I picked this up from the library today - only to realise when I got home that I'd already read it. So I took it back! But it's been several years since I'd read it, so I read it again.
As well as her hugely successful Crossfire series (contemporary romance), Sylvia Day also wrote a series of Georgian historical romances:
#1 Ask For It
#2 A Passion for the Game
#3 A Passion for Him
#4 Don't Tempt Me
They are set in the 1770s and the characters (both male and female) work for various governments as spies. As with any series, you get the most out of them if you read the books in order! However, you could probably get away with starting with book #2.
A Passion for Him
(#3 Georgian Series)
by Sylvia Day
Amelia is the younger sister of Maria, the heroine of book #2. Although betrothed to the handsome Earl of Ware, Amelia is still in love with her childhood sweetheart, Colin, who died saving her life. Amelia and Colin's backstory is told in flashbacks throughout the book, which is handy if you haven't read #2 (or, like me, have a memory like a sieve).
Despite being betrothed to the kind-hearted Earl, Amelia falls head over heels in lust with a handsome stranger at a masked ball. Completely obsessed, she is soon arranging assignations all over London, determined to discover the stranger's secrets. And he has quite a few - one of which I'm sure you've already guessed! There's lots of sex and sometimes the language is a bit crude, but Sylvia Day certainly knows how to write a page turner and I enjoyed the story very much.
Don't Tempt Me
(#4 Georgian Series)
by Sylvia Day
So after reading #3, I then had to read #4 again. This one is about Irish mercenary Simon Quinn, who was Maria's lover in #2, and Colin's boss in #3. Still with me?
Simon is all set to retire with the fortune he's made working for the British government, only to be tricked into doing one last job - seduce the cold-hearted French assassin Lysette Rousseau. Except Lysette seems to have completely changed since their last assignment - almost as though she is another woman entirely ...
This is my favourite story out of the four, even though it somehow manages to juggle the relationships of three different sets of characters. It starts in Paris in 1757, some twenty-three year earlier, and details the passionate affair between Marguerite Piccard and the Marquis de Saint-de-Martin, before it all goes horribly wrong, mainly due to the interference of the villain, known as 'L'Espirit'. L'Espirit turns up again in the present, to make Simon and Lysette's life hell, and if you haven't read the earlier books you might become extremely confused by this point, as there are an awful lot of characters and some of them have very similar-sounding names. I did enjoy the spy-thriller style plot, although I did work out the identity of the mysterious L'Espirit. And I'd have preferred more about the relationship between Simon and the woman he falls in love with.
About the Author
Sylvia Day is the #1 Sunday Times and #1 international bestselling author of over 20 award-winning novels sold in more than 40 countries. She is a #1 bestselling author in 28 countries, with tens of millions of copies of her books in print. Her Crossfire series has been optioned for television by Lionsgate.
