Beauty Like the Night (Spymasters, #6) by Joanna Bourne Series: Spymasters #6
Published by Berkley Books on August 1st 2017
Genres: Historical
Pages: 293
Goodreads
FINAL DECISION: The most traditional romance of the Spymasters series, Severine and Raoul’s story is filled with intrigue, danger, violence and great romanticism. If this is the last of the Spymasters, it allows readers one long lingering goodbye.
THE STORY: Severine de Cabrillac, an orphan of Revolutionary France and previously a member of British Intelligence spends her post war years solving crimes around London. Late one night, a man breaks into her home seeking information about his murdered wife and her missing twelve year old daughter. Raoul Deverney has come to Severine because she is one of the few clues he has. When he seeks Severine’s help in discovering the truth about his wife’s murder, the two engage in a dance of secrets and unwanted passions.
OPINION: This book felt more like a traditional romance that the more recent books in this series which sometimes felt like historical fiction because of the depth of the historical context and the darkness in the book. This book feels more traditional because the focus of the book is on London and while there is political intrigue, the focus really feels personal as the story revolves around Raoul’s murdered wife and missing daughter.
Without being obvious or maudlin, this book serves as a wonderful conclusion to the series as we are treated to a great deal of time with the most recent heroes in the series. We get to see the whole gang working together one more time.
Severine is a woman who is strong and has made her own path. The younger sister of Juntine (BLACK HAWK) and the adopted daughter of William Doyle (THE FORBIDDEN ROSE), she has grown up among the spies and intrigues of Meek Street. Determined to avoid being protected by those same men, she ran off to Spain during the War in order to work with British Military Intelligence. That experience left the expected scars on her both physically and emotionally. Now that the war has ended, she has made a life for herself solving crimes in London — especially those where people are falsely accused. (But she still has a hand in with her family’s business).
Raoul is a man searching for the murderer of his estranged wife and her missing daughter. He also has a great many secrets (which I won’t reveal because that is part of the story). He is sophisticate and incredibly dangerous as Severine recognizes from the start. He is also an incredibly romantic character which I really liked because he is so different from the other heroes in this series.
The story in this book maintains the grittiness of the series, but isn’t quite as dark. In fact, there is some sweetness to the romance that I wasn’t expecting but really enjoyed.
Bourne has stated that this is the last of the Spymasters series. I believe this series was incredibly unique and I will miss the characters. If this is the end, I think that it was a wonderful opportunity to visit old friends again and wrap up things.
WORTH MENTIONING: Lots of appearances here by the men of the series, but not the women.
CONNECTED BOOKS: BEAUTY LIKE THE NIGHT is the sixth book in the Spymasters series. This story stands on its own, but the characters from prior books make significant appearances.
STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.