuing this series.
How did I not write a review for this when I actually finished it?! I think I loved this book, hence the five stars. Lol
So well written and full of twists. I loved how she did the dialogue to reflect the... IDK, Frenchiness of the heroine. So so good!
So well written and full of twists. I loved how she did the dialogue to reflect the... IDK, Frenchiness of the heroine. So so good!
My guess at how the publisher’s office works, based on the cover of this book:
Publisher: So what’s this book about?
Assistant: Hell if I know. Or care.
Publisher: Ok. Put an ambiguous guy on the front. That should "cover" our bases.
Assistant: Good one, boss. I’ll make sure to make him look like a tool.
OR maybe something like this:
Assistant: Spymaster’s Lady, huh? That’s a pretty intriguing title.
Publisher: Yea. It’s too sophisticated. The cover has to balance that.
A: Ok. I’ll use an effeminate male model dazedly looking at nothing.
P: Perfect. Wait, how was the story?
A: Inventive, fun, sly, and entertaining.
P: Crap. Better make him shirtless to disguise that.
A: Well, there was an epic-type romance with plenty of heat.
P: Ok, he can be in the process of taking off the shirt. Make sure his chest is showing though.
A: How many abs can I show? 2?
P: Hmm… How was the dialogue?
A: Direct, intelligent, often hilarious.
P: The characters?
A: Lovely. Best I've seen in a long time.
P: Better make it an 6-pack then. We need to make sure people who aren’t used to romance novels are scared off.
A: -nods- Genius, boss.
P: I know. One last thing. If the book’s unique and witty, make sure the back cover hides that as well as possible in cliché and over the top descriptions.
A: Please. That’s romance novel publishing 101. I just used my favorite template and inserted the names and occupations.
P: Great work. Look like our job is done. Let me buy us a round of glue bottles to sniff.
A: Sounds delightful.
Seriously loved this book. And obviously like many others, seriously hate the cover. Had to get that out there. Rest of the review coming soon.
Publisher: So what’s this book about?
Assistant: Hell if I know. Or care.
Publisher: Ok. Put an ambiguous guy on the front. That should "cover" our bases.
Assistant: Good one, boss. I’ll make sure to make him look like a tool.
OR maybe something like this:
Assistant: Spymaster’s Lady, huh? That’s a pretty intriguing title.
Publisher: Yea. It’s too sophisticated. The cover has to balance that.
A: Ok. I’ll use an effeminate male model dazedly looking at nothing.
P: Perfect. Wait, how was the story?
A: Inventive, fun, sly, and entertaining.
P: Crap. Better make him shirtless to disguise that.
A: Well, there was an epic-type romance with plenty of heat.
P: Ok, he can be in the process of taking off the shirt. Make sure his chest is showing though.
A: How many abs can I show? 2?
P: Hmm… How was the dialogue?
A: Direct, intelligent, often hilarious.
P: The characters?
A: Lovely. Best I've seen in a long time.
P: Better make it an 6-pack then. We need to make sure people who aren’t used to romance novels are scared off.
A: -nods- Genius, boss.
P: I know. One last thing. If the book’s unique and witty, make sure the back cover hides that as well as possible in cliché and over the top descriptions.
A: Please. That’s romance novel publishing 101. I just used my favorite template and inserted the names and occupations.
P: Great work. Look like our job is done. Let me buy us a round of glue bottles to sniff.
A: Sounds delightful.
Seriously loved this book. And obviously like many others, seriously hate the cover. Had to get that out there. Rest of the review coming soon.
This was a compelling story and I really liked Annique but I didn't really like Grey- he's just got Annique so totally in his power, he's about a decade older than her, she's his prisoner and her life is falling to pieces around her- the romance just felt creepy and like he was taking advantage.
The dialogue was actually pretty entertaining.
Getting past the cover....(I do wish historical romance books would use more discrete covers)...I didn't like this book at all. I typically like Napoleonic spy drama but this one just seemed forced and contrived. In short, a French Spy (but one who never spied against England of course) helps two English Spies out of a French prison. She is then captured, escapes, is captured, escapes (etc., etc.) until the two spies fall in love. (Of course.) To me it just didn't have any life to it and I didn't much care if the characters fell in love or not. I would have stopped reading this one after the first couple of chapters were I not snowed in with no other books to read.