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Chelsea lent me this. I got her hooked with the first book, and now she's gotten me to read the whole series.
I'm really kind of entertained by the fact that Willig is just writing the same book repeatedly. There's a hero who's involved in England's spy network; there's a heroine who gets looped in to the spy activity. They fall in love while bickering continually, perhaps someone's honor gets besmirched, and they are forced to marry while imagining that the love isn't mutual. The truth comes out, usually in the midst of some fray in which the heroine's life is threatened and the hero realizes how much he loves her, which he confesses immediately after the battle, and with rebellion quashed and victory for England, they live happily ever after. Oh, and all this is told through the framework of Annoying Eloise, a PhD candidate researching the spies and a big whiner.
This book was kind of an odd one in that it had the best characters yet--I really liked Letty and Geoff, and they were good together--but their story was the least well realized of the three books so far, I thought. We didn't even get the final story on the rebellion, we only saw a building blow up and the two of them staring soulfully into each other's eyes. We also didn't see their triumphant return to England to rub it in Letty's sister's face how happy they are. And the actual spy storyline was pretty darn weak this time around. In Ireland for a month and Geoff receives no messages from the War Office? I think the only way for Willig to pick up those lost plot threads is to start the next book right where this one left off--after all, we left Jane at Lord Vaughn's house, alone with Lord Vaughn, searching the things of the recently murdered Marquise while her body lays on the sofa still warm. When you think about it, the satisfaction of the "hooray, they're in love!" ending is kind of hollow, because the whole plot is left hanging.
The next book has to be Jane and Lord Vaughn, I think. There's something going on there. And really, how many books can Willig write about what's really a fairly small group of characters? Even Letty and Geoff was hitting the minor characters of the previous books. But Jane is important, and Lord Vaughn has been semi-pivotal for two books now. And there's the whole Black Tulip mystery to investigate.
I would like for Jane either to lay Lord Vaughn willfully with no thought of her reputation--she's a spy, she's good at disguises, no one would ever have to know, and I'm sick of the forced marriage plotline--or else decide to marry him and be perfectly happy with a prolonged engagement. Something new, please. But yeah, I'll read the next book. They're entertaining.
I'm really kind of entertained by the fact that Willig is just writing the same book repeatedly. There's a hero who's involved in England's spy network; there's a heroine who gets looped in to the spy activity. They fall in love while bickering continually, perhaps someone's honor gets besmirched, and they are forced to marry while imagining that the love isn't mutual. The truth comes out, usually in the midst of some fray in which the heroine's life is threatened and the hero realizes how much he loves her, which he confesses immediately after the battle, and with rebellion quashed and victory for England, they live happily ever after. Oh, and all this is told through the framework of Annoying Eloise, a PhD candidate researching the spies and a big whiner.
This book was kind of an odd one in that it had the best characters yet--I really liked Letty and Geoff, and they were good together--but their story was the least well realized of the three books so far, I thought. We didn't even get the final story on the rebellion, we only saw a building blow up and the two of them staring soulfully into each other's eyes. We also didn't see their triumphant return to England to rub it in Letty's sister's face how happy they are. And the actual spy storyline was pretty darn weak this time around. In Ireland for a month and Geoff receives no messages from the War Office? I think the only way for Willig to pick up those lost plot threads is to start the next book right where this one left off--after all, we left Jane at Lord Vaughn's house, alone with Lord Vaughn, searching the things of the recently murdered Marquise while her body lays on the sofa still warm. When you think about it, the satisfaction of the "hooray, they're in love!" ending is kind of hollow, because the whole plot is left hanging.
The next book has to be Jane and Lord Vaughn, I think. There's something going on there. And really, how many books can Willig write about what's really a fairly small group of characters? Even Letty and Geoff was hitting the minor characters of the previous books. But Jane is important, and Lord Vaughn has been semi-pivotal for two books now. And there's the whole Black Tulip mystery to investigate.
I would like for Jane either to lay Lord Vaughn willfully with no thought of her reputation--she's a spy, she's good at disguises, no one would ever have to know, and I'm sick of the forced marriage plotline--or else decide to marry him and be perfectly happy with a prolonged engagement. Something new, please. But yeah, I'll read the next book. They're entertaining.
