Review: Buddy Reading Regency Romance (Love, Lies, and Spies)

February 4, 2017     erinthebooknut     Book review

Review: Buddy Reading Regency Romance (Love, Lies, and Spies)Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey
Published by Swoon Reads on April 19th 2016
Pages: 368
Goodreads

Juliana Telford is not your average nineteenth-century young lady. She’s much more interested in researching ladybugs than marriage, fashionable dresses, or dances. So when her father sends her to London for a season, she’s determined not to form any attachments. Instead, she plans to secretly publish their research.
Spencer Northam is not the average young gentleman of leisure he appears. He is actually a spy for the War Office, and is more focused on acing his first mission than meeting eligible ladies. Fortunately, Juliana feels the same, and they agree to pretend to fall for each other. Spencer can finally focus, until he is tasked with observing Juliana’s traveling companions . . . and Juliana herself.

4 Stars

I don’t usually buddy read. I’m usually a very fast reader but trying to match my pace to someone else is usually really hard to do and either don’t finish the book or I finish way ahead. I really like to buddy read I’m just not very good at it. The only person it’s really worked with was my co blogger jennie. That is until Austine and I started reading Love, Lies, and Spies.

Think Gail Carrigerand put it in regency without the steampunk. That’s Love, Lies, and Spies. We started the book around 11pm and read it completely through until we finished around 2am. Here’s a sample of some of our conversations while we read:

Austine: My dog snores as loud as Vivian.

 

Erin: Mr. Pyebald is creepy.

He reminds me of Mr. Wickham

 

Erin: And I adore Spencer

Austine: he’s bae

<3

Erin: Such bae.

 

Erin: Spencer is going to give me a heart attack.

Half of our conversation revolved around how “bae” Spencer was. New book boyfriend? Yes please! I’ll take two.

This book is not everything that it seems. The obvious is just that, too obvious. I love the twists, even if I predicted one or two. It’s like reading one of the Mr and Mrs Darcy Mysteries but for young adults. GIVE ME MORE! If it turns out that you enjoy this book I highly recommend Carrie Bebris’ series as a follow up.

This is one of my favorite non fantasy books released in 2016 and possibly one of my favorite non fantasy books ever. From a person who almost entirely sticks to fantasy and often hates a lot that falls outside that genre, this is big praise.

Well done, Cindy Anstey.

Thoughts? Feelings? Share in the comments and stay tuned in the coming months for a review of Cindy Anstey’s next book.

From my shelf to yours,

Erin

 

 

 

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