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Joanna Bourne’s novel, The Spymaster’s Lady is yet another winner for me. And by winner, I mean hit the ball out of the park on the first pitch winner. The kind of incredible that, if there is any justice in the world, will raise the bar for historical romance. I am idealistic enough to believe that Bourne’s fellow authors will take up her challenge and raise her one. Or more.

Bourne takes her place alongside such refreshing authors as Elizabeth Hoyt and Jeanne Westin in that she’s taking literary risks while offering a unique voice and perspective. Unlike those authors, who work in non-traditional (for romance) time periods, Bourne sets her story right smack in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars – that period of time we in the romance world refer to as the Regency. Yeah, you read that right: someone made the Regency new again.

Annique Villiers is a French spy. Known as the Fox Cub, she moves in the shadowy world of political intrigue with grace and wit – her youth allows her to take on various disguises. The daughter of another spy, she carries on the family tradition in a way that makes a mother proud. Her loyalty to her cause makes her formidable foe. And her secret skill gives her an advantage that no other French (or, I suppose, English spy) could possibly possess. But even when you’re working for the same cause, it doesn’t mean you don’t have various factions, and as the novel opens, Annique is being held prisoner by rival French spies because they believe she has information that they want for their own.

Man, spies. What are you gonna do?

Being held with her is an equally formidable hostage: Robert Grey, the British spymaster. Robert was caught while rescuing a member of his team, the clever, devil-may-care Adrian – a character who, in less talented hands, would have walked away with this book. Talk about your lucky day (if you’re a bad guy): three of your greatest enemies in one jail.

Well, you know what they say about luck. Bourne choreographs a jailbreak and escape with grace and wit. Annique, Robert, and Adrian work like a well-oiled team (are teams well-oiled, and if they are, do I really want to think these thoughts?). Oh wow, the confidence of this author. She fleshes out a scene like you can’t believe. Okay, you can believe because once you finish with my gushing review, you get to click on the links at the end and buy the book.

Oh, lucky, lucky you!

Now I fully admit that I am not, nor have I ever been, a spy. I like to think of myself more as a puppetmaster. And as such, I have very definite ideas of what makes for a good spy. I believe that Annique makes an excellent spy. In addition to all the worthy spy skills (fighting and slipping in and out of tight corners and whatnot), she never forgets the job. Even as she’s flirting and bantering and attracted to the enemy, she remains focused on her goal. In this case, it is making sure the so-called Albion plans – Napoleon’s plans for invading England – reach their destination.

On the flipside, Robert displays the same dedication to his job. He can flirt, he can make love (and, kids, I’m using that phrase in the broadest, most romantic sense), he can even change his voice to suit a new character, but he’s always about getting the job done. Even when he falls in love with the enemy. In a time of war, some things are bigger than the love of two people.

So where was I? Right, our heroes escape from jail. I think I also mentioned the attraction between Annique and Robert. This makes for a fast-paced introduction to the novel. Boom, boom, boom with lots of good detail that does stuff like develop plot and character. We know the conflicts (nice, multiple, not-easily-resolved conflicts right up front), we know the plot, we know the characters. I mean, there I am, worrying about how Annique is going to escape from the clutches of Robert – who has made his savior his prisoner, a famous French spy being an excellent trophy back home, especially since he believes her responsible for the death of English spies – when, oh boy, twist!

The kind of twist that makes you want to go back to the beginning of the book, start over, maybe see if you can catch the author out. Of course, that would delay moving forward with the rest of the story, and since it’s been so much joy to this point, going back feels so wrong. Better, I think, to trust this author. It’s not like you caught the twist anyway, despite the one very obvious clue that worked so seamlessly into the action that you never guessed.

I know, I know, tell you more, tell you more, tell you more. Darlings, if I could, I would. But I am that rare reviewer who practices love and kindness. If I were to divulge even a little bit of specificity, I will ruin your delight. I cannot do that to you. You must trust that I would not – two, three months later – be singing this novel’s praises without good reason.

For what it’s worth, the twist twists again and the pacing just keeps on moving forward. Essentially, our hero and heroine (and injured sidekick) are on the run. Road romance. But one is bent on bringing the French spy to England for justice and all that good stuff, while the other is bent on seeing her mission through to the end.

What Bourne does is create a series of impossible-to-resolve scenarios. How, you wonder, will they surmount this? Or that? Or this and that? Suffice to say that the adventure moves across the Channel at one point. Throughout it all, the characters change and change again, but always, it’s the goal.

I was reeled in by the dialogue as well. Bourne gives each of her major characters distinctive voices – from uber-agent Doyle’s overly broad countrified speech (though he’s well-known in spy circles as an educated man) to young agent Arian’s dandified insouciance. Grey’s cultured British agent contrasts with Annique’s Frenchness.

It is easy enough to do international speech badly. Most romance authors rely far too much on dialect (said dialect, I suspect, is used wrong far more often than it’s used right). This is why I cannot stand to read Scottish romances. All that dinna this, dinna that, it’s enough to drive me crazy.

True speech patterns come from the cadence of the words. It strikes me that I have known just enough Frenchwomen in my life to hear the rhythm of their English in Annique’s words. Rather than peppering speech with tried-and-true French phrases (how many mai ouis does it take to push a cliché over the cliff?), Bourne settles for English as her main language and uses speech patterns to connote her heroine’s nationality. Thus, the pacing and word choice used by Annique reinforces her nationality just as the precision of Robert’s speech reinforces his class. Bourne has a great ear for dialogue.

I think I might be in love.

I should note, for those who demand truth and justice, that this is not a perfect novel. I am not sure I’ve ever read a perfect novel (a perfect chapter, yes, but not a perfect novel). The twist that had me in rhapsodies, well, I thought the author’s out was a bit too neat, but then again, I’m not clever enough to have made the whole thing work in the first place. And Bourne uses her out to turn the novel around again later in the story.

So one person’s overly convenient conflict resolution is another’s entre into another scenario.

And I thought that toward the end, things went on a bit too long (this is the same complaint I have with Jeanne Westin’s books). There was point where I was ready to wrap it all up. Granted, there was a lot of plot to cover and Bourne kept mixing it up right to the end, but there was this sort of draggy, okay already sense as I began to feel like additional conflict was being added for sake of layering additional conflict (type that three times fast).

But, wow, what a debut novel! I plucked this one from a stack of “take these books, please” titles on Wendy’s kitchen table. I think she thought I was getting the raw end of the scavenger hunt. Au contraire! I don’t know what HelenKay took home that day, but I got the best of the lot.

Honest. Now we’re at the good part. You can find Joanna Bourne here (this is actually her blog, but if you act now, there's a post on the front page about her use of dialogue. I give and give and give). You can buy The Spymaster’s Lady here or here. You can thank me for introducing you to a great new book and author below. The reviewer’s code of ethics clearly states that accolades are the only currency of value we may accept.