March 21, 2016
In a refreshing change of scenery, Roberts’s Highlands romance takes place largely at England’s Hampton Court Palace, where the politics and suspicious niceties of the courtiers replace battles among the heather. Lady Elizabeth Walsingham believes she is finally over her childhood crush on Laird Ian Munroe, a close ally of her brothers-in-law Laird Sutherland and Capt. Fagan Murray (who wooed her sisters in Kilts and Daggers and My Highland Spy, respectively). She’s determined to stop mooning over him and join King James’s court to claim her position among the other nobles. But as Ian realizes that Elizabeth has grown into a woman, he resolves to pursue her and to protect her from the oily attentions of a Shakespearean actor and a fawning earl. Unsurprisingly, Elizabeth welcomes his clumsy, if well-meaning, attentions and refocuses her attention on solving the mystery of her uncle’s death, unwittingly joining her family’s tradition of spying on behalf of the crown. Unfortunately, the story is slow paced and predictable, but series readers will enjoy the long-awaited pairing of Ian and Elizabeth, who strike sparks whenever they touch. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.