Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Romance, Mystery
Content: Clean


Juliana Telford is not your average nineteenth-century young lady. She’s much more interested in researching ladybugs than marriage, fashionable dresses, or dances. 

Spencer Northam is not the average young gentleman of leisure he appears. He is actually a spy for the War Office, and is more focused on acing his first mission than meeting eligible ladies. 


I could hardly wait to read Love, Lies and Spies. I mean, look at that description and that cover. And what a fun read it turned out to be. I suppose your enjoyment of this book will depend on what your expectations are when you pick it up. For me it was mostly what I thought it would be, a Regency era romance with a little intrigue that starred a rather unconventional heroine. If the book has a weakness it is that there is not enough of the intrigue, and maybe not quite enough character development. For the most part I found it to be very amusing and super cute. It's definitely in the vein of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer.

There were a couple of things that I thought were quite refreshing about this book. The first is that the tired old plot device of misunderstandings and not communicating used in a lot of historical romance was absent. Thank heavens for that! The second is that the main character was never really bothered by the rival trying to steal away her man. She was confident and knew he was interested in her and not the other girl. I really liked that we had two smart, confident characters in this book who really only had eyes for each other. They didn't resort to childishness or jump to conclusions when something went wrong or they didn't know what was going on.

Love, Lies and Spies was a fun, light, romantic read and I am looking forward to reading more from this author.





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