Guest Review: The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne

A glittering French aristocrat is on the run, disguised as a British governess. England’s top spy has a score to settle with her family. But as they’re drawn inexorably into the intrigue and madness of Revolutionary Paris, they gamble on a love to which neither of them will admit.


Marguerite de Fleurignac (Maggie) is trying to survive after her family’s chateau has been burned to the ground. William Doyle aka Guillaume LeBreton is an English spy who’s been sent to retrieve Maggie’s father. Doyle finds Maggie at the chateau and both spouting their lies about their identities begin the trip to Paris. Doyle is hoping that Maggie leads him to his father and Maggie is just hoping that her underground network is safe and that everyone can be alerted about its dissolution.

On the trip, along with a young spy-in-training, Adrian Hawker, Maggie and Doyle surrender to the lust that builds between them. But it’s not just lust that’s building, it’s something stronger and deeper than either of them have felt before. What starts as a kiss in a frightening moment becomes the intimacy of sharing themselves verbally and then emotionally. When they get to Paris what they discover is that Maggie was betrayed by her family – but which family member and how will she and Doyle get out of the mess they get into?

There’s no getting around it – I love Joanna Bourne’s work. She has such beautiful prose and such emotionally charged stories that I can’t help but find myself falling into them like a soft feather comforter. She truly has a magical way of setting the stage for all the things that will happen in the book and I’m amazed at how her mind works.

The story was about le Fleche, the underground network that Maggie was a part of, it was about the utter deviousness of the men who were trying to take over Paris during the occupation but it mostly is about how Maggie and Doyle work out their differences, discover themselves as well as each other and decide that living and fighting is much giving in. And of course it’s about Doyle and Maggie finding love. The passion that the two share is amazing. The feelings that are conveyed in their thoughts when they are both together and apart had my romantic heart flipping with joy. This was just a wonderfully incredible book and I can’t recommend it enough.

Rating: 5 out of 5


You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

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