Lawson’s Review of Seduced by a Spy by Andrea Pickens
Historical romance released by Forever 1 Mar 08
This is the second in Pickens’ series about highly trained woman operatives, Merlin’s Maidens. The first book read like Jane Bond 101 in Regency England. It left a lot open though and lead to this story, about the second of the three Maidens, Shannon, and the dashing Russian agent Alexandr Orlov. Maybe it’s the sexy Russian, or maybe it’s the understanding that the spy world is known to the reader, but Shannon’s story is an improvement over Siena’s.
Shannon starts the story not on her own adventure, but fearing reprimand by Lord Lynsley, who is the “handler” in the government of Merlin’s Maidens. The school is funded by him and run by his ideals of what these female operatives should know and do. Instead of reprimand, Shannon’s assignment is to go to Ireland and assassinate D’Etienne, a French spy and deadly assassin. Shannon meets up with Alexandr Orlov in Ireland, but D’Etienne has already moved on.
Shannon then reports to Ireland, with an uneasy partnership with Alex, to protect the children of a Scottish ballistics expert from D’Etienne. Along the way come complications of annoying family members, schemes to get money, flighty debutantes, and D’Etienne’s plots to fulfill his own assignment. Through all of this Shannon is not the impulsive, over eager agent that Lynsley is afraid she is. Nor is Alex the rogue and self serving agent Shannon thinks he is.
Both Alex and Shannon are complex characters, and though they have pride, neither puts that pride in front of being honest about their feelings or putting their duty to the children first. The sparks fly from the first meeting of the two in the first book, and seeing these two deadly people show caring for each other and their charges is a welcome change in a spy story.
Unfortunatly there are some failings with the secondary plot lines, and at the end D’Etienne is too neatly dealt with. All this comes back also to the fact that yes, there is some plausibility to some things, such as kidnapping plots for money and the intrigue in Regency England, women would not have been that highly trained operatives for the government. Reading Sun Tzu’s Art of War included.
The characterizations of Shannon and Alex help to overshadow the implausible idea of Merlin’s Maiden’s, but the idea of deadly women agents working for the crown in Regency England never really takes hold and makes sense. Perhaps by the third Maiden’s story, which is Sofia, things will start to make some sense.
Grade: B-
They were once orphans from London’s roughest slums. Now they are students of Mrs. Merlin’s Academy for Select Young Ladies, learning the techniques of spying and seduction. Bold, beautiful, and oh-so-dangerous, they are England’s ultimate secret weapons…
Hot-tempered and a warrior to the bone, Shannon is the most daring of “Merlin Maidens.” Her assignment: stop the fiendishly cruel assassin who is targeting a top British ballistics expert’s family. Marshalling her intelligence, fighting skills, and weapons is easy. Being forced to work with the rakishly handsome Russian spy she loathes is something else.
Witty, resourceful, and notorious for his rakish charm with women, Alexandr Orlov tempts Shannon’s fierce reserve and lithe body to win her trust. But in the remote Scottish castle where they are sent to protect the innocent, their games of parry and thrust could end in death. A ruthless enemy is watching…and planning to turn their passion into the most dangerous weapon of all.
Read an excerpt.
