Monday, November 18, 2019

A Spy's Devotion

If you're looking for a light reading and okay with a dose of cheese amongst the pages, then this one's for you.

A Spy's Devotion is about Julia, her extended family, and a recently returned and injured army Captain. Julia is an orphan that has been taken in by her pompous aunt, aggressive and angry uncle, and spoiled cousin. She has always done her best to stay back and support her cousin in every avenue she decides, and right now that is to help her gain the affections of Mr. Nicholas Langdon, the talk of the Town. Throughout the course of balls and dinners Julia and Nicholas find out, rather early on, that her uncle is a nefarious man who intends to assassinate important generals in the war with France. Julia is now tied between helping King and Country and not hurting her family and their interests--both of love and of money.

In my opinion, it was okay. There were parts that were extremely cheesy and, for those who've done the research into the Regency Time period, somewhat technically unbelievable. Small things, but they kind of irked me. The ending was also much longer than it needed to be. They could have wrapped things up a good seven chapters earlier without needing the trip to the Athertons or past loves coming into the story needlessly. It elongated it and didn't seem to be needed except for her to write her letter to him to tell how she truly felt. Yes, we get that being a governess is not the most amazing job and that there are many trials that come from it, but we got that with Sarah's "adventures" and letters. I feel we didn't necessarily need first hand accounts.

I think the characters were different enough to be distinct, but some of them I felt were simply stereotypical. Some of them had the same exact interests as similar characters from Jane Austen's books. Udolpho which is a rather scandalous novel from the time period. Even Julia is an orphan with no money to her name and is forced to live with angry/obnoxious relatives who are beyond wealthy (everyone is beyond wealthy here, making triple of what Mr. Darcy makes in Jane Austen's books and Pemberly is huge!). Ms. Dickerson pulled a lot, probably too much from Jane Austen and Jane Eyre.

If you want a regency book with a simple thrill of spy-ness, go for it. I wouldn't recommend this one very highly though.

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