I enjoyed the first book in this series and so was thrilled to see the second released. I’ll start by saying Joel Froomkin is one of my very favorite narrators. He brought this story to life with his amazing vocal talent. The story was well-done, but Froomkin’s performance added a whole new layer to it that just gave me hours of listening pleasure.
This story is very much about a young woman who is in a bad situation. Well, two young women, but Rose is the focus while I suspect Violet’s book might be coming in the future (fingers crossed). The women are being abused terribly by relatives (see trigger warning) and it’s truly vile. Some of the violence I found disturbing – even more so because I know situations like this happen in real life. Sometimes humans do truly unforgivable things.
Anyway, Rose and Violet need to get away – most especially because their uncle is looking to marry them off and the ‘gentlemen’ he’s interviewing (trying to see how much money he can get from) are all as horrible as him. Violet escapes north while Rose, with the help of the footman, escapes to London.
Only this isn’t any ordinary footman. Bramwell’s a spy and he’ll do anything for King and Country. Anything to thwart Napoleon and the traitors living on British soil who support the despot. When Bram brings Rose to London, things get complicated because she has no idea who he is. But they’re attracted to each other and Bram is easily able to look past Rose’s ‘flaws’. Still, will she be able to look past his treachery in not telling her the truth sooner?
I loved this book, enjoyed the ending, and hope for more!