The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne

Book Description:
When veteran spy, Justine DeCabrillac, is attacked on a rainy London street, she knows only one man can save her: Adrian Hawkhurst, her oldest friend . . . her oldest enemy.

London's crawling with hidden assassins and someone is out to frame Hawker for her murder. The two spies must work together to find out who wants to destroy them.

This was a terrific addition to the Spymaster's Lady series. Fourth in the series, this is Adrian's story - 'Awker.  The young guttersnipe we meet in Bourne's earlier books is now a grown gentleman and the Spymaster in London.  Rich and worldly, it is 1818, over 20 years since he first met Justine in France.  He looks back on his life with her as he struggles to keep her alive after an assassination attempt.  Adrian and Justine's story is a twist on the classic spy vs. spy story. The poignancy of the flashbacks help us see how much they both meant to each other, of how they grew up - together and apart - in the spy business, on opposite sides of the playing field.  These windows in time fill in the blanks of the events leading up to the present day when Justine fights for her life. I loved this book and was up half the night reading it.

Adrian (Hawker) and Justine's relationship is complex.  They first meet as young teenagers, both trying to outdo the other.  Justine, working as a spy for the French, carries the burden of her bitter childhood memories. Born a French aristocrat whose parents were killed in the revolution, she was forced to become a child whore in a brothel.  Rescued from that life and recruited as a spy for the French, she threw herself into the spy business, trying to forget her former life and the self loathing that went with it.  

It helps to have read Bourne's previous, The Forbidden Rose, for we first meet Justine there.  I went back and skimmed it and I must admit, I have a greater appreciation for the book now, after reading The Black Hawk.  I wasn't bowled over by The Forbidden Rose at the time I read it.  Now, in retrospect I like it more for it really sets the stage for Justine's story here in The Black Hawk.  I wonder if it would have been better to have read The Black Hawk first, for I would have appreciated some of the scenes in The Forbidden Rose more if I had.  It's ironic The Black Hawk's title suggests Adrian's story, but I really think of it more as Justine's, though much of it is seen through Adrian's eyes.  Justine's story is bittersweet, the life of a spy is not easy.  Although Justine finds a career that helps her overcome her past and regain her dignity - she pays a price.  She gives up her younger sister (to Doyle and Maggie, as seen in The Forbidden Rose) and she must give up the man she loves - Hawker.  Her life goes from one mission to another, sometimes she runs into Hawker, sometimes she manages to get away to see her sister in England, but often, she's on the run or in hiding and disguise in some other country.

I loved seeing how they both grew up throughout this book as the story unfolds.  Each flashback gives us another indication of how they grew and matured.   We see how they first become lovers and the way Hawker helps Justine overcome her tragic background.  He's such a smart and clever young man.  I applaud the way Bourne crafts her poignant tale as Adrian looks back over his memories with Justine and their complicated life together.  We glimpse what their life must have been like.  Stolen moments, climbing through windows, trysting - guarding their secret life as lovers - for their careers as opposing spies to one another could get them both killed if found out.  Their affair was also a friendship, a mutual admiration and respect for each others craft. We learn many things, including what ultimately happened that caused their separation and the permanent rift that ended their love affair.  Some parts were so exciting and riveting, I had a hard time putting this book down.  Very, very cleverly done, the author knows the ways of a good undercover operative.  I dreamed of Justine and Hawker.  In addition to the espionage portions of the book and their assignments, the events described were memorable and meaningful, especially when compared to the same events in The Forbidden Rose, all leading up to present day 1818 when Justine is close to dying.

Of course, there is also the additional story line of who tried to kill Justine and why are they trying to make it look like it was Hawker.  Who's behind all of it?  Lots of scheming and intrigue, but I found the ultimate show down a bit anti-climatic.  I really thought the villain was going to be someone else.   Oh well... kept me guessing.   Anyway, the best part of this book is the relationship between Justine and Hawker.  It's an understatement to say I was thrilled with their happy ending.

I highly recommend you give this series a try if you haven't already.  My favorite book to date is the first in the series, The Spymaster's Lady, but The Black Hawk is a close second!

4.5/5

P.S. I love the cover! It's just how I imagine Adrian to look!  Perfection!

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The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne

Book Description:
A glittering French aristocrat is on the run, disguised as a British governess. England’s top spy has a score to settle with her family. But as they’re drawn inexorably into the intrigue and madness of Revolutionary Paris, they gamble on a love to which neither of them will admit.

One of the best romances I've read in a long time is The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne.  Her follow up to that big success was My Lord and Spymaster which was good, but not as good.  The Forbidden Rose is somewhat of a prequel to Spymaster's Lady and unfortunately it left me less than thrilled and I can't say I ever really got into it as a romance.  I was disappointed in it overall. It was okay but nothing great or compelling, I found it hard to get into the heroine's head and relate to her, though I really liked her hero, William Doyle.
 
