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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
While I loved that Bourne was able to keep secrets from me and keep surprising me, I did get a little peeved at how long it took Annique to trust Grey completely, even after they admitted their love for each other. As for the man himself, I've seen other reviewers criticize him for mistreating her early on, but...she was an enemy spy?? And he felt terrible when he had to hit her because she was garroting him?? I found him to be very gentle with her, while still being loyal to England. In fact, he is far more loyal to her than she is to him. There seems to be a double standard here. We're told over and over how smart Annique is, but I just didn't see it, aside from the times she uses her eidetic memory. She felt very immature and made frequent idiotic mistakes. She had a few shining moments, but they were often accompanied by Grey, who was the truly smart one. Another thing I appreciated was the detail in the author's writing. Instead of giving Annique a French accent in the dialogue, Bourne only makes her speak in slightly broken English, which gives the effect perfectly.
Overall I enjoyed this book despite some problematic elements. Namely the sudden utter helplessness of the heroine in the second half of the book. She goes from mysterious, uber spy to damsel in distress in an instant and it is quite frustrating. However I found the setting and the ancillary characters interesting enough to continue on with the series.
Speaking of Audiobooks 2011 Listening Challenge: Listen to another listener’s romance favorite
Listening to The Spymaster's Lady was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The narrator, Kirsten Potter, did the accents to perfection, and breathed life into the dialog. The story itself seemed to be less important than the pleasure of listening to Potter's rich voice. Not to say that the story wasn't excellent. The Spymater's Lady has a good balance of danger, intrigue, action, romance, suspense, and humor. The characters were sympathetic and honorable, even if flawed. The story did drag a bit for me at the very end when the author chose to slow down the pivotal scenes with Anique's musings. I realize this was done on purpose, to give a sense of unreality to the drama, as seen though the emotions of Anique. But even knowing that, I itched for the internal thoughts to cease and to find out how it was all going to be resolved. The only other quibble I had with the book was the slightly over-emotional sex scenes. The narrator handled it beautifully, but if I'd been reading them I probably would have skimmed or skipped them altogether.
I'm not sure I would have enjoyed this book quite so much in print, but I enthusiastically recommend the audio.
Listening to The Spymaster's Lady was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The narrator, Kirsten Potter, did the accents to perfection, and breathed life into the dialog. The story itself seemed to be less important than the pleasure of listening to Potter's rich voice. Not to say that the story wasn't excellent. The Spymater's Lady has a good balance of danger, intrigue, action, romance, suspense, and humor. The characters were sympathetic and honorable, even if flawed. The story did drag a bit for me at the very end when the author chose to slow down the pivotal scenes with Anique's musings. I realize this was done on purpose, to give a sense of unreality to the drama, as seen though the emotions of Anique. But even knowing that, I itched for the internal thoughts to cease and to find out how it was all going to be resolved. The only other quibble I had with the book was the slightly over-emotional sex scenes. The narrator handled it beautifully, but if I'd been reading them I probably would have skimmed or skipped them altogether.
I'm not sure I would have enjoyed this book quite so much in print, but I enthusiastically recommend the audio.
This was a fun read, but it also felt a little bit like reading a historical romance version of James Bond (relationship wise anyways). The whole, "I know you're saying no, but you actually mean yes" thing. It's super frustrating and almost made me stop reading this one. Maybe I just need to stop reading these sorts of books for a bit. I get that the relationships are realistic for the time period and men really did own women in a sense, but it would be nice to read about a relationship where the people involved seemed like friends too.
Maybe I'm just being tired and grouchy. Don't know. The relationships do get better as the story progresses and I did read the whole thing, but I think I'll be going back to reading Patricia Briggs instead. Mercedes Thompson and Adam are way more my thing.
Maybe I'm just being tired and grouchy. Don't know. The relationships do get better as the story progresses and I did read the whole thing, but I think I'll be going back to reading Patricia Briggs instead. Mercedes Thompson and Adam are way more my thing.
Maybe more like 3 1/2 stars. Liked the spy stuff and the adventure-y bits, liked the secondary characters (secondary characters and their relationships to the main characters make or break a romance for me), liked the romance (mostly), found the dialogue a bit stilted and the heroine a bit distant (to the reader), and the ending too abrupt. I think I'll try another by the same author.
