Book Review: One Thing Leads to a Lover

Susanna Craig

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

published: 6th April 2021
spoilers? nope

Goodreads

Amanda Bartlett, widowed Countess of Kingston, is a woman beyond reproach. Married at nineteen, she dutifully provided the Earl with an heir and a spare before his death three years ago. Since then, Amanda has lived a simple, quiet life. A life that, if she were honest, has become more than a trifle dull. So when an adventure literally drops into her lap, in the shape of a mysterious book, she intends to make the most of it—especially if it brings her closer to a charismatic stranger…

Major Langley Stanhope, an intelligence officer and master mimic known as the Magpie, needs to retrieve the code book that has fallen into Amanda’s hands. The mistaken delivery has put them both in grave danger and in a desperate race to unearth a traitor. It’s also stirred an intense, reckless attraction. Langley believes the life he leads is not suitable for a delicate widow, but it seems he may have underestimated the lady’s daring…and the depths of their mutual desire.

Galley provided by publisher

I really enjoyed Susanna Craig’s Who’s That Earl last year, so I was very much looking forward to One Thing Leads to a Lover. This isn’t an opening to say I was disappointed, but I think I would definitely say it comes second in my enjoyment of it.

The book follows the widowed Amanda and an intelligence officer, Langley, who is sent to retrieve a codebook that was planted on her by another officer in a desperate attempt to keep it out of the hands of enemies. This brings them together and, when the book goes missing, Amanda insists on helping him regain it.

First of all, I definitely liked this book. Alright, so less than I did Who’s That Girl, but it was still a book that I sat and devoured in a few hours. I found it easy to root for the characters, and the mystery part of the story was engaging. But something about it didn’t click in the same way as the first.

I think the problem was that, after a point, the mystery took a back seat to the romance at one point, and I got just a bit bored. I was waiting for things to happen again for a fair while, and I think that’s the main reason I gave this only 3 stars. There was a lull when I didn’t want there to be one.

But, given both this book and the previous, I think it’s fair to say that Susanna Craig is an author I very much enjoy, and will continue reading.