Series: The Royal Saboteurs, #4
Traits & Tropes: pining hero; hero falls first; spies/government work; secret mission
Publication Date: 10.10.23
Genre/Setting: Historical; Victorian; Richmond Park, London, England
Heat Level: 4
Rating: 4/5
As the daughter of two of the country’s most successful spies, Lucy Galloway has always felt she had a lot to prove. This is doubly true given her status as a woman trying to build a career as an agent in a male-dominated field. She’s earned her place in the Royal Saboteurs and is highly annoyed to be consistently bested in training by good-at-everything Duncan Slorach. When she’s partnered with him for a mission to protect the son of the prime minister, the horror of the assignment is only eclipsed by the fact that she’ll be going undercover as a nanny to the young boy.
Duncan Slorach has spent the past eighteen months training to become one of the best agents in the Royal Saboteurs and jumps at the chance to finally have a mission, even if he isn’t thrilled with his assignment of partner. He has been in love with Lucy for months though the feeling is definitely not mutual. In fact, Lucy seems to despise him. Duncan is prepared to ignore his feelings for the sake of the mission, but that is nearly impossible given the long hours they must spend alone together, leaving Duncan to wonder if he could somehow make Lucy realize she does have feelings for him too.
As the two come to know each other, Lucy must reevaluate her impressions of Duncan and of what she’s always assumed she wanted in life.
This is a rather difficult review to write as I wound up really enjoying this story, but it did take me quite a while to get into it. I had an especially difficult time warming to Lucy as she spent most of the book desperate to prove herself, being willfully brash and abrasive for no reason. She was dangerously close to the clichéd independent heroine we so often get these days, disliking Duncan because he worked hard and was good at things, and generally coming off as rather bratty. Once she finally seemed to realize that she was her own worst enemy and got that chip off her shoulder, she was likable, though it did take quite a while to get there. Duncan’s backstory was quite tragic, and I enjoyed seeing his redemption and true change. It was especially refreshing to see such a role reversal here as he fell first, and it took Lucy a nearly inordinate amount of time to realize her feelings. Some of the pacing felt a little slow, where neither the case nor the romance was really progressing, but once things finally heated up in the latter third of the book, I didn’t want to put it down. While this is probably my least favorite of the series so far, I still enjoyed Lucy and Duncan’s story and look forward to the next installment.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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