Game of Spies

4.25 Stars Isabel Tait had lived a very sheltered but abusive life until the day the Countess of Shrewsbury arrived & Isabel suddenly found herself a lady in waiting for Mary Queen of Scots. She must either tolerate the mindless partying and ceaseless backstabbing of Mary’s other ladies, or risk being sent home to a forced marriage. The only 2 people who brightens her day are Bisou the Queen’s dog & the far too handsome Gavin Cade. Gavin is on a mission recruited by Nicholas Ryder & tasked with spying on the Queen, he’s found the perfect woman to help. Sweet, shy Isabel is an easy target for his charms. This is the second book in the series however it’s easily read on its own. I was once again drawn in from the start & found it very hard to put down until I turned the last page. Strong believable characters & a fast paced story all made this a captivating read. The mix of real & fictional characters all added to the story & at times made me wonder how much was fiction & how much real. I applaud the author for having the controversial figure of Mary in the book but she managed to paint a picture of Mary that left the reader to decide what was truth & what was lies. The romance between Gavin & Isabel was a slow burn throughout the book & the ending left me very satisfied. I love a love story with spies & intrigue & this book ticked all the boxes My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

Sometimes You Can Judge a Book by the Cover I had a sense, before I even cracked open the book, that something would not be not quite right with it. Unfortunately, I was correct. What tipped me off was the cover that clearly shows a woman in Victorian dress... yet the book is supposed to take place in Elizabethan England and Scotland. Within minutes of starting reading, I was a bit turned off by the use of modern phrases. While I don't expect historical fiction to strictly adhere to the language of the times, it should at least not be riddled with so much modern phrasing. I never felt like I connected with the characters, and subsequently, I couldn't come to care about what happened to them. They often seemed willful in the extreme, the heroine clinging to her naivete despite being supposedly very smart and the hero remaining married to his wrongheaded ideas even when consistently being shown where he erred. Neither of these characters seemed to be prepared (or even adequate) for the world in which they found themselves—the world of courtly intrigue—and watching them continually falter became tedious. I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.