A Spy in the House by: Y.S. Lee

A Spy in The House

by: Y.S. Lee

It is May 1858, the beginning of London’s “Great Stink” — a blend of river pollution and heat wave that paralyzes the city. Tucked in the attic of a nondescript girls’ boarding school is the Agency, an intelligence service with a difference: it’s an elite, all-female group of private investigators with a reputation for getting things done. And it’s just hired a hotheaded, 17-year-old ex-thief whose on-the-job training goes completely wrong…
New agent Mary Quinn’s task is to pose as a lady’s companion and observe a merchant suspected of smuggling. But this straightforward assignment goes awry when Mary gets impatient and exceeds her mandate. Almost immediately, she finds competition in the shape of James Easton, an arrogant young man who’s doing some snooping of his own. They first tangle — literally — in a closet.
When pressed, Mary reluctantly joins forces with James. But as useful as the partnership may be, it’s also dangerous: their mutual attraction threatens to distract them from the real secrets of the merchant’s household. Eventually, they reveal a plot that threatens James’s life, as well as Mary’s own dark secrets…

Review:

As soon as I saw this book and read the summary I knew I would love it. I love the Victorian era and just historical fiction in general, but this idea for a Victorian mystery involving a young woman during the time of the Great Stink just instantly made me smile.

I loved this book, and can't express enough how excited I am there's still more and it is a series.

From the very beginning the book is addicting, it skips over the "boring parts" and goes straight for the fun scenes involving the actual problem solving and her fun banter with James. Each character brings something else to the table, some of them are relatively stereotypical but then they surprise you, but they each bring something else to the dynamic of the story and in true mystery form little things a character does or says shows their character and forms whatever secrets they may be hiding.

My favorite part of this book was any scene with James - I love the classic leading men such as Mr. Darcy, Gilbert Blythe, and Rhett Butler, and James is definitely one of my new literary crushes. He reminded me of each of my favorite leading men in some way, which of course just made me love him more.

I loved how well Mary and James played off each other, the dialogue was amazing and felt natural. I have read many books where the dialogue just fell flat and would leave me saying,"They would never have said that," but A Spy in the House never made me feel like this.

I felt like by reading it I was really spying them from around a corner somewhere, like they were really arguing or laughing for whatever reason and I wanted to be a part of it - I love that feeling.

I was hooked on this book from the moment I opened it and I feel like it could be a book for anyone who just wants to smile and get away for awhile and solve a nice mystery along the way, but you won't figure out the ending... believe me... I tried.

I give it a 10/10.

-Christina

*Also, sorry this review is so late, we've had some family difficulties lately but hopefully it will be settled soon. :)