Have a little self respect, woman! And the ending was pretty weak too. I was glad she didn't give in, but the fact that she was sobbing and begging for him not to leave her all hot and bothered was lame. I didn't like the scene where Gabe tried to use seduction to get Nicky to give up her secrets.

Seriously? This is the guy who's been working as a double agent for the last several years? And he also leaves in the room a book that details all the secret passages in the house AND acts as the cipher for the coded messages he receives for his spying. Then he leaves her unrestrained and free to search said room if she wants and doesn't even lock her in so she can search the rest of the place too. First he puts Nicky in the room with the secret passage instead of, I dunno, ANY OTHER ROOM. And that too was ridiculous because a) why hadn't she scoured her room for possible clues and weapons just as a matter of course? b) why the heck had Gabe put her in that room in the first place when he knew there was an entrance to the secret tunnel? and c) having the wall sconce act as the lever that opens the secret door is so cliche.Īnd honestly, Gabe wasn't exactly a brain surgeon himself. But she's clueless until she stumbles across the entrance, completely by accident. Any spy worth their salt would immediately think 'there must be a secret passage around here somewhere.' Especially since Nicky had already noted that the sea sounded closer on one side of her room than the other and she'd heard footsteps going by her room when there was no one in the hall. Like when Gabe appeared in his room smelling like seaweed and clearly not having come through the door. Time and time again she was presented with blatant clues and yet failed to recognize them. In fact, when you stop to think about it, Nicky was a pretty dumb heroine for someone who allegedly relied on her wits for her survival. And it irritated me to see this cliche played out in this book. It's NEVER the hero who was too stupid to figure out he'd been working for the wrong side all this time. In virtually every story where the hero and heroine are both spies, it ALWAYS turns out that the heroine has been duped by her superiors and they're actually the bad guys. And that didn't strike her as just a little odd? This is something of a pet peeve of mine. As far as we can tell from the book, Paul is the only person in the entire spy organization whom she's ever met. Nor how she'd become entangled with 'Paul' her handler as a spy. I never really understood why Nicky, a Frenchwoman, was so loyal to the British. However, some of the other aspects of the book were a bit less fulfilling. And a hero who appreciated her for who she was a strong, brave woman making the best of her situation.

It was refreshing to have a heroine who was not only not a virgin, but comfortable with her sexuality. I liked both Gabe and Nicky and thought they were a good match.

Captured Countess by Ann Lethbridge