Once a Spy by Mary Jo Putney is more of an adventure story than a Regency romance - but it's a really good adventure story

 

I don't really know how to review Once a Spy by Mary Jo Putney.  It's clearly supposed to be a Regency romance, and it has romance elements, but the romance itself has very little plot or tension.  Heroine Suzanne is the widow of a mean French nobleman.  She was captured and lived as a slave in a harem until she escaped, a story apparently told in a different Putney book.  At the opening of Once a Spy she is living as an impoverished seamstress in England.  

Hero Simon has had his own adventures and misadventures working as a spy for the British army during the Napoleonic wars.  Those wars are now in a lull with Napoleon in his first exile.  Simon is a distant relative of Suzanne's late husband, and Simon and Suzanne had known and liked each other years ago.  He tracks her down and impetuously asks her to marry him.

The plot of the romance is that Suzanne and Simon are both so traumatized that neither of them think that they will ever want to be physically intimate ever again.  This makes them well-matched, so Suzanne accepts Simon's proposal.  Simon quickly realizes that he is attracted to Suzanne; it takes several backrubs before Suzanne realizes that she also wants to have sex with Simon.  

Simon and Suzanne are a good couple.  They are nice to each other.  They are honest with each other.  They don't have any stupid miscommunications.  They fall in love.  

The real plot of the book begins when Napoleon escapes his first exile and become emperor of France again.  With war afoot, Simon and Suzanne happen to bump into the head of the English army at a park.  He knows that Simon is one of England's best spies, so he recruits him to go back to spying -- an event that would not have happened if they hadn't been at the same park at the same time.  I call that a lucky coincidence!

Suzanne insists that she accompany Simon behind enemy lines. They sneak around the countryside gathering information.  They steal horses, and a kitten.  

Simon and Suzanne then go on solo missions.  Suzanne happens to meet Napoleon when she is captured and pretending to be a prostitute, and is able to feed him misinformation about English troop movements, which plays a big role in England defeating him at Waterloo. Another lucky coincidence!

Much of this book is overwhelmingly silly.  But it's also fun and charming.  With significantly less romance and significantly enlarged details of the adventure story, it could be great.

 Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Regency romance Project Duchess by Sabrina Jeffries is not the best project

 

Project Duchess by Sabrina Jeffries started as a perfectly adequate Regency romance -- easy to pick up for a few minutes at a time but not hard to put down.  

The main characters, hero Grey and heroine Beatrice, are fine.  Grey is a curmudgeonly duke.  Beatrice is a poor relation who likes to speak her mind, but usually doesn't.  Sparks, plot plot plot.  

But: Grey's back story made no sense whatsoever.  After his father the duke died when Grey was a child, his uncle became his guardian and the trustee of his estate.  When Grey was twelve, the uncle tried to get Grey to sign over to him ownership of unentailed properties.  Grey spent a couple of days teaching himself how to read and understand legal documents, and then refused to sign the documents.  The uncle would lock him in a basement and starve him in an attempt to coerce him, then try to be nice to him in an attempt to convince him, but Grey still refused to sign.

This plot seems bafflingly stupid.  I can't believe that even in Regency England a twelve year old could sign a binding contract.  But if the uncle was trustee, he could sign on Grey's behalf. Sure, he could be sued later for breach of trust (or whatever), but Grey noted in retrospect that if he, Grey, had signed the documents when he was twelve without researching them, as an adult he probably would never have realized that the properties had ever belonged to him.  So if the uncle had signed them over to himself, the result would be the same.

The second worst thing about this book:  It ends on a cliffhanger.  The plot centers on a murder mystery -- which is unresolved at the end of the book.  Even in the epilogue new twists are introduced.  Yes, the first third of the book spends way too much time discussing the extended families of Grey and Beatrice, meaning that this is the beginning of a series, but come on.  Regency romances should not end this way.  Ever.   

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.