Name: Love, Lies and Spies
ISBN: 9781489879240

Cindy Anstey

In the early 1800s, when her father sends her to London for a season, eighteen-year-old Juliana Telford, who prefers researching ladybugs to marriage, meets handsome Spencer Northam, a spy posing as a young gentleman of leisure.

Love, Lies and Spies

In this hilarious homage to Jane Austen, a lady with a penchant for trouble finds a handsome spy much more than merely tolerable. "It’s Jane Austen meets Jane Foster in Anstey’s debut novel, which serves up a delightful combination of Regency romance, scientific curiosity, and spy intrigue for a tale that will have readers rooting for love and science." -Entertainment Weekly Juliana Telford is not your average nineteenth-century young lady. She's much more interested in researching ladybugs than marriage, fashionable dresses, or dances. So when her father sends her to London for a season, she's determined not to form any attachments. Instead, she plans to secretly publish her research. 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. Fortunately, Juliana feels the same, and they agree to pretend to fall for each other. Spencer can finally focus, until he is tasked with observing Juliana's traveling companions . . . and Juliana herself. Full of humor and English Regency Period charm, and starring a whip-smart strong female heroine, Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey is a young adult novel with the perfect mix of romance, action, and adventure. "A tongue-in-cheek nod to Regency romances, Anstey’s lighthearted novel is perfect for readers looking for an Austen-inspired tale of intrigue and romance. The story gets an additional boost from Juliana’s many humorous scrapes, which are unbefitting of a nineteenth-century lady. This would make a nice companion for Garth Nix’s farcical Newt’s Emerald." -Booklist "Give to young teens in need of a fluffier Patrice Kindl's Keeping the Castle. . . . A cute premise and cover make this a solid purchase for budding historical romance readers." -School Library Journal “I cannot tell you how much I love this book. Juliana, Spencer, Bobbington, ALL of them are just so utterly wonderful. This is BETTER than Georgette Heyer. YEP, I SAID IT.” -Kelly Zekas, author of These Vicious Masks

Colleen

3 Stars

Love, Lies, and Spies is a cute historical chick lit. I picked it up because I love the Regency time period and because the cover caught my eye. I love skeleton keys (probably due to a childhood of reading books like The Secret Garden and The Indian in the Cupboard which convinced me that old keys led to wonderful adventures). So even though it is a simple cover, it caught my eye.

The starts off with a cliff hanger - literally! It was a cute opening and I was initially very intrigued. The banter was amusing even if not quite as witty as I would like. 
"I do not wish to be rude, but this is a most embarrassing predicament-"
"I would use the word dangerous instead."
"Yes, well, you would, being a man. But I, on the other hand, being a young woman doing her best not to call attention to herself and bring shame upon her family, would call it otherwise." After the engaging opening, the story struggled to find its legs. Despite the espionage woven into the plot, I could not really call this a mystery or thriller. It is a light romance with an espionage subplot. Unfortunately, the Regency Romance with a Napoleon spies has been a bit over done. And perhaps run over by a few carriages... The suspense aspect of the story felt like it lacked tension and did not seem like the stakes were as high as the story built them up to be. As the story went on, it felt more like a plain old romance novel (Harlequin style) than an actual novel. It was still an amusing story, but it lacked depth. Juliana's character in particular never reached the level of tenacity that I was hoping for, and her character was not fully developed. Since she was the heroine of the book, it held the story back from growing beyond simple romance. 

From a historical aspect, there were no glaring anachronisms, but the story did not feel immersive into that time period. Perhaps because this was marketed to teens they did not feel the need to delve too deeply into historical accuracy. It seems most people are satisfied with mentions of carriages and ballgowns and a few old sounding words. Still, it was good for a debut novel.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Attention to Detail: 3 Stars
Originality: 2 Stars

Sheila

Total cotton candy regency fluff :3 The premise & dialogue will make a normal person roll their eyes so hard they'll pop out, but if you're in the right mood for fluff then oh my god this will hit the spot.