Maggie is an aristocrat who is also the secret leader of an underground organization that spirits away aristos during "the terror" under Robespierre's revolutionary France a là The Scarlet Pimpernel.  Maggie leads a vast network not unlike the later French Resistance during WWII.  She is cunning and resourceful, but I just never really sympathized a whole lot with her.  Her father is an eccentric who feels more comfortable hiding in disguise pondering his mathematical equations, letting his daughter run her network saving doomed aristocrats from Madame Guillotine.
 
Maggie meets Doyle who is a British spy bent on learning the whereabouts of Maggie's father who has a list of names that will mean the death of many innocent men.  I was a bit sketchy about this part, but the gist of it is, Doyle needs to find out where her father is and so he befriends Maggie (who doesn't trust him at all at first) hoping she will inadvertently lead him to her father.  The book plods along at first and is not very interesting for the reader is trying to figure out who is who for everyone is lying about who they really are.  It made it hard to really get into their characters.  They travel together making their way to Paris.  With them is a young sidekick of Doyle, an English thief known as Hawker (Adrian in the Spymaster books), who is being groomed by Doyle to eventually be a spy for the government.  Hawker has a long way to go.  En route to Paris, Maggie and Doyle develop a mutual friendship which blossoms into passion - and eventually into love.   Their love is oblique, mostly understood and assumed.  We are to believe that it's just one of those inexplicable, once in a lifetime, kismet sort of things.  I was a bit let down, for I didn't buy into this theory.  It just sort of happened.  One minute they are wary of each other, then they admire each other, then all of a sudden they sleep together in a friend's room and then she's marrying him and next - rescuing him from certain death in a French prison.  All because he is her life and she can't live without him?  Whah? How did this happen all of sudden? We get this one cryptic line from Maggie "I cannot have him. I shall want him every day of my life."  Oh, I guess that explains everything!
 
Although some things are revealed to us about Maggie's past and her character and motivation, she's a mystery to me.  Doyle too is a question mark - is he a bastard son of an English aristocrat?   How did he wind up working for the British?  How did he find the young apprentice Hawker who doesn't think twice about killing - and why did Doyle bring him with him to France?   Why is Maggie 'the one' for Doyle?  What is the glue that is holding Doyle and Maggie together? I feel like there were too many unanswered questions and a lot was left to the reader's imagination.  Because of this, I was not bowled over by this book.  Yes, Maggie is a strong woman and I admired the way she planned the rescue of Doyle and the rescue itself was exciting though improbable.  Overall, I think this book fell flat in the development of the characters and the plot.   She is supposed to be this clever leader of this underground network, yet I really haven't seen any sign of her cleverness, other than her rescue plan of Doyle's.  If she's so clever, how come she let her cousin poison her so easily and didn't even figure it out until Doyle had to almost hit her over the head with it!  William is a good guy, but not your standard hero.  He's large and strong and forbidding, not overly handsome or anything, in fact at first he seems almost unattractive!  He can also change personas easily, a master of disguises, passing himself off as a French peasant one moment and then as a ruthless cutthroat in the next.  Yet, he also has a softer romantic side to him, he is an earthy, sensual man with Maggie.  He recognizes that she is his soul mate, although we don't know why, unfortunately.  We don't really get much inside his head either!  Once he has made up his mind, he acts on his decision and I really did like the way he asked her to marry him - all rushed and passionate.  Expecting - and accepting only one possible answer.  For once Maggie has met her match.
 
If you are into spies and this historical period, the research is tops and the book definitely has its moments, but it was oddly unemotional for me most of the time.  These spies can't really afford emotion, too much is at stake for them, one false move and it's all over.  Perhaps that's why I got such a lukewarm feeling with it.  I'm certainly not giving up on the series, I'm eager to read more about Adrian's story one day for he develops into an interesting character when he's older in the previous books, but Maggie and Doyle to me are like side characters to me, because that was how they were introduced to me in the earlier books.  I appreciated reading their story and how they came to meet, but overall this book just had a lacklustre feeling to it.
 
3/5

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My Lord and Spymaster by Joanna Bourne

Book Description:
A DARING BEAUTY, SHE WAS INFAMOUS FOR TAKING CHANCES...

Raised as a poor but cunning pickpocket, Jess Whitby may have grown into a wealthy young woman, but now she must once again rely on her guile. Her father's been wrongly accused of selling secrets to Napoleon, and he's going to hang--unless Jess finds the real traitor in the London underworld. She never dreamed her search would begin by waking up naked in a rude captain's bed. Or how little she'd mind...

NOW SHE'LL RISK EVERYTHING FOR LOVE...

