genre: historical fiction/paranormal fiction
Phoebe and her father live a quiet life in London. She has her eye on a certain gentleman and her father is a respected scrivener in King James' court. Andrew Logan, a Scotsman and King's Messenger who lives nearby, is given a dangerous mission to find a man suspected of poisoning the king's son, Prince Henry, and quickly Phoebe and her father are both caught up in the intrigue. A long journey will try everyone and if the secrets they are keeping don't land them in a dungeon, any other number of circumstances could do worse.
After two chapters, I was all in. This is solid historical fiction that requires a reader to truly care as much about why things are happening as the fact that they DO happen. So many political and familial factions, so many sides to a story and so many ways that royalty and their entourage create havoc that then people like King's Messengers and court scriveners have to manage. The love story is a slow burn but a really good one, one of Susanna's best, I think, and this is the twelfth book of hers I've read. There is some back and forth in time but it was no bother to feel grounded. It is tender and it is exciting, and, as always, with a tinge of the supernatural that keeps you on your toes in a way that doesn't distract from the historical setting. Plus, her author note at the end was amazing for its detail. Rounding up to stars for capturing my heart and making me want to listen nonstop until I was done.
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