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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
I thought of the books I've read by this author, I sort of felt that this was the weakest. It was still enjoyable and definitely entertaining, just not as good as the others. Hope the series continues though :)
8/22/10
It is a pity that Bourne is a slow, methodical writer and has only written three books. She has a fresh, exciting way of story - and her humor and sarcasm and depth of feeling leap off her pages. Her plots make veer off into unexpected twists and turns (after all, they involve spies! Sexy spies!) and I thoroughly enjoy her work. She even slips in a gut-wrenching sucker-punch at the end of this story. (of which, I am still sad about.)
At any rate, a worthy addition to her spy series. Great stuff!
8/5/17
Still so very good. The ending always chokes me up - especially since I have children now. So excellent.
It is a pity that Bourne is a slow, methodical writer and has only written three books. She has a fresh, exciting way of story - and her humor and sarcasm and depth of feeling leap off her pages. Her plots make veer off into unexpected twists and turns (after all, they involve spies! Sexy spies!) and I thoroughly enjoy her work. She even slips in a gut-wrenching sucker-punch at the end of this story. (of which, I am still sad about.)
At any rate, a worthy addition to her spy series. Great stuff!
8/5/17
Still so very good. The ending always chokes me up - especially since I have children now. So excellent.
I loooove this series on audio. The narrator does a great job with accent switching.
Anyway, Bourne has a talent for setting and atmosphere, so even if I didn't believe the romance in full, I was riveted.
Anyway, Bourne has a talent for setting and atmosphere, so even if I didn't believe the romance in full, I was riveted.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Filled with suspense and sweeping romance, Bourne's Spymaster series can be read in any order, but I recommend starting with this one. Set during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, you meet spies from all sides of the conflict, and these characters turn up in many of the books in the series. The Forbidden Rose is chronologically the earliest book in the series, and focuses on the aristo Marguerite, smuggling people facing a death sentence at the guillotine out of the country, and William Doyle, a master spy of the British Secret Service. Wit and courage abound in both of them, as well as their allies when they race against time to save Marguerite's network of heroes.
I love Joanna Bourne. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed her first two books – The Spymaster’s Lady and My Lord and Spymaster – I didn’t expect to like this one quite as much. I’m happy to report I loved it just as much. Maybe more?
THE FORBIDDEN ROSE is set during the turmoil of the French Revolution. Marguerite de Fleurignac is a French aristocrat who smuggles people who would otherwise be sent to the guillotine out of the country. When her château is burned to the ground, Maggie flees to her home in Paris where she intends to warn the other people in her smuggling network that their identities have been compromised. The hero, William Doyle, arrives in time to help her get away. He pretends to be a traveling book seller, but he is in truth a British spy who is using Maggie to find her father, who he believes is linked to the assassinations of several British agents.
First off, I love the setting. The French Revolution? I’m intrigued. I’ve discovered over the last year that, in order for me to enjoy a historical romance, there must be some type of conflict other than the ups and downs of the romance. There is conflict aplenty in this book – in all of Bourne’s books actually. She does a great job of exploring the Revolution, making it seem real and horrible. I found myself wanting to learn more about the time period and about Robespierre. It’s been a long time since I had a history class, and honestly, the only thing I can remember from high school text books is that the French Revolution was a victory for the people. The monarchy was overthrown. That sounds good, right? Like when the American colonies overthrew King George? Well, there’s definitely an ugly, bloody side to the French Revolution that I, in my sunny little world, didn’t think much about. This book brought that to life. This is not to say the book is overly violent or anything, but it… well, it makes you think.
The second thing I love about this book: Maggie. It might seem odd to describe a woman in a historical romance as a “kick-ass heroine”, but that’s exactly the type of character Maggie is. No, she doesn’t go running around swinging swords, casting spells, or beating villains up like the women in urban fantasy do, but I love her just as much. She’s resourceful, brave, stoic, compassionate. She doesn’t let people boss her around. She doesn’t wait around for a man to come along and save her. She takes matters into her own hands and she does things. She is not helpless as so many other historical romance heroines are.
