by 
It’s not very often that I read a historical romance novel that makes me cackle, but this book had me in legit stitches, and I loved every part of it.
You guys know I love a funny book, and this is definitely one of the funniest ones I’ve read so far. I think I’m always, always going to recommend it to everyone who asks.
For context, this book takes place after the Battle of Waterloo.
Reed is tired of staying at home – he doesn’t enjoy the administrative duties that come with being the head of an estate and is very content leaving them to his brother.
This has been a comfortable arrangement, as he previously worked for the British government as a spy in France – a job he loved.
But now that Napoleon has been captured and all is well, he’s getting restless. Plus, his mother isn’t helping matters because she keeps trying to matchmake him with ladies of the ton.
Anyway, he’s given a new assignment – turns out Napoleon was almost murdered, and they suspect a band of Gypsies is hiding the culprit among them.
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Reed is instructed to go undercover and investigate. It’s while at the Gypsy camp that he meets our female lead, Orelia.
These two were a riot, and I loved their journey from strangers to friends to lovers. They have the kind of love that stories are told about, and I love that they had the most fiery chemistry between them.
I love, love, love anything that has to do with espionage, and seeing Reed and Orelia go undercover was so much fun.
As I said earlier, this book was very funny but also enlightening. I loved watching them try to piece together the mystery of who actually poisoned Napoleon.
In the process, both of them had to examine their biases and their positions in society. They had to confront the ideological and financial gap between them, and the way they handled it with such maturity is something I – and a lot of other people – could stand to emulate.
This is one of those books I need to see adapted, and I really hope that in the adaptation, none of the chemistry is dimmed, because that is the shining light of this book.
The cardinal rule in books where the characters come from opposing classes, at least in my opinion, is that they need to recognize each other’s merits.
This author did it so wonderfully – it was so easy to see Reed and Orelia come together, and I was rooting for them from start to finish.
What I really enjoyed about this book was how open they were with each other.
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There’s a kind of innocence and lack of guile that is so attractive in a person, and I think that’s why they were so drawn to each other.
Even though they are both skilled liars, when they finally approached each other with sincerity, all their cards were laid on the table.
There were no hidden motives – just raw, unfiltered honesty. That kind of connection made it absolutely believable that they would end up together.
This book also heavily tackles the fate of veterans. While Reed’s issue is that he’s now bored and lacking purpose, we also see other veterans in the book who end up making bad choices because they have essentially been abandoned by the state.
If you have a phone and access to the news, you know this is still a very common issue today. When people serve their country, it’s only right that the country provides for them when they return.
But oftentimes, nations use and discard those who have served them. I really feel there needs to be more intervention in veteran protection.
As I said earlier, Reed and Orelia come together to solve the mystery, and that’s what powers the entire book.
But I will say – the big reveal happens at like 99.9999% of the book, and I’m not sure I liked that.
I wish we’d had more time for them to process everything and sit with the revelations before jumping into the resolution. That said, it didn’t affect the overall quality of the book, so it’s all good.
This book has some very steamy scenes, so beware – you will absolutely fall in love with both of them.
Please read this book if you want a sweet, sweet romance about two oddballs somehow finding each other in this big world and falling in love.
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