4.5 stars.

At times, I had trouble following the logic of the mystery in this story, but I thought the romance was superb. When I wasn’t reading, I’d catch myself wondering what was going to happen next between Sidney and Verity. I was eager to get back to the book and find out, and while the turns in their relationship often took me by surprise, it was always in a good way. Verity’s memories and musings had sold me on Sidney in book one, even before he showed up in person, so I liked him from his very first appearance. Here, I liked him about ten times better! I love him and Verity as a couple, and I’m looking forward to seeing them tackle life—and more mysteries—together as the series continues. ( )

This series is driving me crazy; I love the author's writing, the characters, the settings, the mysteries. But I hate one of the major plot points.

Verity Kent's husband died during WWI - except, he didn't. He was wounded but allowed himself to be listed as killed in action, hiding while he hunted out the traitor in his unit. Well over a year later, after Verity has started moving on, and falling for another man - a man designed by the author to make readers fall for him - her dead husband decided to let her know he's in rude health for a corpse and not understanding why she's not happier to see him.

I'm not sure how to reconcile this, really. I want to read them, but they piss me off at the same time.

With that disclosure, it's a good book, although a bit rambling. I notice tis with a lot of Kensington books, so I think it's more an editorial style than a failing on the author's part. A tighter editing would have resulted in a faster paced mystery and less exposition about the devastation of WWI. Don't get me wrong: the exposition was interesting, but it was a tad repetitive. My biggest complaint, and again, something that could have been avoided by a stricter editor, was Verity's constant, constant, mention of Her Big Secret and how she should tell her husband; it's revelation is inevitable; they can't move on unless she does; really, it would be best to come clean... but not now. Never now. Then, finally, the revelation. And all I could think was omg, who cares?. I realise people were a lot touchier about things in 1918, but give me a break; without spoiling things, her husband didn't have a leg to stand on and she really ought to have just told him to suck it up and deal with it.

I don't know if I'll read the third one when it comes out or not. If I do, I'm pretty sure I'm stuck with that plot point and, well, I just don't know that I care enough about Verity as things stand. ( )

1919 England and Verity is persuaded to attend a seance where she receives a message supposedly from a woman she once worked with in the Secret Service. Trying to solve the mystery leads Verity to Belgium.
An interesting historical fiction story/thriller with some danger and intrigue mixed in with secrets from the war.
A Netgalley Book ( )

Verity worked in Belgium as a courier in WWI for British Intelligence while her husband, Sidney (whom was reported dead), was working to unmask traitors in his unit... Now they are reunited and working to save their marriage.

Verity is persuaded by a friend to attend a séance, where she is told by the medium that she is in danger and needs to find her Belgium contact, Emilie, with whom she worked as a mid-wife's assistant & under-cover courier.

Verity is convinced that the Medium has been fed state secrets and goes to confront her, but when she arrives at the Medium's home, the Medium's assistant is standing out on the sidewalk while the house is consumed in flames.... the Medium dead inside.

Verity visits British Intelligence, where she is dismissed and told to leave... so verity does the only thing she can; she & Sidney travel to Belgium to locate Emilie and put an end to the danger.

Some of the paragraphs I skimmed, because I just wasn't interested in all the extraneous explanations, but mostly I liked the story.

I found the book interesting and read it through in one day. I'm not sure about the characters; although verity is doing her best to come to terms with her marriage, Sidney is jealous of Verity's male friends and keeps forgetting that he was dead to the world for most of the war and that Verity had a most dangerous job w/ British Intelligence, so there is a double standard and hopefully it will not drag on into the other books in the series. ( )

I must confess I nearly abandoned this book at the beginning because it began with Verity attending a seance. I'm not a fan of Occult elements and really don't want to read about them. However, I stayed with it, and I ended up enjoying the mystery. The medium's message for her revealed secret information from Verity's past life as a spy that was classified. When the medium's home burned, Verity knew she must act. She and her now-returned husband head to Belgium to try to get to the bottom of the message. Verity and her husband are finding it difficult to adjust to one another, and he feels threatened by her relationship with one of her former co-workers. I wish the author had chosen some other set-up to lead to the investigation. ( )