About the Author: Mary Lancaster is a USA Today bestselling author of award winning historical romance, historical mysteries and other historical fiction. She lives in Scotland with her husband, one of three grown-up kids, and a small dog with a big personality.
Her first literary love was historical fiction, a genre which she relishes mixing up with romance and adventure in her own writing. Several of her novels feature actual historical characters as diverse as Hungarian revolutionaries, medieval English outlaws, and a family of eternally rebellious royal Scots. To say nothing of Vlad the Impaler.
Her most recent books are light fun Regency romances, with occasional forays into the Victorian era, and the world of historical mysteries.
MY REVIEW
Turned out of their entailed home before their father is cold in the grave, Lizzie Gaunt and her siblings travel to Vienna to stay with a diplomatic uncle who is involved in the Congress of Vienna at the close of the Napoleonic Wars. The initial set-up of the book is very similar to Georgette Heyer’s Fredrica with elder sister Lizzie trying to find money so her beautiful younger sister can have a season, managing her orphaned siblings (and their wild dog) and thinking she herself is far too old to have suitors herself. But the similarities end there as Lizzie is far more enterprising than Heyer’s Frederica. She decides to steal a necklace (which ought to belong to the Gaunt siblings anyway) and, after seeing a thief at the theater, asks him for his assistance in the heist.
The hero of the story, Vanya, is a half-Russian colonel from a Cossack regiment who can ride horses, brawl, and drink with the best of them. This is a reformed rake story, and Vanya is certainly not yet reformed when the story begins. But impulsive, trusting Lizzie catches his eye when she asks him to steal the necklace. Wheels within wheels begin to turn as Lizzie’s girlish plan runs afoul of spies within the different factions at the Congress of Vienna.
The enigmatic Agent Z thinks Lizzie is trafficking in stolen papers, but it is Vanya who has to run for his life when a treacherous fellow-officer turns him in to the tsar. At the risk of giving a spoiler, I will say that Vanya’s wild escape from the tsar’s guards was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve read this year. When Lizzie learns who Vanya really is, she also feels betrayed–but can she put aside her feelings of hurt long enough to help him when he really needs it?
This is the third book I’ve read recently having to do with the Congress of Vienna, and I’m still enjoying this little trip to the continent from the standard British Regency. This book was action-packed with excellent writing and a fun cast of characters.
I have been enjoying Mary Lancaster’s Lord Petteril Mysteries, and it was nice to discover another one of her books on the cleaner side of the spectrum of historical romance.
Romance with Humor and Heart 
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