THE FASHIONABLE SPY

Author: Emily Johnson ISBN: 9780709086260 7/2009 HISTORICAL Publisher: ROBERT HALE
Time Period: Regency

Miss Victoria Dancy was as fearless as she was fiercely determined to avenge the death of her parents at the hands of the perfidious French. Willingly she braved the dangers of unearthing enemy agents in England. But when she met the handsome, icily self-assured Sir Edward Hawkswood in a game of mutual deception, she faced an even more trying test. For she could neither trust nor resist this man of mystery as he so skilfully set about unmasking her secret life and stealing her heart away...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

There's a comedy of errors here that made me laugh whenever Victoria and Edward would square off with each other.  The verbal acrobatics the two engaged in to cover their trails, determined what side the other was on and who they could trust, and was certainly the highlight of the story for me.

Add in the peculiar nature of the Dancy sisters, and you have a refreshing and entertaining novel set in Regency England.  Victoria is the 'brave' one, the adventurer who sets forth to gather the intel while her sisters, Julia and Elizabeth, help to puzzle out the clues and decipher the meanings at home.  This isn't to say they are idle, but at some point it was agreed that Victoria should be the one to gather the papers.

Edward is turned left, right, and topsy turvy by Victoria from their first meeting.  Between the crash; the (innocent) night spent in a barn together; being drugged and then lied to... the poor man's senses were addled, and I don't blame him for being suspicious of Victoria.  Their romance grew gradually from their first fissure of attraction to each other, but as they both were hiding many secrets, the relationship itself was not developed until later on, when shock, the truth entered into their dealings.

This is the first book of her 'Dancy' books, previously published by Signet (under Emily Hendrickson) that reached a grand total of eight books.  The second book, ELIZABETH'S RAKE, is due out soon from Robert Hale as well, and according to the author's website, at least three more will be published by Robert Hale.

Alexandra Cenni