Beloved historical romance author Joanna Bourne announced her retirement this month.
I’ve reread everyone of Bourne’s books; some many times. I respect her decision but, damn, I’ll miss her brilliance.
AAR’s reviewed, I think, all her work. Five of the books in her The Spymaster series have garnered DIKs–the only one that didn’t, my favorite My Lord and Spymaster, got a B+. The first one I read, the first in the series, The Spymaster’s Lady (2008), was one of the first historical romances I read when I returned to reading romance and I remember thinking WHOA, this is amazing and where can I get more?!?!?
What was your first Bourne? What’s your favorite?
I think my first Bourne was The Spymaster’s Lady, but my favourite is The Black Hawk. Adrian is such a compelling character and I love the way the novel is structured.
I love The Black Hawk and am so impressed at how Bourne pulled it off after kind of painting herself in a corner by writing Her Ladyship’s Companion first all those years ago and having a single Adrian many years later down the timeline.
A lesser author would have ignored it and done a reboot but she worked it out and created a masterpiece.
I read “The Spymaster’s Lady” five years ago, but did not continue with the others. Apparently I only found it average at the time judging by the rating, but maybe I should give the series another go.
“whispers”
It’s not her best. It’s good and Grey is to die for but Annique is a bit much.
See I found Grey hard to warm up to. He’s a lot colder and doesn’t have the wry humor of a Doyle, Adrian or Sebastian.
And for me it’s a case of Bourne competing against herself when I start to compare her books. I do love them all, I just love some more than others.
Exactly. All were excellent, although Adrian was my favorite leading man.
It’s hard not to love Adrian, and to be fair he’s the leading man we get the full picture with. We see him from the time he’s about 13 (maybe even a little younger in one of the short stories) to the time when he’s running the entire operation.
And you are immediately sympathetic to him no matter where you start the series. If it’s in the first published book he’s the handsome and funny young man shot and bleeding in a cell or he’s the 13 year old whose too old for his years being used by a crime lord and then taken over by the spies.
He’s hands down one of the greatest characters in Romantic Fiction.
I like him best in My Lord and Spymaster, even more than I do in the Black Hawk.
I read the first chapter and put it down. Went back later and read all the others, but still haven’t read the first one. The rest are quite good.
The Black Hawk. The unfolding of the story line. Their childhood. His unwavering love. And the bad guy gets well-punished.
I’ve posted it many times, but My Lord And Spymaster is probably my all time favorite Bourne novel (though I love them all) with The Forbidden Rose a fierce rival.
I love My Lord And Spymaster not only for the the main couple, who are great, but for Adrian in his supporting role (that gave us the first glimpse into a fully formed, adult Adrian) plus all the amazing backstory and supporting characters.
I talked with her about that book in my interview and demanded to know what happened to Fluffy and Lazarus. Her answer is still one of the best thing an author has ever told me!
I loved that too! I find the whole padding ken and supporting characters riveting as well.
I love those extras she would let slip out from time to time. Like that Lazarus is probably Jess’s biological father and the reason why Lazarus hates Jess’s father is because they are half brothers and her Mom was the woman they were fighting over.
Nothing is ever just a throw away line in her books and am I am astounded at how tightly plotted they were for her to be able to bounce around in time and write them out of order chronologically.
That’s awful news. She is one of my favourite authors. My favourite Joanna Bourne’s book is The black hawk, I gave it 5 stars. The first one was The spymaster’s lady, 4 stars. But I would recommend the series as a whole. It’s one of the best written and cleverest I’ve ever read.
I love them all. She is such a marvelous writer that it’s hard to pick just one, but I think The Black Hawk is my favorite. I love the story within a story structure.
I was trying to explain point of view to my husband one day, and he was insisting that the point of view was always the author’s. So I pulled out one of her books, said “This is deep third!” and handed it to him. He read a few paragraphs and said “Oh.”
I agree. They are all brilliant but The Black Hawk is on another level. So sad Joanna is retiring.
Damn, I was hoping for another book someday. I really enjoyed all of her books. They all made it to my keeper shelf. Black Hawk was the first one I read, but I think if I had to choose a favorite it would be Forbidden Rose because it really is the beginning of the story and introduces a younger Doyle, a very young Hawk, and several of the other characters we came to love. I hope she enjoys her retirement, but I also hope that new characters visit her and implore her to tell their stories too. Retirement life is sweet tho ❤️
That is my second favorite!
Me too!!
I’ve not read any of these. (I started Black Hawk at one point in time and DNF’d it. I have no idea why.) So, where should a newbie start? Is there a preferred order to read them or does it not matter?
I’d recommend the order of publication as that’s how I read and enjoyed them. Others prefer to read them chronologically. Black Hawk should be read either 4th if by publication date or second to last if chronologically.
Publication order is:
The Spymaster’s Lady
My Lord And Spymaster
The Forbidden Rose
The Black Hawk
Rogue Spy
Beauty Like The Night
Chronologically:
The Forbidden Rose
The Spymaster’s Lady
Rogue Spy- jumps around but most of it is roughly around Spymaster’s Lady but goes back to the time of Forbidden Rose
My Lord and Spymaster
The Black Hawk- jumps around as well but the current time falls here
Beauty Like The Night
There is another book that Adrian features in but it’s kind of an outlier as it was written years before these others and his character wasn’t really fully realized as it was when Bourne put together the whole Spymaster series. It’s ‘Her Ladyship’s Companion” and many Adrian fans don’t care for it. You don’t have to read it to enjoy the Spymaster series.
There are also a couple of short stories. One features a young Adrian and one Justine.
Thank you !
The Spymaster’s Lady. Definitely start there.
Thank you!
My first and favorite was The Spymaster’s Lady. Man, I love that book. I have the kindle edition, the paperback edition, and the audible. Kiersten Potter is a stellar narrator in a stellar book. All her books are so far above the average historical as to be in their own category. I wish her well in her retirement. She will be missed.
I hope you looked at both covers before choosing the paperback.
SIGH
The Spymaster’s Lady is my favourite book. It is so good that it is far beyond, “too good to put down” and has achieved the rarefied level of, “can hardly bear to pick up again” because you are savoring what has already happened, but are also afraid that this sublime quality cannot be maintained. Spoiler— the quality is maintained.
It is a adventure romance of enemies in Napoleonic France and England where the attraction is founded upon respect for each other’s skill and character, with physical sex appeal secondary.
The heroine, Annique Villiers, is one of the four characters in my, “Pantheon of heroines”.
Don’t look at the cover. It is undoubtedly sabotage, the work of a jealous rival who knows they will never equal this work 😉
Is what I have posted dozens of times on reddit.
SIGH
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I love this.
I checked out the cover images at fantastic fiction to see what you were talking about. That HAND! It brought to mind a cover years ago with a three-armed woman: Castles in the Air by Christina Dodd. My usual sites don’t show that cover, but I found a reference (https://www.christinadodd.com/christina-dodd-and-the-infamous-three-armed-cover/).
I loved that brouhaha. And she handled it so well.
Beauty like the Night.
Justine in that book is a heroine that I have somehow found unique, and her situation, with all those protectors and yet, she becomes her own person before meeting the hero, I just feel her in a special way.
I enjoyed the Spymaster‘s Lady a lot, a stellar example of a specific type of book, but it is not unique to me.
I have only read ‘The Forbidden Rose’ so far, but I thought it was an exceptionally good HR. The French Revolution was my period in grad school and I have not seen a helluva lot of good books with that setting. The cast of characters was great, pacing and language were terrific. Am sure I will read all of them eventually. 🙂