All Men are Rogues
By Sari Robbins

     Here's a reality check: Romance heroines have come a long way, with or without the bodice-ripper clinch and the Ah-nold type heroes on the cover. And villains have come a long way since the mustache-twirling melodrama maniacs. They may even be spymasters for British Intelligence who have none of Bond's sensuality or M's ethics, but plenty of flaws cloaked in duty to king and country. Lord Tristram Wheaton intends for Lord Justin Barclay to carry out a mission vital to homeland security. Trouble is, Justin has to kill a woman suspected, like her father, of being a traitor to the British crown. However, Justin starts to fall for the lady, particularly when she resists his shrewish mother's emotional abuse (later inspiring Justin to give the emotional blackmailer battle-axe the kiss-off she deserves, in one of the novel's best scenes.)

     So apparently romance has gone Hitchcockian as well, because this sounds like the setup for Notorious, especially since the novel's heroine and spy target Lady Evelyn Amherst is as emotionally guarded and scarred as Ingrid Bergman-at least when it comes to the subject of love or marriage. She is not, however, afraid to love and sacrifice for her foreign servants Ismet and Shah, as well as her father figure Sully (who reminds one suspiciously of Sulley from "Monsters Inc"), stalwart friend and sexy Spaniard Angel Arolas, or street urchins. Despite a determination to finish her murdered father's mysterious last mission, she feels guilt over deceiving while lusting after Justin, who she seduces in marked contrast to yesteryear's frightened breathless passive miss submitting to the hero's wicked desires despite herself.

     Evelyn and Justin's emotional and suspenseful journey is no less bold, taking them through tangled loyalties, discoveries of each other's true mission, the awful truth that you're being lied to and used by someone from your government, and the question of who killed Evelyn's father and what mysterious legacy he left for Evelyn that involves Napoleon. No Tom Clancy conspiracies here-the best one is at the end, in which all the characters unite to see Evelyn and Justin happily wed.