It is 1812, and England is awash with enemies. The French that they’ve been fighting for years . . . the renewed conflict in America . . . and now there are even uprisings in the north over the mills. Young widow Lady Lydia Gale knows this, knows that England’s true enemies may be hidden under a fair facade–but still she must do what she can to help those who need it, those to whom her late, unloving husband took the liberty of pledging her support.

And so she ventures to that dark prison in Dartmoor. So she meets with the strangely compelling Frenchman, Christien de Meuse, and obtains his freedom. So she entrusts him with her last belonging of any worth, the last gift her husband sent her.

So the adventure begins.

Lydia never dreamed that a month later, Christien would arrive in her drawing room in London, directly on the heels of a few other questionable personages. Then again, she also never dreamed she would have been approached by someone claiming to be from the Home Office, who would blackmail her into introducing these unsavory gentlemen into London society. For the sake of her family, she must comply. But at what risk to her country–and to her heart?

Laurie Alice Eakes has done it again. With A Necessary Deception she has penned a novel that combines heart-stopping romance with heart-pounding suspense, crafting characters at once strong but consistent with their times, blind in some ways and brilliant in others. These true-to-life characters of Lydia and Christien–not to mention the wonderfully made secondary characters, especially Lydia’s younger sisters–will pull you in from the start and keep you flipping the pages as surely as the espionage and intrigue.

Needless to say, I love this book. I love the cover, so very Regency and elegant. I love the characters, so very real and true. I love the plot, with its questions of who you can trust, whether a man’s place of birth determines his loyalties. And I love the romance, its depth and charm, its scope and breadth. As we watch Christien and Lydia dare to open their hearts, it makes us ask ourselves what we would do if drawn to a man who may just be our nation’s enemy . . . what we would do if we fell for someone whose life may be endangered by our attention. How far we would go to protect our families.

Beautifully written, masterfully crafted, A Necessary Deception is a book for any lover of historical novels, especially those that combine suspense with romance. This is one you don’t want to miss!