Seducing the Spy

I enjoyed this book, it is entertaining with a dash of mystery to keep the pages turning

This is the fourth and final book in the Royal Four series and is Stanton, the Falcon's story. When a notorious ruined liar, Alicia, comes to his home and advises him that she has overheard a plot to kidnap the royal prince from a wild weeklong house party, Stanton offers her the chance to get herself and her former governess out of poverty if she will attend the party with him posing as his mistress. The Falcon's unique gift to the Royal Four is his ability to tell if someone is lying or telling the truth. He is attracted to Alicia which shocks him, he is exceptionally proud of his service to the Royal Four for his ability to control his passions. His passions run amuck with Alicia around and he doesn't know how to handle it. He is shocked to find that his gift does not work on Lady Alicia and he spends the rest of the book wondering if he can trust her or not. Alicia was ruined when a stable boy was found in her bed, when she tried to tell everyone that she was framed, no one believed her and her own family shunned her. Alicia sees attending this party with the notoriously cold hearted Stanton as a way of seeking revenge against her family and society. She will flaunt herself as a blatant mistress, plus she will get the chance to help her country. Alicia is so attracted to Stanton that she is even willing to have a little affair while achieving her revenge. What she finds out is the man underneath is even more intriguing. This book has one of the best characters ever in it. In her attempt to shock society, Alicia finds a gay man, Garrett, to serve as her lady's maid. He is sooo much fun. At times, I really got aggravated with STanton for his coldness to Alicia but he does end up redeeming himself. Wonderful heroine, great story. Way to end the series.

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This book is a part of Celeste Bradley's Royal Four series, which branches off her Liar's Club series. If you haven't read the Liar's Club, you should. Though she does an excellent job of making the plot and characters understandable in each individual novel, they definately build off each other, with great reoccuring characters, and a continuous story arc that starts in the Liar's Club books. Celeste Bradley manages to weave humor and history into a fun, fast paced, entertaining story. There's plenty of romanace and even high adventure. She has great characters, dialogue, and wit. If you're looking for a fun read, definately try out the Liar's Club and the Royal Four. They'll have you laughing out loud while learning little tidbits about England during the Napleonic wars. What better way to learn some history?

Lady Alicia Lawrence, daughter of the Earl of Sutherland, was not only ruined but labeled a notorious liar where even her own family had disowned her. After five years of isolation she accidentally overheard a plot against the royal prince of England and felt she should at least tell someone. That someone turned out to be Stanton Horne, Marquis of Wyndham and possibly the only person who might listen to her. Stanton was rigid, a brilliant strategist but a cold unfeeling member of the Royal Four secret society who also possessed a unique gift of being able to read any person to determine if they lied. Unfortunately, he'd met his match for he could not read Lady Alicia. Not quite believing her claims, but on the off-chance that she was telling the truth, he made a bargain with her to pose as his mistress and attend a scandalous house party in order to track down the enemy she claimed would be there. For Stanton, the mission was fraught with danger, not only to track and stop a deadly spy, but that the impudent and audacious Lady Alicia might be the one woman to melt the ice surrounding Stanton's bleak heart! *** From the very first line of Lady Alicia's letter to Lord Wyndham, "I am writing to you because you appear to be a somewhat lesser idiot than other gentlemen", I knew I was going love this heroine! This impression was further enhanced with the incredibly hilarious dialogs and correspondence between Stanton and the `infamous' Lady Alicia after they formed a partnership, which I felt, was absolute genius! My admiration increased ten-fold by the positively brilliant characterization this author put forth in fleshing out this remarkable heroine who made a lasting impression on me. Stanton was portrayed beautifully as a perfect foil as Alicia pushed him beyond his limits of endurance and he began to surrender to her abundant charms. The ambiguity of Alicia's ruin and the shameful reaction from her family was adequately revealed and went far into explaining the insolent attitude she adopted to deal with the immense hurt of being betrayed. As the fourth book in the Royal Four series it completely stands alone yet with the reintroduction of characters featured in previous books it has piqued this reader into planning to pull them from my TBR stack and read them posthaste. Bottom line - This has every element designed to entertain - humor, adventure, edge of the seat excitement, and divine sensuality - a totally entertaining read! Marilyn Rondeau, Reviewers International Organization for CK2S - Kwips and Kritiques