Too Hot For A Spy
Pearl Wolf
ISBN-10: 1420104802
ISBN-13: 978-1420104806
Zebra, March 2009, 384pp
Historical – Regency
$3.99 (US) $4.99 (CDN)
Reviewed by Mary
February 2009
As a woman in 2009 when you set your sights high and want to do anything, push yourself to the end of limits and strive to assume an occupation of your choosing that is a possibility. In 1816 that was not the case but this fact did not damper Lady Olivia Fairchild’s desire for success though nor hinder the dream for her grand ambitions – she wanted to be a spy!
Olivia had a plan to make this happen by outwitting her controlling father, manoeuvre around the regulations with the head of England’s Home Security and work with her mother to secure this position and obtain the goal of spy in training. But she never envisioned the person that would block her would be the man that ran the training facility Sir Sebastian Brooks – a man she was attracted to and drawn toward in ways only a woman would be and she was not sure she could dare let these emotions happen for fear they would thwart her end goal.
Sebastian for his part was trying to handle this woman he had no want of at his facility but had a burning desire to have in his bed. He knew that she would not take orders and could disrupt the academy as well as his own life and play havoc with his desires. She made him feel whole again and try as he did to resist her at every turn she called to him and in ways he never felt before with another woman.
Sebastian and Olivia have a number of adventures together and what draws them in as a couple is not only the chemistry between them but the confrontation of two high-energy, polar opposite personalities. While Sebastian has served in the military he knows how to follow a direct order and work within the system. Olivia has lead of life of luxury with her family and only knows what she wants and knocks down the walls to achieve it. This encompasses not only her desire to be a spy but to make sure that Sebastian’s feelings for her not only are about love but loyalty and letting her be what she desires.
This book is an excellent read for everyone that wonders about the women who came before us and their struggle to obtain their chosen profession. The training scenes were well written and the spy missions were not drug out to slow the book down. I felt the objective was to lay the groundwork for the Regency spy network while also showing how two completely opposite people who find each other impossible to live with but love can find a middle ground for their love and marriage and both ideals were accomplished. The side story of Olivia’s family was fulfilling and I look forward to other books that involve them. There were a number of break ups between the couple and while I think this was over done as the reason for the break up was repeated and in a sense drawn on too many times. One such incidence would have sufficed for the reader to get the point of where the issues lie between Sebastian and Olivia. TOO HOT FOR A SPY is a great book and I highly recommend it.