Meredith Duran: Written On Your Skin

Written On Your Skin: C+
Mina Masters & Phineas Granville, Earl of Ashmore
Historical - Victorian

The society beauty who saved his life...
Beauty, charm, wealthy admirers: Mina Masters enjoys every luxury but freedom. To save herself from an unwanted marriage, she turns her wiles on a darkly handsome stranger. But Mina's would-be hero is playing his own deceptive game. A British spy, Phin Granville has no interest in emotional entanglements... until the night Mina saves his life by gambling her own.

The jaded spy who vowed to forget her...
Four years later, Phin inherits a title that frees him from the bloody game of espionage. But memories of the woman who saved him won't let Phin go. When he learns that Mina needs his aid, honor forces him back into the world of his nightmares.

In lives built on lies, love is the darkest secret of all...
Deception has ruled Mina's life just as it has Phin's. But as the beauty and the spy math wits in a dangerous dance, their practiced masks begin to slip, revealing a perilous attraction. And the greatest threat they face may not be traitors or murderous conspiracies, but their own dark desires... (back cover)

This is the sequel to Bound By Your Touch and Ms. Duran's third novel. I have only read her first, The Duke of Shadows, and if I'm remembering correctly, it was an enjoyable read.

This one was a little harder for me to get through.

Sometimes, I read something and I wonder if I'm just not smart enough to comprehend what's happening. There were times when I was reading this story and I thought, my goodness, what on Earth is happening?

Essentially, Ms. Duran's writing is complex and all-together good, but is sometimes a little superfluous. The narration is roundabout and I'm not quite sure if this is because the characters happen to be super complex and I am just... not. This is highly plausible, and if this is the case, it's no wonder the wording of the novel took me a while to get through.

Whether this is the case or not is rather irrelevant here. When it comes down to it, the superfluous writing made it hard for me to truly get into the story and more importantly, to stay with the story. Most of the time, I manage to finish romances in one-sitting. This story took me days to get through, and even though everything else was fine, I cannot say that I felt a kinship with the story.

In the end, that's what matters to me. I want to feel as though I'm walking away knowing the characters and their story without a haze of mild confusion.

Bottom line: Read but only if you're smart.

Joanna Bourne: My Lord and Spymaster

My Lord and Spymaster: C-
Jessamyn Whitby & Captain Sebastian Kennett


Bourne's latest espionage-based series historical (following The Spymaster's Lady) entices with subtle subterfuge and heated romance. Jess Whitby, daughter of suspected spy Josiah Whitby, is doing everything in her power to exonerate her imprisoned father. In order to free him, she must prove that someone other than her father is the Cinq, a notorious mole. But Jess has met her match in Capt. Sebastian Kennett, wealthy bastard son of an English nobleman, equally as clever at keeping tabs on Jess as she is at tracking him. Sebastian is responsible for Josiah's arrest; Jess believes that Sebastian may be the Cinq; their mutual attraction proves a lovely foil for their suspicious minds. (amazon)


I just know I'm going to be in the minority, but I didn't find much in this story that I really enjoyed.

The plot, after a while, became tedious, as did the characters. I felt like the plot moved really slowly and I lost interest half or a third-way through. I chugged along, hoping that the romance between Jess and Sebastian would outweigh the dullness of finding Cinq, going after the suspected Cinq candidates, and Jess's constant visitations with her father.

The romance was lukewarm. It was a lot of Sebastian trying to empower Jess, but Jess resisting, and then them showing their love for each other in dangerous ways. Example: Jess going off to her previous master (when she was a thief) so that Sebastian wouldn't have to go himself since the master is a feared and very dangerous slumlord, etc. Those and other kinds of actions that I would normally find sigh-worthy grated my nerves.

Then there was the suspicion between Jess and Sebastian, since Sebastian was one of the candidates who could possibly be Cinq. Then Jess trying to un-love Sebastian because of the uncertainty, and yadda yadda yadda...

Before I knew it, I wanted the novel to be over and I didn't care much if Sebastian and Jess ever did get together.

I hate to say it, since I did enjoy Ms. Bourne's debut novel The Spymaster's Lady, but I would have rather passed on this one.

Joanna Bourne: The Spymaster's Lady

The Spymaster's Lady: A-
Annique Villiers & Richard Grey

She's never met a man she couldn't deceive...
She's braved battlefields. She's stolen dispatches from under the noses of heads of state. She's played the worldly courtesan, the naive virgin, the refined British lady, even a Gypsy boy. But Annique Villiers, the elusive spy known as the Fox Cub, has finally met the one man she can't outwit...

Until now.
British spymaster Robert Grey must enger France and bring back the brilliant, beautiful - and dangerous - Fox Cub. His duty is to capture her and her secrets for England. When the two natural enemies are thrown into prison, they forge an uneasy alliance to break free. But their pact is temporary and betrayal seems inevitable. They flee, pursued every step of the way by ruthless authorities, caught in a net of secrets and lies. As the fates of nations hang in the balance, Grey and Annique fight the passion that flares between them - forbidden, impossible, and completely irresistible...

After hearing raves and many kudos for Ms. Bourne’s debut novel, I quickly placed a hold at my library. While the novel itself was very satisfying, I’m afraid I had my hopes up just a bit too high; I guess it was my own fault that I half-expected the book to sprout arms and make me a beloved Hazelnut Latte.

Annique Villiers is a world renown French spymaster – the most devious and clever of spies, one who has been working since she was a toddler. Richard Grey, or Grey as Annique calls him, is a brilliant British spymaster. They meet in French prison, where Annique (alias: Fox Cub) has been betrayed by her French armed soldiers and they agree to work together to escape. Little does Anniqe know that Grey has been scouring the lands looking for her, and he doesn’t let her free.

Everyone in the book – the French and the British – are both looking for a secret set of plans called the Albion plans. These plans reveal the plans of Napoleon’s preeminent attack on Britain – the French need to know where the plans are to make sure that the British don’t get a hold of it, and the British need it to save their country from a massive attack. Grey is, of course, looking for the plans that Annique supposedly has.

Thus, both make their way through France and to England. Sprinkle in some verbal fights, suspicions, and death attacks (Annique attacking Grey – it really is marvelous – she is very resourceful). There are some surprising twists that caught me (and some characters) off guard.

I felt that plot-wise, this story was exploding with it. There are spies left and right, along with intrigue and fistfights. The dialogue of Annique, as many other readers have noticed, is very French. Bourne did a great job of showing that Annique is indeed a French person, and that Grey is British. However, I felt her dialogue very very mildly irritating – as with most French, she was superfluous and tended to ramble.

I enjoyed the read, but didn’t feel that romance was particularly strong. For me, it wasn’t a sigh-when-they-get-together type story, though it was a strong first for Ms. Bourne. I’d recommend this because it is an interesting read, but it wasn’t mind-blowing, orgasm-inducing fabulous.