Thing number three: Justine and Adrian. Sidekicks for the win! Adrian is Doyle’s spy-in-training. Justine is… complicated. She works for the Secret Police, which I think is a French spy network? She’s also a member of Maggie’s smuggling network. She has an interesting past and an interesting future, I believe. I’ve read on Bourne’s blog about “Justine’s book”. I’m now extremely excited to read that story. I loved both her and Adrian, and I’m fairly certain these two will run into each other in the “Justine book”. If not, boo! These two need to be together!
Number four: the writing. I love the author’s voice. Love, love, love. What’s interesting to me, though, is I think she changed her writing style a little. Before I read her previous novel, I read this review over on Dear Author http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/06/24/review-my-lord-and-spymaster-by-joanna-bourne/ where it talks about the writing style grating on the reviewer’s nerves. In her previous books, Bourne reversed the typical order of sentences. Example: “Canny as a parliament of owls, the Captain” instead of “The Captain was as canny as a parliament of owls.” I don’t think the reversal would have bothered me in MY LORD AND SPYMASTER if I hadn’t read that review, but they did kind of stick out to me. That said, I really missed the sentence reversals in THE FORBIDDEN ROSE. (I know, I know. The author can’t win either way, can she? ) I wonder if Bourne consciously refrained from the reversal because of these reviews? I still loved the writing, though. There were times where I stopped and said, “Wow” because I truly appreciated the prose. A couple of examples:
He wasn’t worried about the donkeys. It takes dedication and ingenuity to kill a donkey, though Hawker was giving it a try. Any fool can founder a high-bred mare. A good horse will run her heart out and die under you.
That was Maggie. She’d keep on until she fell in her tracks.
(Yes, Doyle is comparing Maggie to a horse, but she’s tired and worn out and scared and this metaphor fit so well.)
Guillame looked Jean-Paul over, being meditative and calm about it. Guillame, being meditative, was like a mountain wondering if it should fall on someone.
(Perfect description!)
The cherry on top: the ending! Oh, how I loved it! I complain all the time about how historical romances have stupid, obligatory baby epilogues. You know, those last five or ten pages where the heroine just so happens to be pregnant or to have a dozen adorable mini-heroes running around her feet? Can’t stand that! I don’t want to give anything away here, but THERE IS NO BABY EPILOGUE! I’m ecstatic with the ending! I think this might be the Best Historical Romance Ending Ever.
I’m not going to write a long-winded review because I read most of this on vacation, didn’t take notes and I’m feeling rather lazy. I believe this is part of a series but it reads well on its own. The hero is a british spy, scarred terribly and not traditionally handsome, and the heroine is a beautiful aristocrat keeping secrets of her own. Both know they can’t have each other for any length of time but they are inexplicably drawn to each other and unable to resist the pull.
This book has an amazing sensual buildup. The author even uses the work cock and tits. Yay for her. The hero speaks like an actual guy instead of waxing poetic about the heroine’s bits and pieces like too many historical heroes. And this brings me to my biggest disappointment so far in the book: the lame-ass love scenes. Hugely disappointing. The sexual tension is through the roof but the love scenes were over before they even began. Blech. I don’t like being led on like that and I can’t figure out why the heroine didn’t complain! The hero, with all his sexy talk does a boom, boom, ahhh, boom, ahhh, and then there’s some spillage on her belly, and he’s all done. Wait, what? Did someone rip out the best pages of my book?
Despite that disappointment the characters were very interesting. The only thing niggling at me about the heroine was the fact that she was helping people whom she seemed to abhor. That bit didn't make sense to me but maybe it became clearer later on? At any rate it made it difficult to connect with her. I adored the young boy and his donkey companions. I hear the author is writing his book. I may give that one a go. But sadly, my complete disinterest in all things spy related has forced me to give up on this one. I’m sure it’s super fantastic but I completely lost interest at the midway mark and just can’t work up the energy to pick it up again. I know, I know I finished the slow moving book about the cat lady falling in love with her brother and yet I give up on this? What can I say? I’m a quitter. Looks like I’m going to have to add another book to the DNF pile.
