After being widowed from a horrible marriage, Emma is just trying to keep her head down in Mary Queen of Scots' court. Then she witnesses a murder & gets caught in an explosion, putting paid to that plan. Luckily, a local spy for Elizabeth waders by to pick her out of the rubble & nurse her back to health??? It's a bit contrived, but it works. While they're sequestered together, Emma and Tristan change each other's worldviews irrevocably, helping to shore up what at first reads like a love-at-first-subconscious-feeling-of-"rightness" romance. Also, at its core, this is a book about an abuse survivor coming into herself & the soft boy who helps make that possible, which I am always, always here for.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Set in the Elizabethan era, Lady Emma Hamilton is a member of Queen Mary’s court. In Lost To A Spy, Lady Emma is walking home with her maid, from dinner with friends, when she is an inadvertent witness to the assassination of Lord Darnley, the Queen’s husband.

Caught by the shockwave of an explosion used to cover up the murder, Emma is thrown clear and hits her head, leaving her unconscious. Her maid is terrified and runs away, but Emma is soon found by Tristan Fitzherbert.

He takes her home to his apartment above the printing shop he runs. She is still unconscious, but she soon comes around.

Immediately a spark begins to flare between the two of them. The only problem is, he can’t tell her he is really a spy for Queen Elizabeth, and she can’t tell him that she thinks she has seen a murder. The murder of the king.

Having escaped an abusive marriage when her husband mercifully died, Emma is afraid of men. She is attracted to Tristan but can’t forget the past. She soon comes to believe, however, that Tristan can be the one to show her what lovemaking really can be.

They spend days together learning to love each other, knowing the entire time they will have to part. Even if she hadn’t been the witness to a murder, and if he wasn’t a spy, she is a Lady and he is a commoner.

Genuine And Enjoyable

This was a truly enjoyable story, I liked the characters very much. Their interaction was genuine and I felt I really understood them.

This is the third in the series of spy novels by Sharon Cullen. I will definitely be on the lookout for the other books in the All The Queen’s Spies series, Wed To A Spy, and Bound To A Spy, and four more books by this author.

Reviewed for LnkToMi iRead in response to a complimentary copy of the book provided by the publisher in hopes of an honest review. ( )

Danger stalks the night!

It's 1567 Edinburgh, turbulent times in Scottish history. Emma Howard, Lady-in-waiting and close confidante to Mary, Queen of Scots, wakes to find herself in the care of a stranger. Lord Darnley, wedded to Queen Mary, has just been murdered and it seems Emma might have seen something suspicious.
All that is moot because she was knocked unconscious as Kirk o’ Field exploded. The stranger, Englishman Tristan Fitzherbert, a spy for Queen Elizabeth had found Emma laying unconscious near to the source of the explosion and taken her to his printing works. Tristan has been printing seditious leaflets, stirring up the people of Edinburgh. This latest happening goes to the heart of the court and Lord Bothwell, Mary's undisputed advisor.
As Emma learns more, both her heart and deep friendship with Queen Mary will be tested.
As she keeps internally declaiming, if she'd only taken a carriage home that fatal night, all would be so different. Her ignorance of what was actually happening politically would have buffered her from the reality in many different ways.
The story focuses on the development of the relationship between Tristan and Emma, with the backdrop of these dangerous times during Mary's reign. I enjoyed this episode of All the Queen's Spies, although I felt the resolution of the story was almost too quick and the fascinating political happenings are overshadowed by the brewing romance/lust between Emma and Tristan. I must say that the bid for safety by Emma is quite heart stopping.

A NetGalley ARC ( )