One of the best authors to come out of 2008 and the publishing world, especially the historical romance genre is Joanna Bourne. Joanna’s first novel, The Spymaster’s Lady was one of the best historicals I have read in almost five years. Her writing is lush and so very intelligently written. When Ana from The Book Smugglers told me she was a huge fan of Joanna, I realized we have so much in common. She was also very lucky to get an advanced copy of Joanna’s July release, My Lord and Spymaster. And since she was posting her review, she asked if I was going to post my own since I too was able to get a copy. So, today we are both linking our reviews and we welcome you to read both our thoughts and comment on them.The heroine of My Lord and Spymaster is Jess Whitby. Jess may seem like a respectable lady with a fortune and a successful business, but Jess has an unfortunate past as being a former thief who lived in the underbelly of Katherine Lane in London. Her father, who I really thought of as a total jackass, left Jess to fend for herself because he was never around. Without a mother to care for her, Jess had to survive anyway she knew how, so the streets became her home and thus her career as a thief, all before the age of ten. Jess has come back to her old haunts looking for the man responsible for framing her father for crimes against the crown. Because Jess is so independent and a bit plucky, she will go deep into the dark streets, where danger is thick, searching for a way to find the villain who has the power to send her father to the gallows. This is where she meets Sea Captain Sebastian Kennett.
Sebastian and an associate, Adrian, (Adrian was a big secondary character in The Spymaster’s Lady) are walking back from a celebration of sorts when a young woman comes rushing towards Sebastian and begs for his help. He knows something is off because he feels her trying to pick his pockets. Before he can get to the bottom of Miss Sticky Fingers, they are attacked. Sebastian and Adrian are able to hold their attackers off, but Sebastian’s lovely pickpocket is bashed in the head and falls unconscious. Sebastian takes her back to his ship and waits till she comes to. From that moment on Sebastian feels Jess is his. In between the fighting and the time it takes for him to bring her to his ship and wait for her to awaken, Sebastian wants to claim this unknown lady as his own. These few pages where we see Sebastian’s thoughts and sudden feelings for Jess are so telling. It sets in motion the dance or rather the foreplay these two will engage in before they become lovers.
Jess does not trust Sebastian at all. She believes he is someone called the Cinq, and the one responsible for imprisoning her father. Jess may be very attracted to Sebastian, but she really does think he is the dastardly Cinq.
**Side note- for the life of me I couldn’t tell you what “Cinq” means. Why do these villains in such spy stories have such strange names? What if his name was Bill or Harry? I personally like the name of Fred. But then again have you ever heard of a villain with the name of Fred?**
You have to feel for Sebastian because he makes it his mission to protect and help Jess in any way. Jess is an ungrateful wench and makes sure to give Sebastian the run around. He just doesn’t know how to handle her. She is one slippery woman who can escape from his guards who are suppose to keep tabs on her. Jess is quite skillful and she climbs various rooftops and drops into rooms without being noticed. Jess reminded me a bit of Anne Wilder from the Connie Brockway classic, All Through the Night. And I would love to know if Joanna was paying homage to Connie because at certain points, Jess was very much like Anne. Sebastian is not at all like Jack Seward, but he is there to help Jess out of her scrapes. There is one such scrape where Jess decides to go back into the "belly of the beast" and see the man who turned her into a thief and may just kill her because she left him, even though she was just a child. Sebastian is the only one who can rescue her. Surprisingly in this scene, you would think Sebastian would lay claim to Jess himself, much like he told himself he would when he first met her. Rather, Sebastian makes Jess realize she belongs to no one, not her father and not even himself.
I found My Lord and Spymaster to be a tensioned filled novel, especially between Jess and Sebastian. These two do not fall into bed right away and then spend the rest of the story running around London. The loving comes much later. Sebastian can’t stand dear old dad because of what Jess had to go through as a young girl. Jess can hardly trust Sebastian, which became a bit tedious because Sebastian has done everything in his power to make Jess want to put her trust in him. I felt that Jess had such issues because of her past and it should fit, but sometimes too much denial and angst between the two main characters can be a bit too much.
Again Joanna has written another wonderful heroine in that of Jess, who really makes this story shine. Sebastian was a pleasing in his own way, but I was so involved with Jess that Sebastian is more of a sidekick to Jess if anything else. I was even surprised by who Fred…er…the Cinq was. For a sophomore effort, I think those who enjoyed The Spymaster’s Lady will feel the same about My Lord and Spymaster.
Joanna simply breathes life into a genre that needs more stories like her own.
4 out of 5 stars
Katiebabs (KB)