I read this book for the Vaginal Fantasy Book Club, July 2015.
I made it through the whole thing. Yes, I skimmed a LOT, but I made it. I hated this book. It never grabbed me. I felt like I had to give it more of a shot because I was reading it for the book club, but holy hell was this torture. I'm obviously in the minority on this one, so I'm not sure what I'm not getting, but I was bored out of my head. I didn't like any of the characters. This super awesome spy was TSTL half the time...you know, when the author wasn't injecting little clever things. I felt like not a lot happened. Lady spy was captured and traveled from France to England. Yeah, that's about it. Blech.
I made it through the whole thing. Yes, I skimmed a LOT, but I made it. I hated this book. It never grabbed me. I felt like I had to give it more of a shot because I was reading it for the book club, but holy hell was this torture. I'm obviously in the minority on this one, so I'm not sure what I'm not getting, but I was bored out of my head. I didn't like any of the characters. This super awesome spy was TSTL half the time...you know, when the author wasn't injecting little clever things. I felt like not a lot happened. Lady spy was captured and traveled from France to England. Yeah, that's about it. Blech.
Annique Villiers is a renowned French spy, and the daughter of a renowned French spy. But when she is captured by agents of the regime who want to silence her, she is imprisoned with several English spies and they escape together. Annique develops a deep attraction to Grey, one of the English spies, but is resolved to stay true to her country. However, when concern for safety requires her to escape to England, will she be able to survive and stay true to her ideals? Annique is a great heroine and the setting is a lot of fun.
It was good but there a few things about Gray’s character and actions that I cannot reconcile with being a hero.
While the hero eventually recovers from his first ninety or so pages of Angry Boner ManTM the Smart Bitches ("Heroine give me boner! Boner make me angry! Angry man do stupid things because angry!"), he was still, you know, an Angry Boner Man. A star was lost for me right there.
However, what this book does marevelously well is how it handles the inevitable conflict of spy vs. spy. In order for them to have a happily-ever-after, someone has to be wrong 99% of the time. Someone is working for the "wrong" government or deluded or whatever, and in 99% of that 99%, I'd say the "wrong" one is most often the woman. Angry Reader Lady!
Here, though, Bourne manages to resolve this conflict in a way that allows her heroine to retain her agency and her integrity, even as the heroine works for, ohmigodthehorror, France. (Obviously bad.) The heroine solves her own problems and is largely responsible for engineering her own happily-ever-after. I appreciate that so much I can't even say.
I also appreciate that Bourne walked the fine line of hero-and-heroine-finally-falling-in-love-and-heh-doin'-it combined with hero-holding-heroine-prisoner very well. While the hero may forget that the heroine is essentially his captive (because he can't be all that wrong! he works for the *right* side! England forever! it's all in her best interests, the little lady!), the heroine (and Bourne) never do, and Bourne never lets that be not creepy. Because it is.
Very skillfully done overall, even if I did want to punch the hero for big chunks of the book.
However, what this book does marevelously well is how it handles the inevitable conflict of spy vs. spy. In order for them to have a happily-ever-after, someone has to be wrong 99% of the time. Someone is working for the "wrong" government or deluded or whatever, and in 99% of that 99%, I'd say the "wrong" one is most often the woman. Angry Reader Lady!
Here, though, Bourne manages to resolve this conflict in a way that allows her heroine to retain her agency and her integrity, even as the heroine works for, ohmigodthehorror, France. (Obviously bad.) The heroine solves her own problems and is largely responsible for engineering her own happily-ever-after. I appreciate that so much I can't even say.
I also appreciate that Bourne walked the fine line of hero-and-heroine-finally-falling-in-love-and-heh-doin'-it combined with hero-holding-heroine-prisoner very well. While the hero may forget that the heroine is essentially his captive (because he can't be all that wrong! he works for the *right* side! England forever! it's all in her best interests, the little lady!), the heroine (and Bourne) never do, and Bourne never lets that be not creepy. Because it is.
Very skillfully done overall, even if I did want to punch the hero for big chunks of the book.
Definitely one of the best "romance" novels I've read in a while!