In Which The Lady Liberty Drops Out of Law School to Become a Joanna Bourne Expert.

Well, maybe not.  But probably.

The Lady Liberty graces us with her review of My Lord and Spymaster:

I was anxiously anticipating the arrival of my second and third Joanna Bournes (my second and third romance purchases) and as though Amazon was congratulating me for my new hobby, they threw in ten Janet Evanoviches as well. I can only imagine there is some poor human in America who is simply lost without Two for the Dough... and nine of the other books from the Stephanie Plum series. Sorry!         

On to the less-than-aptly named My Lord and Spymaster. Not that it’s too far wrong, but I believe Bourne failed a little with the whole idea that Jess Whitby believes that Captain Sebastian Kennett (who incidentally has her naked in his bed by page 25, though not in the way you think) is actually Cinq, a French spy who has supplied English secrets to Napoleon. Jessamyn Whitby is the lovely heiress and mastermind behind one of England’s most successful shipping companies. While expensive governesses have tried to turn her into a lady, she occasionally slips into her criminal cockney roots which is perfectly charming and believable. The crux of that matter is that her father has been arrested because the British Service believes he is Cinq, and against his orders, she sets about clearing his name by finding the real Cinq. Which is how she ends up in a dark alleyway with her hands in Bastian’s pockets.        

 We spend about an equal amount of time in Kennett’s point of view as we do in Jess Whitby’s which is why I’m not spoiling anything when I say it’s very hard for us to believe that the Captain is Cinq the way Jess does. And there is conflict enough between them even without it (he’s the owner of a rival shipping company, among other things...), but I would have liked it to be a little more ambiguous, or to drop the whole ruse altogether.        While this one was as juicy and delectable a read, it was weaker than her first. Adrian Hawkhurst and William Doyle have returned and are as wonderful as ever, and she reveals of a few good nuggets about the how the characters all fit in together, but I was left wanting just a little bit more. I even found the great reveal in the end a wee bit predictable. And Chapter 21 made me mad. Note that and tell me if you can guess why.        

 In all, I thoroughly enjoyed it, her facility with sexual tension is ever apparent and her characters lovely as ever and villains as detestable, I just don’t find this novel as tightly crafted as her first and as I’m finding her third to be. It’s almost as though there was some page-filling stalling happening that just wasn’t quite entertaining enough to not feel like stalling. That said, I’d stall with Sebastian Kennett any day, thank you please. Joanna Bourne, I love you, keep writing, please.