Review and Giveaway: Rogue Spy

Rogue Spy (Spymaster's Lady - Book 5) by JoAnna Bourne

Publication Date: 11/04/2014
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley Sensation
Genre: Historical Romance
Pages: 336
ISBN-10: 0425260828
ISBN-13: 978-0425260821

(Received for an honest review from Berkley Sensation)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indiebound, itunes

JoAnna Bourne on the WEB: website, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads

Books in the series: 

Spymaster's Lady

1. The Spymaster's Lady
2. My Lord and Spymaster
3. The Forbidden Rose
4. The Black Hawk
5. Rogue Spy

Coverart: Click the Image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.

Excerpt from, Rogue Spy, courtesy of the author's website.

Synopsis:

~Chosen as one of Library Journal's Best Romances of 2014~  
For years he’d lived a lie. It was time to tell the truth . . . even if it cost him the woman he loved.  
Ten years ago he was a boy, given the name Thomas Paxton and sent by Revolutionary France to infiltrate the British Intelligence Service. Now his sense of honor brings him back to London, alone and unarmed, to confess. But instead of facing the gallows, he’s given one last impossible assignment to prove his loyalty.

Lovely, lying, former French spy Camille Leyland is dragged from her safe rural obscurity by threats and blackmail. Dusting off her spy skills, she sets out to track down a ruthless French fanatic and rescue the innocent victim he’s holding—only to find an old colleague already on the case. Pax.

Old friendship turns to new love, and as Pax and Camille’s dark secrets loom up from the past, Pax is left with a choice—go rogue from the Service or lose Camille forever…

Thoughts:

Joanna Bourne continues her Spymasters series with the fifth installment, Rogue Spy. Readers are treated to a story that doesn't follow the normal Regency conventions. There are no smug debutantes or plots that can be figured out by a five year old. Bourne gives readers a complex and intriguing story surrounding the French Revolution. With strong and interesting characters and enough espionage to keep readers flipping the pages, this is a great new book from a talented author.

What I liked:

This was my first book by Joanna Bourne, but it certainly won't be my last. I'm definitely picking up the rest of the books in this series. I've have read tons of Regency romances and they tend to have a lot of things in common and they can get to be extremely predictable. Not so with this book. The angle of the French Revolution was unexpected and it added a different sort of atmosphere to the story. To be honest I don't know that much about the French Revolution but this book made me want to know more and that's pretty extraordinary. 

The hero and heroine in Rogue Spy have a cryptic past. They have had their lives turned completely upside down by the Revolution. They were orphaned by it and then used by it. Trained as a cache, a child who would be exploited as a spy for the French against the British both Cami and Pax have been living a lie for many years. Now Cami is threatened along with the people she has come to know and love in Britain. When she meets up with Pax for the first time in years it's a shock to both of them. I loved the way that Bourne gives us two characters who have based their lives on lies, yet there is such an innocence in the way they react to each other. I also liked the role reversal in the fact that Cami is experienced and Pax is still a virgin. Definitely not what I was expecting. There is just a quality to the book that makes the reader believe in true love, despite any kind of obstacle.

Throughout the book I couldn't help but feel the pivotal point was whether or not these characters were villains or heroes. What made it so interesting was that I couldn't really figure it out. A lot of it was due to the circumstances, but they had to be on the same side to make the relationship work and Bourne kept me guessing all the way through. Was Pax loyal to England? Was Cami loyal to France? Was it possible to make the two parts of their lives work together. Did it really matter? Of course it did. 

This was not your grandma's Regency tale. This book was so unpredictable. I didn't have a clue what was going to happen next I just knew I had to keep reading to find out. This was probably one of the most intriguing historical romances I have read in a long time and that made me really want to read more from the author and find out about the other couples and books that have come before this one. Bourne was able to captivate me and that's saying a lot.

Bottom Line:

This was an excellent book. I loved everything about it. From the honesty of the characters to the complexity of the plot. Joanna Bourne makes spying and espionage really fun to read about and it made me want to know more about the French Revolution. Who studies the French Revolution for fun? Yep, that's going way beyond the book. 

Rogue Spy is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

About the Author:

Joanna Bourne is the award-winning author of the Spymaster series: Spymaster's Lady, My Lord and Spymaster, Forbidden Rose, Black Hawk, and her latest, Rogue Spy.Joanna credits a lifelong fascination with history, her many beloved Romance books, and the pulp classic tales of fantastical adventure as the inspiration of her stories. She's drawn to Revolutionary and Napoleonic France and Regency England because, as she puts it, "It was a time of love and sacrifice, daring deeds, clashing ideals, and really cool clothing."

Joanna lived many years in England and France, the settings of the Spymaster series.  Nowadays she makes her home on a mountaintop in the Appalachians with her family, a peculiar cat, and an old brown country dog.

Giveaway Details:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of Rogue Spy by JoAnna Bourne.

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~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST, December 8th.

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