When Captain Sebastian Kennett prevents a kidnapping on the London docks, he takes the headstrong would-be victim home. He's infatuated with her courageous spirit. She's enthralled by his commanding strength and the sexy spark in his eyes. Then she discovers something else about the spellbinding seaman: He could be the traitor she's hunting, the man whose next move could determine her father's fate--and her future as well.

My first official summer read in the sun to launch Memorial Day Weekend and the beginning of summer!

I really loved Ms. Bourne's first book in her Spymaster Series, The Spymaster's Lady, and have been looking forward to reading this next one ever since. This was a quick read for me, I can't say it was as good as her first, but it involved another feisty, resourceful, strong heroine, Jess and another dashing, clever and not so perfect hero, Sebastian who at times are adversaries, but also can't resist each other as well. I loved Sebastian: handsome, strong, virile - he was great in everything he does, but again, as was the case with Ms. Bourne's last hero, he has two sides to him. When he is Sebastian Kennett, he is known as the owner of a fleet of trade ships, a wealthy and well known merchant recognized by many. But, when he's Bastard Kennett, he's a dangerous, not to be meddled with ruthless cut-throat who knows how to kill when needed and is not someone to cross around the dockyards. Still, in either persona, he is a noble and honorable man. He is someone that is accustomed to getting his own way and is respected by all, from the the great spymasters at British Intelligence all the way down to the notorious and dangerous leader of London's underworld, Lazarus. Let's just say, he's the ideal man that fits into any kind of situation, I found him quite swoonworthy, frankly.

Sebastian and Jess aren't exactly spies, but they interact with them - or are accused as such. Our lovely heroine, Jess Whitby is convinced that Sebastian is the Cinq, a spy that is selling British naval secrets to Napoleon's supporters. Her father has been framed as Cinq and is awaiting his trial and supposed hanging. Jess is determined to find the real Cinq and clear her father's name and save him from the noose.

I liked Jess because she's complicated. Smart and resourceful, she can handle herself in any kind of scenario, yet she's vulnerable when it comes to dealing with her past life in the face of her present life and the thought of losing her father again. She learned how to be a pickpocket as a child, virtually raised by underworld leader, Lazarus when her father disappeared when she was eight years old. In a way, she was brainwashed by Lazarus to be subservient, convinced he "owned" her. He taught her the ways of thievery and at the time, she grew to like it until she was twelve years old and her father returned from a French prison to reclaim her. She left the life of the underworld and traveled the world with her father who amassed a fortune in smuggling and raised her to be a proper young lady. Like Sebastian, Jess has two different personas. She can still be the Cockney guttersnipe from Whitechapel who can easily pick a pocket or jump from roof to roof burgling with her back of tricks and pet ferret, or she can be the proper Miss Whitby, daughter of the wealthy and powerful Josiah Whitby, who can appreciate the finer things in life that her father's money can buy, living in luxury, wearing beautiful French silks and priceless jewelry (all smuggled, of course.) In addition, she is an expert in accounting, with a mind and memory like a trap, handling the books for her father's successful business. Yet, she'll never be able to lose the memories and nightmares of her past life as a pickpocket under Lazarus, with the scars to go with them.

Jess and Sebastian meet as she tries to pick his pocket looking for secrets in a dark alleyway - and the sparks fly, but she unexpectedly gets hurt in an accident and he has no choice but to take her back to his ship and nurse her for that evening. He plies her with brandy and medicinal herbs, strips her bare of her wet clothing and puts her to bed - his bed. But, that's as far as it goes, though he doesn't hesitate in appreciating her womanly assets, but as he says himself, he's not the sort of man to take advantage of an unconscious woman or force himself on someone who is unwilling - even though his nether regions might be telling him otherwise! I quite liked the fact that he wasn't exactly the 'master of his domain' when it came to Jess - he had to put "jack" back in the box a couple of times when dealing with the beautiful Miss Whitby!

Sebastian quickly learns about and understands Jess' weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Having grown up as an orphan in the streets of London until his aunt found him when he was seven, he can sympathize with her - he's been there himself. I loved the way he could be gentle with her, yet he also has the style and virility of a man who wants her, yet his honor and good sense rules his mind and he doesn't just take advantage of her on his ship. He realizes soon enough that she is the daughter of the man he thinks is a traitor and she thinks he's the man that has set her father up. There soon becomes a cat and mouse game played out between them in which he is the cat and she is the mouse. They're both attracted to each other and he tells her more than once he's going to bed her (and just how he'll do it) and she can't help but like the idea, but keeps telling herself it's never going to happen as long as she thinks he's the one that has set up her father. I loved the sexual tension build up which was drawn out for most of the book.

