The Miss Mirren Mission: Regency Reformers # 1 by Jenny Holiday

A new historical romance series from a new to me author: please read on to find out about the first of the Regency Reformers Series.by Jenny Holiday,

The Miss Mirren Mission

The elusive Earl of Blackstone is in service to the crown, bent on bringing down the French threat from Napoleon. Eligible and sought after, he’s spurned many of the attempts to draw him into the marriage mart, as the cause holds all of his attention.

Emily Mirren is firmly out of society’s favor: intelligent, headstrong and unwilling to hide her considerable intellect and passions behind the niceties of society, she is a fierce abolitionist and pens a well-known newspaper under a male pseudonym.

Both Blackstone and Emily are single-minded in their pursuit of their own agendas, and both are more than confident holding their own council. When they are paired under rather unusual circumstances, and their relationship starts to show signs of attraction, so much of the development and belief in the characters (as well as introduction of more backstory here, rather than later in the book) would have served them better. As would a simple conversation: these two are incredibly poor communicators, and that leaves their characters feeling very one-dimensional. Unfortunately, it also had detrimental effects to the story as the focus seemed to switch to Blackstone’s chase of his French nemesis. While I understand his reluctance to share with Emily, as their relationship is still new, her apparent understanding and absorption of the complexities of many of Blackstone’s actions didn’t feel real.

Too many twists that were too easily explained away as coincidence, and the letting-go of the romance to further the chase and end the mystery left me feeling as if I was reading two entirely different stories. The real connections back to Blackstone and Emily are revealed in passages of backstory here, which would have served everyone (including the couple) better had they just spoken. Especially since Blackstone is aware of Emily’s connection to his mentor in the espionage game.

As a first foray into the genre, it was not a bad attempt, but several misses in character and plotting arc could have taken and okay read into good territory with some care applied to revelations appearing with a more organic feel in terms of the romance.

The Miss Mirren Mission: Regency Reformers # 1 by Jenny Holiday

Title: The Miss Mirren Mission
Author: Jenny Holiday
Series: Regency Reformers #1
Genre: Historical Romance
Published by: Entangled Publishing
ISBN: 1518786863
Published on: 24 March, 2015
Format:eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Pages: 358
Rated: three-stars

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Loving her would be his downfall…

To society, the Earl of Blackstone cuts a mysterious figure. He is eligible, withdrawn, and endlessly fascinating. Yet as an integral part of London’s underground spy ring intent on defeating Napoleon, Blackstone has no mistress but the cause.

Miss Emily Mirren is considered “unbiddable” by the ton. She wields a fierce intellect, which she channels into her own secret cause—writing an abolitionist newspaper column under a male pseudonym.

When Emily’s aims clash with Blackstone’s, they stray into a dangerous game of attraction and subterfuge, and secrets are the going currency. And in order to complete the most important mission of his career, Blackstone must thwart Emily, even if it breaks both their hearts.

See the Regency Reformers Series on GoodReads

A copy of this title was provided via Publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

About Jenny Holiday

Jenny Holiday started writing in fourth grade, when her awesome hippie teacher, between sessions of Pete Seeger singing and anti-nuclear power plant letter writing, gave the kids notebooks and told them to write stories. Most of Jenny’s featured poltergeist, alien invasions, or serial killers who managed to murder everyone except her and her mom. She showed early promise as a romance writer, though, because nearly every story had a happy ending: fictional Jenny woke up to find that the story had been a dream, and that her best friend, father, and sister had not, in fact, been axe-murdered.

From then on, she was always writing, often in her diary, where she liked to decorate her declarations of existential angst with nail polish teardrops. Eventually she channelled her penchant for scribbling into a more useful format. After picking up a PhD in urban geography, she became a professional writer, spending many years promoting research at a major university, which allowed her to become an armchair astronomer/historian/particle physicist, depending on the day. Eventually, she decided to try her hand again at happy endings—minus the bloodbaths. You can follow her on twitter at @jennyholi or visit her on the web at jennyholiday.com.

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