The best part of this book is the setting. The characters didnt' work for me quite as much - I just never quite connected - but I loved the rich detail of the setting.

Sadie was a new chambermaid in a shabby inn. This was Sadie’s first job. Two men came barreling down the stairs and knocked Sadie down the way man paused to help her. She got up but her back ached and her head spun. The one man had been a labor agitating Bolshevik. The old desk clerk told her to go lay down for a half hour to rest after being hurt. Les- a handsome man had been one of the men who knocked Sadie over he is attracted to Sadie and feel he should go back and apologize to her for being one of the people who knocked her over. Sadie turns twenty the next day and he invites her to a party. Les works for the Secret Intelligence Service and he is undercover as a man selling American magazines. He pretends to be Russian at the party he takes Sadie to. Sadie is a little confused. Les brings Sadie into his world as a cover. Les has Sadie to act as his wife. Then Les gets hurt and Sadie is stranded at the hospital with him until Les is released. Sadie knows she has to stay with Les or ruin her reputation. Les really likes Sadie and is sorry he ever brought her into his world. Les was ordered to fake marry Sadie and ordered to try to move into the Grand Kusse to spy on a Russian diplomat. Sadie eventually finds out her marriage was fake and why Les fake married her.
I did feel this was well researched but just wasn’t a story for me. I may have accidentally picked this as I really didn’t get into this book.

I swear reading Heather Hiestand's The Grand Russe Hotel series puts me in the mood to watch BBC's The House of Eliott or dig out my silent movie collection. Not to mention that I have have this internal jazz soundtrack playing in my head as I read them. I didn't like this one as much as I liked the first book, I rated them the same but I liked Alecia and Ivan more than I liked Sadie and Les. Sadie was a bit more of a flake at first it wasn't until later in the book she really blossomed. Les was pretty much a cad throughout the whole book, constantly lying to Sadie and even though he thought he was doing it to protect her, he was just being a cad and she was just so eager for attention. As much as I didn't like her attitude and how things played out between them I understand that it was how it was back then. The story was good I liked the spy aspect it was nice to get back to the Russian problems happening in England and on the inside of problem.

Sadie dreams of something more, she left her grandfather's home in search of it and until she does find it she content to being a chambermaid. Until she's knocked down by a Russian brute and is picked up by a swave and good looking salesman. Les is drawn to Sadie and even though he knows he shouldn't he brings her into his world of covert operations. Well he brings her in but doesn't tell her what he's really doing, she is his cover. Sadie agrees to playact as Les' wife, she doesn't really know why but when he gets injured and she's stranded with him at the hospital until his release she knows she needs to keep with him or else ruin her reputation. Les likes Sadie and hates that he brought her in on this but it's too late to back out now, not to mention he really is getting attached to her and while he doesn't want to admit it he's falling in love with her. Les and Sadie get married, fake married he was ordered to by his boss to marry her and try and move into the Grand Russe to spy on the Russian diplomat who lives there. But things get complicated when Sadie finds out the truth not just the fake marriage but also the reason he married her and why they are at the Grand Russe. Can Sadie overlook all of Les' lies?

Overall, the spy bit was the best part of the book. Sadie and Les were just not really a good couple for me. I can't wait for the next one though.

Thanks Kensington Books and netgalley for this ARC.

Lots of sweet longing, love, and period detail in this one