This game goes on for a while and sometimes, I sort of lost track of what was going on in the somewhat complicated espionage plotline, but it was fun to read - I guessed who the real villain was - or at least partly, but it was all well done and thought out and it had an exciting finish. I did get a little tired of Sebastian always worrying so much about Jess, though he did save her neck a few times. She has a tendency of going off and doing dangerous things that don't always end well. If you're looking for a real steamy romance, this isn't it, but the sexual tension and build up between the two was well done as well as the interesting London locales and people associated with them, whether it's the Historical Society in Mayfair or the seamy underside of London's world of crime.

I was also happy to see some brief glimpses of familiar faces from the last book in the series who are spies with British Intelligence, such as Adrian and Doyle. One last thing, I luuurved the inside cover of this book - yummy. Sebastian is depicted just as I imagined - instead of the ubiquitous Nathan Camp model that shows up everywhere (as mentioned recently in a post at Racy Romance Reviews).

I recommend this book for historical spy romance lovers, the research is tops and it features a strong heroine who's had a hard life, but can take care of herself when need be, and a tall, dark and handsome hero who loves her all the more for it, but who intends to take care of her for the rest of her life in any case.

4/5

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The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne

Book Description:
SHE'S NEVER MET A MAN SHE COULDN'T DECEIVE...

She's braved battlefields. She's stolen dispatches from under the noses of heads of state. She's played the worldly courtesan, the naive virgin, the refined British lady, even a Gypsy boy. But Annique Villiers, the elusive spy known as the Fox Cub, has finally met the one man she can't outwit...

UNTIL NOW.

British spymaster Robert Grey must enter France and bring back the brilliant, beautiful—and dangerous—Fox Cub. His duty is to capture her and her secrets for England. When the two natural enemies are thrown into prison, they forge an uneasy alliance to break free. But their pact is temporary and betrayal seems inevitable. They flee, pursued every step of the way by ruthless authorities, caught in a net of secrets and lies. As the fates of nations hang in the balance, Grey and Annique fight the passion that flares between them—forbidden, impossible, and completely irresistible...

This is another romance that everyone's been talking about, and I feel like I'm the last person I know to have read it! It had a well thought out and intricate plotline (even though I am a bit weary of spies during Regency times) and there were lots of blind alleys and twisty turns and a DaVinci Code sort of revelation at the ending. I had an inkling of what the secret was and wasn't too far off the money. For her first effort in upteen years, this was a pretty damn good story!

The basic premise is the old spy vs. spy story. Annique is a super spy for France that has a photographic memory. Although since photographs weren't around yet, all they knew was she had this amazing memory or retaining everything in her head that she's read. At one point she starts skimming through The Book of Common Prayer since she figures it can't hurt to have it in case it can be useful for her down the road. I couldn't help thinking, her mind is like a Kindle or ebook reader! Just download it and you've got it forever! Pretty snazzy!

Anyway, back to the story...

Annique meets Grey, super British spymaster in a French prison and with other British cohorts, a wounded Adrian and man of many identities, Doyle, they escape and make their way through the French countryside. Grey instantly realizes who Annique is upon first meeting her, and he wants her knowledge of the Albion Plans (invasion plans of England planned by Napoleon), though he doesn't realize they're memorized and all in her head. He hopes she will lead him (unawares) to where he thinks she's hidden them. One thing leads to another and these two spies fall for one another - an impossible situation. Annique is a very cool heroine. She's like a female superhero, she can do almost anything. She's smart, courageous, resourceful, fights well, sneaky as anything, and can make a weapon out of almost nothing. But, her Achilles Heel seems to be Grey and then later, Robert, who he masquerades as and tricks her. I won't give it away, but it's a masterful, and somewhat, complicated plotline (in fact I was a bit confused at one point towards the end, and had to close my eyes and think about it, to actually understand what happened! LOL! Dumb me).

One of my favorite moments was when Annique, Adrian and Grey are traveling in a coach toward the French coast, heading for England. Annique is drugged and has these traitorously romantic moments in Grey's arms while asleep. Then she finds at one point while waking up groggy and sleepy they must suddenly disguise themselves as Germans and are stopped by gendarmes and questioned. I loved it how they all easily slipped into speaking German flawlessly and Annique has to pose as Grey's wife who has morning sickness. Grey must act the part of a priggish husband who unsuccesfully tries to convince her it's all in her head in front of a young embarrassed French soldier. In another scene, I also really admired the way the bullet removal sequence was written. Well described and had me on the edge of my seat!

As far as a romance goes, this wasn't a super sexy beach book, but it had it's moments (although I still say sex and bathtubs just really don't work that way in real life!) It was a very clever, lively, action packed romance with fight scenes, deceptions, gunshots, evil villains and many secondary characters that were interesting and well developed. Plus, an exciting and illuminating last 25 pages leading up to the big secret and conclusion! A slam dunk and a pleasure to read!

4.5/5

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