This book has an amazing sensual buildup. The author even uses the work cock and tits. Yay for her. The hero speaks like an actual guy instead of waxing poetic about the heroine’s bits and pieces like too many historical heroes. And this brings me to my biggest disappointment so far in the book: the lame-ass love scenes. Hugely disappointing. The sexual tension is through the roof but the love scenes were over before they even began. Blech. I don’t like being led on like that and I can’t figure out why the heroine didn’t complain! The hero, with all his sexy talk does a boom, boom, ahhh, boom, ahhh, and then there’s some spillage on her belly, and he’s all done. Wait, what? Did someone rip out the best pages of my book?
Despite that disappointment the characters were very interesting. The only thing niggling at me about the heroine was the fact that she was helping people whom she seemed to abhor. That bit didn't make sense to me but maybe it became clearer later on? At any rate it made it difficult to connect with her. I adored the young boy and his donkey companions. I hear the author is writing his book. I may give that one a go. But sadly, my complete disinterest in all things spy related has forced me to give up on this one. I’m sure it’s super fantastic but I completely lost interest at the midway mark and just can’t work up the energy to pick it up again. I know, I know I finished the slow moving book about the cat lady falling in love with her brother and yet I give up on this? What can I say? I’m a quitter. Looks like I’m going to have to add another book to the DNF pile.
4.5, probably. My definition of 5 stars/It Was Amazing is changing, I think. I'm being more selective about it.
Anyway, there's everything to love and nothing to hate in this book! The heroine and the hero both have espionage tendencies and skills, and although the romance arc doesn't stand out in any particular way, I fell in love with both of them and enjoyed the progression of their increasing affections. The characters really stand out, as does the wit. The heroine has this unique, wry way of looking at the world, and I laughed at lots of things she said. The third wheel in the novel, a young Adrian Hawkins (aka "Hawker" was delightfully stubborn and sarcastic and resentful, but also smart and cunning and loyal.
Drop them all into Revolutionary France and you have an explosive tale of cross-country travel, betrayal, hiding in shadows, poison, riots, thievery, imprisonment and escape.
I love Joanna Bourne's writing style, her characters, and her vivid settings. She's become one of my favorite historical romance authors.
Anyway, there's everything to love and nothing to hate in this book! The heroine and the hero both have espionage tendencies and skills, and although the romance arc doesn't stand out in any particular way, I fell in love with both of them and enjoyed the progression of their increasing affections. The characters really stand out, as does the wit. The heroine has this unique, wry way of looking at the world, and I laughed at lots of things she said. The third wheel in the novel, a young Adrian Hawkins (aka "Hawker" was delightfully stubborn and sarcastic and resentful, but also smart and cunning and loyal.
Drop them all into Revolutionary France and you have an explosive tale of cross-country travel, betrayal, hiding in shadows, poison, riots, thievery, imprisonment and escape.
I love Joanna Bourne's writing style, her characters, and her vivid settings. She's become one of my favorite historical romance authors.
Marguerite de Fleurignac is an aristocrat living in Revolutionary France. She orchestrates a network of people who smuggle the condemned out of the country before they are sent to the guillotine. When she is betrayed, she goes into hiding until she can return to Paris to find her father and continue her efforts to smuggle people out of France.
William Doyle is an English spy sent to France to find a list, created by Marguerite's father, of English military men who are being assassinated. When William meets Marguerite, he sees his opportunity to get to her father and offers to escort her to Paris.
The relationship between Marguerite and William was a pleasure to watch unfold. They are both such strong, uncompromising characters, which was a nice change from some of the romances I have read recently. The romance was on the steamier side.
William Doyle is an English spy sent to France to find a list, created by Marguerite's father, of English military men who are being assassinated. When William meets Marguerite, he sees his opportunity to get to her father and offers to escort her to Paris.
The relationship between Marguerite and William was a pleasure to watch unfold. They are both such strong, uncompromising characters, which was a nice change from some of the romances I have read recently. The romance was on the steamier side.