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BEAUTY AND THE SPY
Julie Anne Long
Warner Books
March 2006
ISBN 0-446-61686-9
Historical Romance
Kit Whitelaw, Viscount Grantham, is exiled to the country by his father,
the Earl of Westphall. Once a spy for England, now boredom has set in and
Kit has been running wild. Womanizing. Drinking. Calling his superior
officer an idiot. Believing tales that fellow spy James Makepeace was
murdered because he was investigating a supposedly traitorous Member of
Parliament. Kit is given a choice: take ship for Egypt or document the
flora and fauna of the English countryside at the family home in
Barnstable.
Susannah Makepeace's life is almost perfect: she has money, a lovely home,
fashinable clothes, friends, an artistic talent, and she's engaged to be
married to a future earl. The only thing she wishes for is that she was
closer to her often absent and emotionally distant father...in an instant,
her life changes when her father is murdered on the street. Now penniless
when her father's debts come to light, her fiance jilts her, her home is
taken away, her friends disappear...only her clothes and her talent are
left. When her father's relative invites her to come live with her in her
small country cottage, she accepts gratefully. Her first morning there,
she goes on a walk to escape the confines of the tiny cottage, and
encounters a naked young man swimming in the lake. Of course she has to
sketch him in all his glory...when she meets up with him again, she learns
that he had known her father, and he offers her a job to illustrate his
report on the flora and fauna of the countryside...and hence begins the
adventure that reveals her true parentage and the possibility of a family,
unmasks a villain, and shows her the true path of her heart.
BEAUTY AND THE SPY, the first book in a new trilogy, is simply superlative--it is a gorgeous and lovely novel, a sumptuous feast for
historical romance fans. Beautifully written, BEAUTY AND THE SPY nourishes
the heart and touches the soul. The pace of the romance between Kit and
Susannah feels right and proceeds so perfectly...friends to lovers. Both
Kit and Susannah are complex characters and so well-drawn, the reader
knows them intimately by the end of the story. Kit Whitelaw gets my vote
for one of the best Regency heroes to date. There's something for everyone
in BEAUTY AND THE SPY, suspense, mystery, a villain you understand and
almost feel sorry for, sexual tension, sensuality, interesting secondary
characters, and 1820 Regency England. This reviewer is counting the days
until WAYS TO BE WICKED comes out in October 2006...highly recommended. |
Reviewed by Debora Hosey
Rating:
 
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