I think this is my second favorite of the series so far. It's nicely written, the characters are likable, and they're well suited to each other. I enjoyed it ( )

I adore Julie Anne Long's books! This is my favorite "Palace of Rogues" book yet. She is brilliant at creating unique characters -not just rubberstamped heroines with a different eye color and collection of quirks than the last - but seemingly living, breathing individuals, and putting you into their shoes, their minds and hearts by letting us listen in on their individually voiced internal dialogs. Descriptive passages are thoughtful and creative without swaying into purple prose. You want to believe they have a bright future that will spread before them -you know, once they escape from this catastrophic upheaval they've been thrown into.
I highly recommend a visit to the Grand Palace on the Thames, whether you start with book five, or book one of the series; they make the best stay-cations. ( )

This is a pretty good series, and this latest addition is fabulous. Hawkes is a British spy who was betrayed and has spent the last three years in a French prison. He is released when an English Earl needs him to find his missing fiancee. Aurelie has fled to the Grand Palace on the Thames where the usual characters are still in residence.
There's some steam near the end, but mostly this is a fun story with some very humorous moments. The hero and heroine are wounded but find everything they need in each other though it takes them a little while to build up the trust they need. Ms. Long always writes fun romances; I especially appreciated the references to Miles Redmond's books. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. ( )

By far my least favorite of the series. There was insta love and purple prose, way more telling than showing. The characters were one dimensional. There was no progression of their relationship it was just pretty full blown right off the bat. And the heroine was superlative at knowing exactly what this strange man was thinking and feeling because she was beautiful, brave and perfect. It seemed like very little actually happened in the book. Not many scenes of life at the Grand Palace.

Read instead this author’s What I Did with a Duke to see a couple fall in love in front of your eyes. ( )

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Hawkes was nearly destitute. He'd been obliged to surrender the entirety of his own hard-won fortune to French authorities before he went to prison---it was either that, or face execution by firing squad.

Christian Hawkes has been free less than a week after serving three years in a French prison for his role as a British spymaster. He has the feeling that he was given up and he has his eye on the Earl of Brundage, the very man that negotiated for Hawkes to keep his life over his fortune. In a twist, Brundage has requested Hawkes help, calling on that favor Brundage thinks Hawkes owes him for saving his life. Brundage's fiancée has fled and Brundage wants Hawkes to put his skills to use to find her, in return, Brundage will pay back Hawkes some of his fortune. Hawkes takes the job as it will allow him more access and opportunity to search out if and how Brundage might of betrayed Hawkes and England.

How ironic that she'd been obliged to plunge blindly into the world the very moment she'd been made brutally aware that she knew almost nothing about it.

Lady Aurelie Capet lost her parents and older brother to the bloody French Revolution and while she still has another brother, he lives in Boston. Her guardian may have kept her well feed and clothed, he's never been attentive, so when the Earl of Brundage asks her to marry him, she thinks she's finally going to get the family she's been missing. When her eyes get horribly opened, Aurelie flees and is on the run to England and from there to try and book passage to Boston. A jaded former spy working for his possible enemy and a naïve sheltered woman having to suddenly learn the ways of the world and discovering she's stronger than she ever imagined.

Men could do such terrible harm.
And yet it was clear they could love so powerfully well.
She was glad she now knew.

If you're not a frequent reader of The Palace of the Rogues series, jumping in here at book five would not be a good idea. The Grand Palace on the Thames is where Aurelie ends up and as so, Hawkes soon follows. The inn and it's occupants, the Hardys, Bolts, Dot, and guests usually have a strong showing in the series books and that goes doubly here. I've read all the books in the series and have started to itch for a new setting, so when a lot of the first half felt more about the inn, I was very restless. If you tried to pick this up here, you obviously would find the setting and these characters fresh but I'm not sure you'd care about them, as you'd miss their emotional background. The inn and the plot about Hawkes searching, trying to learn about Brundage's involvement in his imprisonment and how it could all tie-in to treason was a large chunk of the story, to the point that I would be tempted to call this more a money laundering and treason mystery more than a romance.

But never had a woman affected him as though she were the weather. As though he could feel her in his bones, like an ache, and on his skin, like sunshine or a breeze.

If you're a get to it reader, you're going to need patience in this one, Aurelie and Hawkes don't meet until around 30%, he knows who she is, she doesn't, and I'd say the romance doesn't really get going until around 60%. There was almost too much time spent on in their head characterization, the vast majority of story is told from Aurelie and Hawkes heads and how they feel and think in almost lyrical/flowery prose. I'd also have to say their relationship foundation is instalove, Hawkes sees Aurelie for the first time and he's already thinking she's the one. I felt like I read about two people separately falling in love instead of together, if that makes any sense. It's around 70% that Aurelie learns who Hawkes is and how he fits into the whole picture with Brundage and when she again goes on the run and Hawke catches up to her, there's about 10% of them just spending time together. Time I would have loved to have seen much earlier in the book, especially since they just seem to already be in love and this is more about showing their bedroom scene and trying to get an emotional scene from Aurelie that instead came off very forced.

“You have found me, Mr. Hawkes.”
And at first, he seemed unable to speak. He was drinking in the sight of her wonderingly.
“I think I would follow you the ends of the earth.” He said it gently. Almost wryly.

Even though a lot is shown through their head talk, I'm still not sure I got a firm handle on who Aurelie was, she was sheltered and made a naive mistake of trusting the wrong man but she was all so ethereal in her essence in the story, I couldn't really see her. It was also around 30% that it's mostly made clear as to why she ran from Brundage Brundage raped her and while the scene isn't action shown, she clearly has trauma from it and when she and Hawkes spend that alone time together later in the book, she discusses it and some of what physically happened to her.

This was a miss for me with the romance, the Grand Palace and it's occupants took up way too much time, especially in the beginning when I'm trying to get to know and get invested in two new romance leads and their romance. The story does end with a knock on the door, so we're obviously going to be staying, I just hope the new couple and their romance gets to take center stage. ( )