Spies, silks and swordplay—what more could you want in a historical romance? The third entry in Andrea Pickens' 'Merlin's Maidens' trilogy, THE SCARLET SPY, features the (mis)adventures of Sofia as she fulfills the duties laid out to her by Lord Lynsley, the benefactor of Mrs. Merlin's Academy for Select Young Ladies.

Sofia considers herself lacking what her sisters-in-arms, the heroines of THE SPY WORE SILK and SEDUCED BY A SPY Siena and Shannon, must have. The two of them had already been called to duty while Sofia had been regulated to learning etiquette and drawing room manners. However, Lord Lynsley tells her 'Each Merlin is called upon to undertake a different sort of mission'. For Sofia, her inherent graceful deportment and nobility are necessary for the mission Lord Lynsley sends her on.

Prior knowledge of the first two books isn't necessary unless you want to know the story behind Siena and Shannon's own missions. Siena's mission is mentioned, as her husband is close friends with our hero of the story, Lord Deverill Osborne, and he has questions pertaining to the mysteriousness of it, but that doesn't effect the overall book.

Lord Deverill Osborne, Dev to most of his friends, spends much of the book trying to understand why Sofia is merely only civil to him when all the other ladies of the ton throw themselves at him. When he's not busy trying to win her over, he is either indulging in a good self-pity bout or helping out a friend in a government branch office with his accounts.

Some of the funniest scenes in the book are when Dev tries to tell Lord Lynsley that Sofia (under guise as the daughter of an old family friend of his) is utterly crazy. As he tries to point out that everything she does is contradictory to what Lord Lynsley should want for her, Lynsley merely reads his paper and says 'She'll be fine, just leave her be' completely unruffled.

This was a fun fast read for me. I spent a little over three hours reading the book, and it is certainly worth picking up if you like your heroines a little feisty and action oriented. I guarantee you'll not guess who the true villain is before she does. ( )