The Forbidden Rose

April 19, 2010
Bourne (The Spymaster's Lady
) returns to the French Revolution for her latest romance, this time matching up an English spy and a French aristocrat. Marguerite de Fleurignac, a noblewoman who smuggles émigrés to England, encounters William Doyle in the charred remains of her chateau outside of Paris. She needs sanctuary and agrees to let him escort her through the French countryside. Though she pretends to be Scottish and he claims to be French, no one in this book seems able to keep secrets: William knows Marguerite's identity, she and the French secret police both know he is hunting her father, and everyone, including the secret police and the British, knows everything about the smugglers. Nonetheless, the romance is sweet, and once William and Marguerite admit their love, the ensuing adventure story is everything a spy thriller should be.

June 15, 2010

Falling in love is the last thing an English spy and a French aristocrat who heads up a covert network helping guillotine-bound victims escape should do. But when William Doyle discovers Marguerite de Fleurignac hiding in her burned-out chateau and realizes she is key to his goal, they head for Paris and are swept into a whirlwind of violence, treachery, and revolutionary fanaticism that threatens their missions and their lives, as well as their impossible but unavoidable love. VERDICT With exceptional characters, brilliant plotting, a poignant love story, and clear, realistic descriptions, this engrossing, provocative romantic adventure could easily make revolutionary France a more popular setting than it has been recently. Intriguing, refreshing, and rewarding. Bourne (My Lord and Spymaster) lives in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2010
The lady was going to lead him to the list. At least that is what William Doyle, British spy, believes when he finds Marguerite de Fleurignac hiding in the ruins of the Chateau de Fleurignac. The lady might call herself Maggie Duncan, but William knows she is the daughter of the Marquis de Fleurignac, the same French nobleman whose list names British officers who are being murdered one by one. All William has to do is convince Maggie that he is Guillaume LeBreton, traveling bookseller, and that he can get her safely to Paris. What William doesnt know is that Marguerite has a few secrets of her ownsecrets that could very well get them both killed. RITA Awardwinning Bourne delivers another addictively readable installment in her loosely connected Spymaster novels, a flawless romance in which an espionage-steeped plot is deftly balanced with a lusciously sensual love story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)