Teaser Tuesday: Lord and Lady Spy by Shana Galen

Sophia Galloway, Lady Smythe has a secret identity. Whilst her husband thinks that she is busy doing whatever it is that ladies do (you know, charities etc) in reality she is Agent Saint, one of the top agents for the super secret spy group known as Barbican.

Adrian Galloway, Lord Smythe has a secret identity. Whilst his wife thinks that he is busy doing whatever it is that gentlemen do (you know, parliament and clubs etc) in reality he is Agent Wolfe, also one of the top agents for the super secret spy group known as Barbican.

If you have seen the movie Mr and Mrs Smith (infamous for being the movie where Brad and Angelina got together) then you will recognise the not necessarily subtle homage that the author has paid in the set up of this book. It is fair to say though that the author hasn't just taken the whole movie and plonked it into a historical setting, but it most certainly was a jumping off point.

With the end of the Napoleonic war, Barbican needs to cut back on the number of spies that it has in action. When both Wolf and Saint are among those that are no longer required they are both mortified. What on earth are they going to be do all day? They certainly don't want to have to spend time with their spouse-in-name-only.

Luckily they are both approached separately to undertake a private investigation. The prize at the end of the investigation? One spot, and one spot only back in the Barbican group. In the process their identities  are revealed to each other. Both are shocked to say the least, but more than anything they both want that spot. They can work together despite their differing tactics and strengths but ultimately they are competitors. What neither expected is that their attraction to each other would be reignited.

I have read a few of Galen's books now, and the results have been hit and miss. In the first couple of books I really liked the heroes, but in the first book in particular, I really didn't like the heroine. In this book, I was glad to see that there was a bit more consistency in the characterisation.

Having said that, there were still issues. Adrian works his way through his cases by using meticulous research, careful planning and tying all the loose ends. Sophia is good with knives, but a terrible shot with a pistol, and is fantastic at what she does mainly because of her unerringly accurate intuition. Every time something is about to happen her nose itches, which is fine as a gimmick, but is it enough to say that her nose itches every time?

One of the other inconsistencies in terms of characterisations for Sophia in particular relates to her history when it comes to pregnancies. She has pushed Adrian away for years because she is so upset about the fact that she has suffered from multiple miscarriages. So far, that might seem like a perfectly logical step, but we are supposed to believe that this incredibly strong woman who doesn't flinch at violence or death, can't be in the same room as a pregnant woman without breaking down. I didn't buy it.

Adrian struggles between respecting the agent Sophia but also wanting to protect his wife Sophia, which I think would be a pretty realistic reaction, at least until he got used to the idea. I loved the scenes where the two of them compared their memories with what actually had been going on as exemplified in this exchange:

“Do you recall the time we were at the opera about two months after we were married? I went to the ladies’ retiring room and was gone about an hour. When I returned, I had blood on my gown. I told you it was jam.”

“Did I believe that?”

“You didn’t question it.”

“And what really happened?”

“An agent from Milan with orders to assassinate me showed up and shot me in the leg. I was in excruciating pain for the rest of La vera costanza.”

“Oh, I remember why I didn’t question the jam. I’d just returned from Strasbourg where I’d had some sort of chemical thrown in my face. It burned my eyes, and I couldn’t see a thing for a fortnight.”

My intro to the teaser I wanted to share has turned basically into a review! Whoops!

Every now and again you read a phrase that makes you sit up and think. In this case it was thinking along the lines that I have read a lot of romance novels over the years but I don't think I have ever seen this particular phrase used before.

Warning....this is from a very intimate moment and reflects their new understanding of each other's identities and their changing opinions:

"Come for me," he murmured. "I want to feel you. See you." He held his breath for a moment. They'd made love a dozen times and never been so intimate. Faces always turned away. Cries stifled. Climaxing politely.

No, I wasn't talking about the come for me line...the ability to climax on demands seems to be an inherent requirement for a romance heroine. Rather, that final phrase - climaxing politely - really caught my attention and seems to very succinctly refer to the sexual act within a marriage of convenience that is the basis of so many historical romances!

According to the author's website, there is going to be another book that is going to be connected to this one and it will be called True Spies. I am pretty sure we can tell from that title and the fact that we are talking about spy novels which movie has provided the inspiration for that book!





Synopsis

No man can outsmart him...

