*I received a free copy of How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy from Kensington via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *

How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy by Vanessa Kelly
Published by Kensington on 6 January 2015
Genres: Adult, Historical Romance
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley

Whether as spies or lovers, the Renegade Royals—illegitimate sons of England’s Royal Princes—are bold, skillful, and a force to be reckoned with…

A war hero returned from Waterloo should be able to indulge in a bit of bad behavior. Instead, Captain William Endicott is summoned by his father, the Duke of York, to investigate an assassination plot. The unlikely suspect: William’s former sweetheart. Will can’t believe that innocent Evie Whitney could be mixed up in anything so nefarious. Then again, almost everything about Evie has changed—except for his body’s instinctive response to hers…

Just as Evie’s life is finally coming together, Will saunters back into it. Should she slap him—or seduce him? Even as she tries to decide, scandal pushes her toward marriage with a man she can neither trust nor resist—and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy…

Fun, mysterious and very hot, How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy continues in the same vein as the other books in this series. I was a little annoyed with Evie at times, though, she didn’t really think things through.

My How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy review:

The beginning of How to Plan a Wedding… was pretty emotional, because Will was at the end of the battle in Waterloo, seeing all the dead soldiers from both sides of the war. He quickly became happy to be back in England, though, and even planned to give his notice as a spy for the crown. His Duke of a father had other plans, though, because one of his childhood acquaintances seemed to be involved in a plot with the Irish to kill someone of royal descent. Will did not really want to get to know Evie again, especially after their last meeting had not been a happy one since she wanted to get married, and he only wanted to leave…

Alec and Will quickly managed to get invited to a part where Evie and her beau would be, as well as Edie and the rest of the family. It was obvious from that point on that both Evie and Will still harboured strong feelings for one another, and Michael, who was the main interest for the spies was always with Evie, urging her to continue with his charity to help poor Irish who had arrived in London.

The intrigue was interesting at first, but I was able to figure out who it was who was the most dangerous character in the plot fairly quickly. And while I loved Will, with his ability to see what a wonderful and intelligent woman Evie was behind her glasses and stuck-up dresses, it was harder for me to really enjoy Evie. She was stubborn, which I enjoyed of course, but sometimes she ran into danger head first, without truly having thought about the consequences for her actions.

The romance and the chemistry between the two main characters was very well done, and the writing was really good. Third person past tense perspective worked well, and gave me a good overview about the characters, even when they kept things from each other. And if there are more books being released in the Renegade Royals series, I will definitely pick them up!

Some of my favorite How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy quotes:

They’d all simply followed orders to pound the other side into annihilation. At what cost, Will couldn’t begin to even fathom.

Why Dominic had been so intent on the partnership was a bit of a mystery, but the spymaster was known for taking a close interest in the lives of the illegitimate children of the royal princes.

God, it was good to be back in England. here, the greatest danger he faced was getting poked in the eye by a parasol or receiving cutting looks form the doyennes of the ton.

Most men identified Eden as markedly prettier, even though the twins were truly two peas form one pod.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2015 New Release Challenge

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