A review by noisydeadlines
The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne

adventurous inspiring mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

When I first read this book 9 years ago I gave it a 3 stars rating. I heard about it again in 2024 and I decided to re-read it because it sounded really good, but I didn't remember much about it. And, I enjoyed it way more this second time! It's a historical romance espionage set during the Napoleonic Wars  between France and England in the 1700's. The main character, Annique Villiers, is a bad-ass French spy; she has seen Napoleon’s plans to invade England and spies from all over are after her to get that information. She meets British spies, and the characters travel from France to England. The book is full of delightful plot twists with the enemies-to-lovers trope, I can't mention too much about the story because of spoilers. It was cool to notice how the author used slightly different writing styles for each character depending on the language they were speaking and their native languages. The book is written in English, but the characters speak English of varying dialects and accents, and also they use French words here and there. It's super interesting! The prose is beautiful, the plot twists were well done, the heroine is clever. I'm curious to read the other books of this series.

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