An Affair with a Spare by Shana Galen Also in this series: Third Son's a Charm, No Earls Allowed
Series: The Survivors #3
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on July 3, 2018
Genres: Historical Romance, Regency Era, Espionage
Narrator: Victoria Aston
Length: 10 Hours and 15 Mins
Pages: 387
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
ISBN: 1492638951
He's turned seduction into an art form...
Rafe Beaumont, fifth son of an earl, uses his irresistible charm with the ladies to glean dangerous war secrets. Now he's putting those skills to the ultimate test: capturing an elusive assassin by seducing his daughter. The problem? She's entirely immune to Rafe's flattery.
Never before has Collette Fortier met a man as attractive as Rafe. But her father's life is at stake, and succumbing to Rafe would be disastrous. But when Rafe turns the tables on her, offering support and friendship instead of a fleeting affair, Collette finds herself tempted in ways she never could have imagined...
An Affair With A Spare is the third book in the Survivor’s Series and I was shocked with how much I actually enjoyed this book here. More than the first two books I believe, it definitely had more of a “Shana Galen” stamp on it than the previous two books and this book has lots of SPIES AND LOVERS themes and I adored it. The dialogue has some contemporary phrasing, which is what keeps this book at a 4 rating but the story was solid and adored the romance that develops here.
Our tale begins with our heroine who is from France, and this story takes place shortly following the fall of Napolean Bonaparte and our heroine is out to save her father. He has been taken prisoner since he did work as an assassin for Napolean. But Collette, knows her father and knows that he is a good man that did bad things to save his family. And Collette adores her father and will do anything to save his life. So when they ask her to find England’s secret codes, she does it even if she wishes that there was another way to save her father. Then enters our hero of the story.
Rafe Beaumont is the fifth son and so he is at the bottom of the food chain in his family and has always been the “forgotten” child. His mother left them when he was just a boy and he has blamed himself for his mother leaving their family. He has always been on his own though, his siblings have always dismissed him so he found his own way into the Survivor’s group where he serves his country through the foreign office and found his brothers in their gentleman club. But then he is put on a new mission, to seduce Collete, suspected to be a French Spy and to gain her secrets and kill her if necessary. What begins as a hunt for secrets turns into a secret love affair where they will have to choose between loyalty and love….
What a fantastic book this story turned out to be and very reminiscent of some of the older novels by Shana Galen where she excelled at writing espionage and boy this book worked for me in so many ways. This was an audiobook, and this narrator was excellent especially in portraying the French accent by Collette, so well done in being able to switch from English and French accents between the characters and the narrator really opens up the story so well and the emotional display we hear is superb, so I can’t wait to look up this lovely lady so I can listen to more of her work.
The story itself is fantastic and I really loved seeing this enemy to lovers trope and this is more they are enemies in secret, although who they come out much earlier in the book than I expected it to….so BRAVO to Shana Galen for bringing some twists that I didn’t expect. I like that they begin to work together to save Collette’s father, although the hero is still struggling because he has a difficult choice to make. Collette’s father is an enemy to England but he is falling in love with Collette, so if he chooses to save her father he is betraying his country and everything he holds dear or he could take her father prisoner and lose his Collette forever so there are many dynamics to this story that show true emotion and what difficult choices these two are faced with. But they find their way to their happy ever after and love seeing them on their journey and seeing their love story develop.
What I was really impressed with is seeing how both Collette and Rafe battle with themselves internally throughout the story. You can see how much they hate what they are being forced to do but feel like they have no choice otherwise. And seeing them find their way out together is so precious and poignant. I was impressed with seeing the chemistry between these two, much more steamier than I have come to expect from Shana Galen so very well written here.
Overall I found An Affair With A spare to be a thrilling addition to the stories, a book that brings together two enemies and where they find a love to fight for and find their HEA!! THRILLING FROM BEGINNING TO END!
About Shana Galen
Shana Galen is the bestselling author of fast-paced adventurous Regency historicals, including the RT Reviewers' Choice The Making of a Gentleman. Booklist says, "Galen expertly entwines espionage-flavored intrigue with sizzling passion," and RT Bookreviews calls her "a grand mistress of the action/adventure subgenre." She taught English at the middle and high school level off and on for eleven years. Most of those years were spent working in Houston's inner city. Now she writes full time. She's happily married and has a daughter who is most definitely a romance heroine in the making. Shana loves to hear from readers, so send her an email or see what she's up to daily on Facebook and Twitter.
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