Tag: Shana Galen

Must Love Scoundrels by Shana Galen

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Part of a Series, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

Must Love Scoundrels (The Royal Saboteurs #4)

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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While You Were Spying by Shana Galen

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Part of a Series, Re-Release / Updated Edition, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

While You Were Spying (Regency Spies, #0.5)

Barbara’s rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Series: Regency Spies
Period: Regency
Number of Pages: 358

Can two individuals who have been deeply hurt by love find the strength to remove their walls and allow love to happen again? You bet they can when Shana Galen is in the writer’s chair. This book is one of Galen’s earlier releases, but it has been dressed up with an enticing new cover. It has a lovely romance along with smuggling, traitors, spies, murder, and, did I say lovely romance?

Ethan Caxton, the Marquess of Winterbourne, will never fall in love with any woman. He tried that once, and she ripped his heart out and stomped on it. He’ll never give another woman a chance to do that to him again because he’d never survive it. He’ll just spend his time working for the Foreign Office and ferreting out traitors and French spies. French spies are what brought him to Hampshire, and he is determined to catch both the smugglers and their leader. That leader just has to be a man of power and influence, most likely an aristocrat. Ethan has been watching the Skerrit farm for days because he’s sure the arms are being stored there – somewhere, somehow. So, he’s beside himself when he catches a young woman trying to rescue an abused horse from Skerrit. He has to get her out of there, but she won’t budge without the horse. Grrrrr.

Miss Francesca Dashing had been betrothed once and that was quite enough for her thank you very much. She’d just continue to live with her parents in the country and save all the sick and injured animals she could find. Her father always acquiesces and lets her add one more animal to their collection at home. At least he did until she brought home a horse she’d just rescued. That, it seemed, was a step too far. But, what was she to do? If that pesky Marquess had just gone on about his business and left her alone, she would have managed just fine. Wasn’t humiliating her in London enough for him?

Ethan has gone on about his business of catching smugglers – and trying to forget that fetching Miss who only wanted to save a horse. But when he learns Francesca has been viciously attacked – not long after a vicious murder occurred – he’s convinced both crimes are related to the smugglers. Ethan will just have to find a way to protect Francesca and guard against any damage to his heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope you will as well. There is a nasty villain, an entertaining valet, an irate father, a mother who espouses all things Italian, and two deeply wounded people who put on a good front for the rest of the world to see. It was lovely to watch as each of them assaulted the walls built by the other. Will they succeed in tearing down the walls? You’ll just need to read the book to see.

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