carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I thought that this was a very interesting historical romance. I picked up this book largely because of the cover. Isn't it gorgeous? I had never read anything by Amy Sandas before but I thought that the story sounded interesting so I decided to give it a try. I haven't read any of the previous book in this series and thought that this book worked well as a stand alone novel. I really enjoyed this story.

I really liked the characters in this book. Portia was quite the character. She was really outspoken and could be demanding when it was required. She was very focused on helping others and was incredibly brave. Dell lives a very interesting life. He seemed to know how to handle just about any situation. Dell and Portia really made a great pair and seemed to be very evenly matched.

This was an exciting story and there was a whole lot going on in this book. Portia and Dell first meet when Portia and her aunt hire Nightshade to find Portia's sister who has been kidnapped. There are questions that need to be answered and Dell is the man for the job. The pair work together on another related operation which turned out to be rather tense at times. I did think that the book had a bit of a slow start but once it got going the pace really didn't let up.

This book had some really unique aspects. I liked reading about all of Dell's disguises and how he was able to do the work that he does. I can really understand why Portia was intrigued by what he does. I loved the fact that there was a bit of humor woven into the story. The chemistry between the pair was very well written. I liked the secondary characters in this book as well. Portia's aunt was really interesting and I would love to know her full story.

I would recommend this book to fans of historical romance. This was a really wonderful story that held my interest. I hope to read more from Amy Sandas soon including the previous books in this exciting series.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Sourcebooks Casablanca via NetGalley.

Initial Thoughts
Interesting story. I liked the chemistry between Portia and Dell. I found the begnning of the book to be a bit slow but I was hooked by the end.