Amanda J 

Roller-coaster of how I felt with this one. I really, really wanted to like it. I should have liked it. I mean: Regency? Check. Bluestocking? Check. Spies? Check. Love? Check. But it just didn't work. Started out ugh, than great. Then hit 53% with an are you kidding me how much longer is this going to drag out. Too much going on and on about how wonderful their SO was. Then there was the spying plot, which was just too confusing, adding on top the money laundering which was just not needed. 2/3 through it got better. Then when I finally thought it was done, one last ploy had to happen. Really. At least it was all HEA in the end, maybe. Not all characters' stories were tied up. I'm glad I checked it out from the library.
A really cool feature of the book though was the glossary, an explanation about the time period, and further reading suggestions about the Regency period. This would have been great for a YA reader just getting into the time period.

Anika | @chaptersofmay

It was a little slow to start but the main character is what helped me stick to the book. Not something I would re-read but definitely entertaining!

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

So here I am, Miss Contemporary Girl, venturing into the world of historical YA again. I’m really trying (a lot, actually!) to venture out of my comfort zone this year. I’ve read a handful of historical novels (all YA) and though I’m still struggling with them quite a bit, I have been enjoying them.

Juliana is my kind of MC. Totally clumsy and accident-prone, she made me chuckle quite a bit. But she’s not all stumbles and falls… she’s also quite thick-headed, intelligent, and even stubborn at times. I’ve noticed that women in historical books are often not as confident and strong as I would like, but Juliana definitely was! Her family (specifically her aunt) was pretty horrific, yet she never let it stop her. She was on a mission, and nothing was going to stand in her way.

Spencer was pretty entertaining as well. Though I didn’t connect with him quite as early on, in the second half of the book I definitely did. It says in the synopsis that Spencer is a spy, but I felt as though, as the reader, we weren’t really aware of what he was doing for the beginning of the book. I was kind of lost on what his purpose was. But once it was addressed, from there I was a happy camper.

Meg K

I can’t get enough of Cindy Anstey’s books! The heroines are loveably quirky and quick-witted and the beaus are always so genteel and caught unexpectedly head over heels in love by the end! These stories are the kind that you close with a contented sigh and just bask in the joyful mood for a few hours afterwards. I would highly recommend any of her books to readers who enjoy Regency Era England, a dash of heroics, and satisfying romances!

Kaylee Z

3.5⭐

While I don’t think I liked this one as much as Duels & Deception, I still had a fun time reading it.

Anstey has a great way of bringing in the perfect amount of wit to her stories and I always appreciate the additions of her chapter headings. They are very much like a Penny Dreadful and each one brought a smile to my face.

I do think, however, the title of the book is a bit misleading even if it’s very catchy. I found Spencer to be pretty green when it comes to his position at the War Office but his role is very much ‘sit and wait’ and I would have liked to get a deeper look at the 'spying' side of things. I understand that him being new to the War Office means he needs to learn and earn more responsibility but his boss already acts like he's fairly well-established. This makes his assumed skill vs his actions to be a bit disjointed. 

Spencer also has a lot of inner dialog that is him jumping to rather forced conclusions that just work as a plot device to keep him hesitant/suspicious. Incidentally, his thoughts on Juliana are also fairly forced just to offer a bit of conflict. I feel like these moments within his thoughts were meant to show him as a thorough thinker but kind of did the opposite where I found him a bit thick in the skull.

Juliana on the other hand was great. I wish we got more of her and her goals of getting the research published but that felt a bit like a throwaway plot point. I found her penchant for getting into scrapes endearing and her overall outlook on things felt honest. The dynamic between Juliana and Spencer was also really fun to read with their banter and very apparent feelings and I liked it best when they were in scenes together.

There was a lot that I thought could have been more developed but what we did get was an enjoyable read that offered some action, adventure, wit, and subterfuge.

For more, check out my blog: https://www.theenchantedlibrary.org/

Juliana Telford is not your average nineteenth-century young lady. She's much more interested in researching ladybugs than marriage, fashionable dresses, or dances. So when her father sends her to London for a season, she's determined not to form any attachments. Instead, she plans to secretly publish their research. 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. Fortunately, Juliana feels the same, and they agree to pretend to fall for each other. Spencer can finally focus, until he is tasked with observing Juliana's traveling companions . . . and Juliana herself.

Love, Lies and Spies

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