Review: 4 out of 5 st
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2014
This novella is the first in DeHart’s new series – Masquerading Mistresses – and tells the story of Emma Masterson and Remington ‘Remy’ Hawthorne, Earl of Latham. Emma new assignment is to pose undercover as Remy’s mistress during an investigation. This story had me within the first few pages and just kept getting better. I must say that I enjoy the style of this author – the dialogue is fun and the plot builds well.While in Paris two years earlier, Emma and Remy were on assignment when the first spark of attraction got to them. In his high-handedness, Remy offers Emma a way out of a particular assignment leaving Emma with little choice but to leg it out on her own. Years later, it’s not until they’re assigned together does Emma see Remy to know what happened to him after his abrupt disappearance. His explanation didn’t ring true to me and I thought Emma’s forgiveness of that action was too easy considering she harbored a grudge for such a long time.The chemistry between them was good – it wasn’t great but then it’s hard to maintain chastity into a relationship when the story is a novella.  There’s a scene that I’m still questioning Emma’s action but I won’t tell you which one that is because it happens in the later part of the story. Their romance was sudden and the kiss to sex happened within a very short time but it worked for them considering their history.Overall, the idea of a female spy-by-choice in 1812 is new to me; it kept me interested and turning the pages. There’s some action, not a lot and it’s not the high-energy kind either but the grunt work of research and what I assume is ‘real’ spy stuff. One of the things that I enjoyed about Emma was that she didn’t let her emotions get the better of her and for me that made her career choice more believable. There’s no crying in spying.Remy was a product of his environment; he thought women should be protected even when they’ve chosen to be a spy. I can’t say that I didn’t like him for it because I did like him.  He was a gentleman when it came to the way he treated Emma but he didn’t hold back from showing her his affection either. Nice! This is one of those stories that was good but I wish it was longer to learn more about the characters and to slow things down a bit.Happy Reading folks!Rating: B-*ARC provided by publisherReview also posted at www.redhotbooks(dot)com