Christian Hawkes was a spymaster for England, collecting intelligence from the French in part due to his natural charm and charisma. After Hawkes became aware of his treason, the Earl of Brundage betrayed him, resulting in Hawkes spending three years in a French prison. Now he's out, penniless, and forced to take on a mission from Brundage himself. Brundage's fiancee, Aurelie Capet, went on the run--little does Hawkes know, she's right under his nose when he arrives at the Grand Palace on the Thames, wounded and unconscious.

Aurelie has her reasons for running from Brundage--and Hawkes has his reasons for wanting revenge.

This isn't a light one. It isn't exactly heavy, as I don't feel like I've read a Julie Anne Long book that is precisely heavy... But there's some serious shit dealt with in this book (and I will be giving trigger warnings at the end of my review). There's less of the companionable, silly-fun interactions that I've read in other Palace of Rogues books--but you still get the idea that everyone is doing well and is happy. I appreciate the way that Long has been able to maintain consistency in this world, looping previous heroes like Captain Hardy and the Duke of Valkirk into Hawkes's orbit.

Aurelie is something of a unique heroine in historical romance, at least nowadays--descended from French royalty, with a refined, ladylike quality and an alias to boot. That in itself seemed like a nod to old school historicals, as was Hawkes's status as a spymaster. I ate that up, and was dying for them to get together.

Which was probably one of the drawbacks I have to note about the book. It takes a while for Aurelie and Hawkes to interact on page. He spends a lot of time investigating her disappearance beforehand, and you get a good sense for who they both are separately. But they aren't together, together until about a third of the book in--and while I think Long is a great writer and I enjoyed the story up to that point, that was a little frustrating for me. I wanted to see more of their development together. A Palace of Rogues book already naturally has more of a supporting cast than many romance novels--you always check in with Delilah and Hardy, Angelique and Bolt, and of course Mr. Delacorte and Dot. I love that; but I do need to see a lot of development with the main couple as well.

And there is really good emotional development between Hawkes and Aurelie. He's charming and a bit roguish but actually quite soft; she's refined and (understandably) emotionally withholding, while needing a safe place to land. I commend Long for managing to create a hero who both conveys a bit of an edge and is a soft, safe place for the heroine to land. Because that's what this type of heroine needed. I'm not saying that it's my favorite trope... At points, Hawkes was a bit too emotionally well-developed for me. But he's the type of hero I'd recommend to people who want to read about a man who's a bit more evolved than traditional historical romance heroes.

It's just a solid love story--most of the threats are external rather than internal, and it's enjoyable, and soft, and it's satisfying to watch two wounded people find love and comfort in each other. Do I think there could have been more internal conflict? Yeah, I do. I'm a conflict hound, and I feel like Hawkes and Aurelie almost fit too well together at times. But I get what Long was going for here. It's a recovery love story. It's a rebirth love story.

While I wouldn't say this book is quite as strong as After Dark with The Duke or for that matter I'm Only Wicked With You, it's a good entry in the Palace of Rogues series, and I look forward to the next one. Long is one of those writers who is very consistent for me, and her books have largely been at a baseline of good ranging to great. I just think she could have gone a bit further with this one in terms of the internal conflict.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Spoilers ahead with the trigger warning below.










TW: Rape (not graphically described).