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Rogue Spy

Rogue Spy, November 2014
Spymasters #5
by Joanna Bourne

Berkley
Featuring: Camille Leyland; Thomas Paxton
322 pages
ISBN: 0425260828
EAN: 9780425260821
Kindle: B00EOARZG4
Paperback / e-Book
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"BLACKMAIL SEXY SPIES ROMANTIC ESCAPE"

Fresh Fiction Review

Rogue Spy
Joanna Bourne

Reviewed by Patricia (Pat) Pascale
Posted January 16, 2015

Romance Historical

Cami and Pax, homeless children, were trained in the art of espionage and subterfuge at the Coach House in Paris, France. A secret school, teaching children to be spies and killers sent to England as spies for the French Revolution. These children were known as caches. Cami, called "Verite", meaning Truth, and Pax, known as "Devoir", meaning Duty, were inseparable. They were beaten, starved, taught how to lie, steal and kill. Devoir became the leader there, always protecting Verite, and teaching her to excel in killing and protecting herself. In time, they are separated and sent to England to be what they were trained to be, caches.

For the past ten years, Cami has been safe living with the fluffy Aunts Violet and Lily Leyland. Cami was a french spy placed in this English family. Two seemingly dithering old aunties, in reality were code makers for the British Intelligence. Playing the part of their niece, Camille Besancon, the aunts were so good to Cami. She loved living there in the pretty village of Brodemere. She played the part so well of masquerading as their niece, she often forgot it was all a lie. On the day she received a letter from a blackmailer threatening to divulge her past, Cami knew her life there was over. She packed and immediately headed to London as instructed, already preparing a plan to meet and kill whoever had blackmailed her.

Thomas Paxton has been busy too for the past ten years. Working as a stone-cold assassin for the British Intelligence, he has been killing throughout Tuscany and Piedmont, hunting for a man that is known as The Merchant.. He is a fanatical supporter of the French Revolution and a man Pax has a personal reason to want dead.

Reunited in London Cami and Pax ,discover The Merchant is the blackmailer. Along with a group from the British Service is Hawker, Grey and Doyle, the Baldoni family from Tuscany who know Cami is kin, as well as the fluffy aunties, all unite in an intricate plan to snare him. Told with vivid descriptions we are led to a smashing and exciting finale.

Ms. Bourne, is a superb historical romance/thriller writer, as well as a master story teller. She sets the stage brilliantly for the characters and moves the plot along so that you are turning the pages faster and faster to see what is coming next. A little luscious romance adds to the flavor, along with a finish that is sweet. Join Cami and Pax, a perfect match, in an exciting adventure joined by a great supporting crew. ROGUE SPY is a really great read!

Learn more about Rogue Spy

SUMMARY

For years he’d lived a lie. It was time to tell the truth . . . even if it cost him the woman he loved.

Ten years ago he was a boy, given the name Thomas Paxton and sent by Revolutionary France to infiltrate the British Intelligence Service. Now his sense of honor brings him back to London, alone and unarmed, to confess. But instead of facing the gallows, he’s given one last impossible assignment to prove his loyalty.

Lovely, lying, former French spy Camille Leyland is dragged from her safe rural obscurity by threats and blackmail. Dusting off her spy skills, she sets out to track down a ruthless French fanatic and rescue the innocent victim he’s holding—only to find an old colleague already on the case. Pax.

Old friendship turns to new love, and as Pax and Camille’s dark secrets loom up from the past, Pax is left with a choice—go rogue from the Service or lose Camille forever...

Excerpt

"A lot of water under a lot of bridges."

"And some bridges burned forever." She sighed and stood up, turning so she ended up facing him. Every instant of that movement was graceful. Unstudied. She could have been a leaf twirled in the wind. "This is like . . . It's like when Alexander burned his ships on the shore so his army couldn't run away. We have our backs to the sea. Neither of us can retreat."

"No retreat," he agreed. In a very few moments, one of them would hurt the other. They shared that knowledge without having to say it aloud.

"I'm sorry it's come to this." She said. "I owe you so much. I would have died of despair in those first days in the Coach House if you hadn't been yelling at me."

"I never yelled."

"You became ironic. We were all in awe of you when you were ironic." She leaned against the end of the pew. Her cloak was weighted on the left side of the front. That would be where she carried a small, reliable pistol. She'd always loved pistols.

It surprised him to find himself looking down at the top of her head. He'd grown since he was fourteen.

"I cared for you, Devoir, with my whole heart, as only a child can care for another child." She spread her hands, empty, palms up. "Yet here you are and here I am, very close to enemies. I have a sudden urge to say something significant about Fate and Inevitability."

That sounded like the too-old, too-wise girl he'd known. His Vérité still lived inside this sleek brown stranger with the eloquent hands and the measuring eyes. It wasn't only bones that stayed unchanged year after year.

He wished he didn't have to arrest her.


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