Barbara’s rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Series: The Royal Saboteurs #4
Publication Date: 10/10/23
Period: Victorian

This book starts from a somewhat different place than most – Duncan Slorach is already hopelessly in love with Lucy Galloway who only sees him as a competitor she needs to best at all costs. Duncan and Lucy have been at the Royal Saboteurs training camp for eighteen months undergoing the most grueling and vigorous training in every aspect of the spycraft – from explosives to obstacle courses, to code-breaking, to languages, to – well, you name it. From Lucy’s perspective, it all comes easy for Duncan as he seems to excel at everything. What Lucy doesn’t see is her own unique strengths in languages and determination and fortitude.

Lucy and Duncan’s past lives are quite different and you’ll see that in their approach to their current lives. Lucy feels inferior because her parents are the most famous spies you never heard of – and her brother is also a recent graduate from the training camp and he is excelling at the craft. Lucy feels she doesn’t match up to those illustrious family members and has to prove herself to be twice as good as everyone else. Duncan, on the other hand, led a ne’er-do-well life as a scoundrel until a heartbreaking tragedy changed him. Duncan is quiet, studious, follows the rules, trains hard, and wants to be an exceptional agent.

Lucy is elated to finally have a mission – until she learns her partner will be Duncan Slorach. She’ll just have to make the best of it even though her role will be acting as a caretaker for a seven-year-old boy. What does she know about children? Nothing. She’s not even sure she likes children. Duncan, on the other hand, gets the free run of the house and grounds while acting as a footman. Bummer. They are undercover in the Prime Minister’s home while protecting the prime minister’s son who has been threatened by radicals. The threats are real and attempts have already been made. Can Lucy and Duncan put aside their differences and work together to protect the boy? Yes, they can, but will they?

For me, Lucy was hard to like – I really had to work on it – and I never wholly got there. Duncan, on the other hand, was easy to like, but I never understood how he came to love Lucy in the first place. This was, as always with the author, an excellent book, but it was also my least favorite of the series. I enjoyed reading the story but felt the mission was often ignored and forgotten for their trysts. It almost seemed the villains caught themselves rather than there being brilliant spies at work. All of that said, I can recommend this book as an excellent read and I hope you will enjoy it.

BTW – there is an excellent set-up for the next book in the series, Tales Of A Society Nothing. I think we are all going to love Margaret’s mission!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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