In Which I Discovered My New Favorite Heroine.

I would like to take this opportunity to say how truly awesome Annique Villiers is. How awesome is she? SO. FRAKKING. AWESOME.

Having just finished The Spymaster's Lady last night, I should also talk about how I have discovered an author I will look forward to reading for as long as she is writing. That would be Joanna Bourne, creator of Annique Villiers.

We all know I have a weakness for badass heroines (I'm not even going to bother linking. If you don't know, then you don't know), and Annique is representative of a particular favorite: girl spy. Now, not only is she a girl spy, but she is also a girl spy in Napoleonic France. And oh holy hell is that badass awesome.

Starting with a neat little opening twist (which I will not spoil in any way, shape, or form... it's too cool to be spoiled) and ending with several more (seriously... twists abound), The Spymaster's Lady more than lives up to it's name by way of implied intrigues. Yes, the hero is a Spymaster. And yes, the plot is murky and twisty and steeped in spy lore. It's not dense or confusing, but rather constantly moving, shifting through phases of the story with extreme dexterity.

The main focus of the novel is on the heroine, Annique, a Frenchwoman, who speaks English but obviously as a second language (in fact, most of the beginning of the book features all of the characters speaking French, switching only to English when they physically arrive in England). When any given point is made through Annique's perspective, the language barrier remains, not in a condescending way, but in a fantastically clever way. For example, when Annique is playing with her food rather than eating, she decides to stop "annoying the vegetables." It is little phraseology like this which makes The Spymaster's Lady an extreme pleasure to read. You never know what's going to come up next.

Most striking to me is the respect paid to Annique by the other spies (especially her Spymaster, Grey, who turns out to be the English Head of Section for France.) Annique, also known as Fox Cub, is widely known and respected in the spy realm, and the others treat her as such, despite the fact that she is a woman. It was a remarkably refreshing change of pace that she was never accused (seriously) of being a whore, and that all of the men in her life gave her due consideration, not once questioning the limits of her capability. When Headquarters is attacked at the end of the book, Grey doesn't try to shove Annique in a closet (no matter how much he obviously wants to), but uses her as one of the guards to fight within the house, both because he trusts her and he trusts her abilities completely.

I won't (probably) won't bother writing a separate post about how awesome Annique is (oh, who am I kidding... I am totally going to), but I do want to emphasize how totally excited I am to have found her. And how much I can't wait to read what Joanna Bourne is going to come up with next.