Lord Adrian Smythe may appear a perfectly boring gentleman, but he leads a thrilling life as one of England's most preeminent spies, an identity so clandestine even his wife is unaware of it. But he isn't the only one with secrets...

She's been outsmarting him for years...

Now that the Napoleonic wars have come to an end, daring secret agent Lady Sophia Smythe can hardly bear the thought of returning home to her tedious husband. Until she discovers in the dark of night that he's not who she thinks he is after all...

The Making of a Duchess by Shana Galen

A very dangerous attraction...

Julian Harcourt, duc de Valere, is more than willing to marry the lovely young lady his mother has chosen. Little does he know, she's been sent to prove him a spy and a traitor.

And an even more dangerous secret...

Sarah Smith's mission is to find out whether the Duc's trips to the Continent are as innocent as he claims, but the way he looks at her is far from innocent...

Their risky game of cat and mouse propels them from the ballrooms of London to the prisons of Paris, and into a fragile love that may not survive their deceptions.

Have you ever read a book where the idea was just so much better than the actual experience of reading it? This is one of those books for me.

I really, really loved the set up of this book, and was completely blown away by the first chapter (which really was a prologue) which was involving, exciting and heart breaking. Our hero, Julien Harcourt, duc de Valere, lives in London. He is a French nobleman who has escaped from the French Revolution with his mother and started a new life in England.  His family did not however escape unscathed from the Revolution. Not only was his family's wealth lost, but his father was killed, and it was thought that his two younger brothers were also. Whilst Julien is accepted by the ton, he is also somewhat outside the narrow rules that govern behaviour within the ton, and so he has worked very hard to build up the family wealth again, providing shelter for his English born mother.  Julien has never however given up hope that perhaps some of his family has escaped their supposed, and so is in constant contact with France, and has on occasion travelled there.

It is this contact that brings Julien to the attention of the British government, and in turn brings Miss Sarah Smith into his life. Sarah is governess to the children of a high ranking government agent and at short notice she is given an ultimatum: accept the role of spying on the Duc by infiltrating his household or lose your position. Sarah has never known any family and spent all her formative years in an orphanage and so feels she has no choice but to accept the role or risk being on the streets, no matter how ill equipped she may be. She is to pretend to be Madamoiselle Serafina Artois, daughter of family friends of the Valere who supposedly escaped the troubles and is now coming to England to marry Julien as she is his mother's choice of bride for her handsome son.

While I loved the set up for Julien, and can only remember reading one other romance which had any hint of this type of character, I felt that the character of Sarah was less successful. Whilst I sort of liked Sarah, I was as unconvinced at her ability to be able to pull off this ruse as she was, and often thought that she was putting herself into unnecessary and unlikely situations to be able to drag the story forward.

There was certainly plenty of drama in the story. From a governess pretending to be a spy, to a Duc who may or may not have been a traitor, trips into some of the seedier parts of London that are often not mentioned in historical romances (or if they are it is in relation to a do-gooder doing charity work there),  to a perilous trip to Paris where aristocrats were still very much in danger, to a daring rescue and unlikely revelation regarding identities and the bad guys at the end, there should have been enough to make this a captivating story. In the end I don't think I was captivated as such. Maybe interested is a better way of putting it.

It took me a few days of thinking of the right word to describe my reaction, and in the end I came up with the word skimming. It felt as though the action moved from one point to the next propelled by unlikely plot twists and scenarios with the reader just skimming along with them. I wanted more depth, and more emotion, and to be more invested with our main couple. If anything I preferred the sections where Julien was moving his cause forward despite Sarah's actions (for example in Paris) whereas generally a romance should be about the two halves that come together to make a whole.

The set up for the next two books in the Sons of the Revolution trilogy is started up in this novel, and they sound exactly like something I would enjoy reading, so while I didn't necessarily love this book, I haven't yet given up on Shana Galen.

Her next book, The Making of a Gentleman, sounds as though it features my favourite type of hero - those dark, tortured men whose scars are often more than just physical and is due out in October of this year

Thanks to Sourcebooks for the review copy.

Rating 3.5/5

For other opinions:

Gossamer Obsessions
Readin' and Dreamin'
Rundpinne

Edited to add: You can win a copy of this book if you are interested over at Hist-Fic Chick.