A Secret Treaty and a Secret Life
LONDON, 1812: Giselle Barrington is living a double life, juggling the duties of chef with those of spy catcher. She must identify her father’s savage killer before the shadowy man finds her and uncovers the explosive political document her father entrusted to her safekeeping.
Posing as a French cook in the home of Lord Aldridge, Giselle is surrounded by unlikely allies and vicious enemies. In the streets where she once walked freely among polite society, she now hides in plain sight, learning the hard lessons of class distinction and negotiating the delicate balance between servant and master.
Lord Aldridge’s insatiable curiosity about his mysterious new chef blurs the line between civic duty and outright desire. Carefully watching Giselle’s every move, he undertakes a mission to figure out who she really is—and, in the process, plunges her straight into the heart of danger when her only hope for survival is to remain invisible.
Release Date: 10/22/13
Publisher: Gallery Books
Source: Manic Readers
Reviewer: Michelle
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Reviewer’s Thoughts
This is the story of Giselle Barrington, daughter of a murdered English aristocrat, and her quest to complete his last mission for the Crown. I loved Giselle’s character. She was resourceful, smart, and daring. She was also compassionate, skilled, and loyal. She became a cook in the household of Lord Aldridge. Lord Aldridge recently accepted his title and is new to the world of espionage and intrigue as a nobleman. The book really doesn’t give much a glimpse into Lord Aldridge. He is honest, trustworthy, and determined to keep Giselle safe even though he does not know her real identity. There were a number of background characters that added interest to the story particularly Maive, Edgars, and Iris. Each was interesting in their own way but the author did not capitalze on the attraction and elements of poverty around those characters. The reader is also thrown a curve or twist because of Edgar’s behavior, but the author gives no indication of the resolution. The premise for the plot twist was extremely flimsy and improbable. So by the end of the book I almost felt like the author decided to just wrap it up and bring the story to a close but mistakenly left a few loose ends.
I enjoy intrigue with romance, but I can’t say that this book had the romantic element. There was some element of attraction between Giselle and Lord Aldridge, but it was limited to a kiss here and there with no significant interaction between the two characters. So the romance aspect really fell flat and never materialized. I guess I expected to see the two of them team up to defeat evil and passionately fall in love. That did NOT happen and the two sort of bumbled through stumbling over each other until the end of the book.
It was an interesting read that kept my attention throughout, but I was ultimately disappointed because of the too neatly, packaged ending.
