They are skillful and expert in their various fields and they remain that way all the way through the story. So, that meant that there was a real tension for me in reading – whereas, if it were only that Jess thought Bastian was Cinq, well that may have palled quickly. Because Josiah was a secondary character, I couldn’t be sure as a reader that Josiah wouldn’t actually turn out to be a traitor or even if he was innocent, nevertheless be convicted (and I’m not going to tell you here!). The real conflict was that Josiah might hang and Bastian would be a large part of the cause of it. And it wasn’t just that Bastian, from Jess’ POV, might be Cinq. Now she devotes herself to investigating crimes in London and finding justice for the wrongly accused. I love that there is no “big misunderstanding” or anything that could be simply resolved keeping them apart. Séverine de Cabrillac, orphan of the French revolution and sometime British intelligence agent, has tried to leave spying behind her. In spite of themselves they fall into love – come to think of it, this is one of the common themes I have found in Joanna Bourne’s books. They spend a large part of the book in close proximity (I dislike books where the hero/heroine are separated for much of it, movies too for that matter, never fear this does not happen here) but in terms of their deepening relationship, they are kept apart by a real and not at all trivial conflict. What I thought (aka, what worked for me and what didn’t): Bastian and Jess are, as I said above, instantly attracted to one another.
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