Review: Most Eagerly Yours by Allison Chase.

Rowena’s review of Most Eagerly Yours (Her Majesty’s Secret Servants Series, Book 1) by Allison Chase.

Hero: Aidan Phillips
Heroine: Laurel Sutherland

 

Raised on their uncle’s country estate, the four orphaned Sutherland sisters formed a close friendship with the young Princess Victoria. Shortly before her coronation as queen, Victoria asks the sisters to serves her in matters requiring the utmost discretion.

They are to become her secret servants. The first to serve is Laurel- who poses as a widow to uncover a traitor, and discovers instead an irresistible rogue conducting his own undercover investigation.

It took me a while to get into this book at first but I think that had more to do with me being distracted by another book that I was reading because when I finally gave this book my full attention, I couldn’t put it down. This is the first book in Allison Chase’s new series, Her Majesty’s Secret Servants and I must say that I enjoyed the book quite a bit. There was plenty in the story to keep readers interested and I for one ate it all up. The mystery, the characters and the romance all made for one enjoyable story that leaves you wanting more….in the way of more books for the other sisters.

This story is about four sisters who are orphaned and childhood friends of the newly crowned Queen of England, Victoria. As soon as Victoria is crowned Queen, she can no longer keep the same friends that she had before and though it saddens her, her friendship is kept strong by the conviction within the sisters. They all loved Victoria and had remained faithful to her in every regard. I adored the sisters and only wish that they all had more page time. This book was the oldest of the bunches book, Laurel.

Victoria needs to find out if her cousin, George is committing treason and she needs someone to get close to him and find out what he’s doing and she sends her secret friend and secret servant, Laurel in to find out for her and it is while Laurel is trying to find out George’s plans and what he’s up to that we get her story of the man that she can’t get out of her mind, Aidan. Aidan and Laurel met for the first time when he came into the town in which she lives and saves her from being trampled to death by a crushing crowd. He risks the wrath of the policemen that day to save Laurel and with a swift kiss that stays with Laurel, he takes off before the police could get to him.

Laurel remembers that day and keeps the memory alive by daydreaming about Aidan for months afterward. She never thinks to see him again so she’s surprised to find him again once she’s settled in Bath, trying to uncover the plans of the Queen’s cousin. She’s on a mission and she can’t keep to her mission because she keeps getting sidetracked by the handsome and very dashing, Aidan Phillips.

Aidan on the other hand is hired by the Home Office to keep an eye on George, to make sure that he keeps his nose clean of treason and though he doesn’t know exactly what George is up to, he’s suspicious and hopeful that it isn’t going to land him in any hot water.

Over time, Laurel and Aidan band together to try to piece together different mysteries. One is the mystery behind an elixir that is being pushed on the rich people of England and the other is the mystery surrounding the death of Laurel’s parents. It was intriguing to see so many different story lines unfold over the course of this book. What I liked about this book is the way that Aidan and Laurel fell slowly in love. It may have seemed fast and rash but I didn’t ever feel that their romance was rushed. I enjoyed watching Aidan go from being mildly infatuated and lustful toward Laurel and then seeing him make that final leap toward love for her. He was a fantastic hero, one that I enjoyed getting to know over the course of this book.

Laurel was a great heroine as well. She wasn’t perfect and there were times when I wanted to wack her a good one but her heart was always in the right place and I was never thoroughly exasperated by her. She was a good sister to her sisters and she was a great friend to the Queen. She had a way about being around people that made it perfectly clear why people were drawn toward her. You wanted to be her friend because she was so nice.

The romance between Aidan and Laurel was sweet and while Aidan wasn’t the perfect hero because of some of the things he did, I still enjoyed this book. It was a nice way to spend a few hours and I would definitely recommend this book to lovers of historical romances. This book has a mystery that will keep you guessing until the last moment and a romance that is just sweet enough and just cute enough to keep you reading. I enjoyed this book and can’t wait for Ivy’s book. Woo hoo!

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Signet Eclipse. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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