I am a fan of Ms. Bateman and "A Counterfeit Heart" is another intriguing and enjoyable read. Sabine de la Tour is the most infamous forger, Philippe Lacorte, in Europe, but she wants out of the business. When she shows up at Richard Hampden, Viscount Lovell's doorstep, the fireworks begin. Richard is a spy working for the Crown and has been hunting Lacorte for years. Everyone had assume Lacorte was a man so this was a great twist in the story. The dialogue between Sabine and Richard is top-notch. I only have one slight criticism around Sabine's virginity. It was an issue earlier in the book, but then the whole thing was dropped. It doesn't take away from the enjoyment of this book, it was that it stood out for me and a sentence or two resolving that would have gone a long way.

If you enjoy a mix of romance and spies, you'll definitely enjoy this one! Definitely recommended.

Good book, looking forward to read more books from this author.

The Promise of a Kiss…the build-up is incredible. This series is absolutely fantastic. The characters are great, the dialog is witty and the intrigue is tension-filled. Both Richard and Sabine are characters you will fall in love with. A cat and mouse game for your reading pleasure.

If you love spies, dialog, intelligent people and great stories, binge read this series.

I loved this book. The intrigue and suspense were amazing. It was refreshing to see a good boy and bad girl story for a change. Richard and Sabine had a great chemistry that drew you in to the story.

Sabine de la Tour aka Philippe Lacorte burns piles of forged banknotes in a Paris park as she bids a reluctant farewell to her double life as a notorious counterfeiter. She and her business partner & front man Anton Carnaud must escape France; General Jean Malet is closing in on them. Her only hope of surviving is to go to England & strike a deal with the very spy she’s spent her career outrunning. Richard Hampden, Viscount Lovell, is prepared to take any risk to safeguard England from the horrors of the French Revolution. He’s even willing to make a pact with his archenemy: Philippe Lacorte. But when a cheeky, gamine-faced beauty proves herself to be Lacorte, Richard is shocked but they enter a deal to work together for the next four weeks to flush out a gang of insurants.
I’d been eagerly awaiting this book after loving the previous two books. Whilst this is the third in the series it could well be a stand-alone book but I’d definitely recommend reading the other two books. The book is very well written, the plot is so well paced that I had difficulty putting the book down. The characters both main & subsidiary are very well portrayed. The chemistry & sexual tension between Richard & Sabine is electric, that alone had me on bated breath to find out when it would combust. The dialogue is witty & often had me smiling & in places laughing especially Raven’s teasing of Richard, which is so entertaining. I also loved the insights into how to recognise a painting by a certain painter, the hallmarks on silver & breathing on gems, all of which added to the credibility of Sabine. I only hope there are more in the series as I’d love to read Kit’s story, he needs his HEA!

"...if you detain me, Lacorte will never come."
Philippe Lacorte, the greatest counterfeiter in Europe - a woman? Or, as Viscount Lovell eloquently puts it - a confounded bloody woman?
When Sabine de la Tourre proves to Richard Hampden, Viscount Lovell, that she is indeed the famous French forger he and his colleagues at the secret service have been trying to catch for a long long time now, he is intrigued - and captivated.

Well, I guess it says a lot when I say that I bought the second book in the series right away, when it was on sale the other day without even reading the blurb just because I loved "A Counterfeit Heart" that much and saw that it was another book by K.C. Bateman.

The characters are charming and complex and I liked them a lot, especially Sabine, our very strong and very independent heroine who made her way in hard times in a man's world. A slip of a girl who can definitely hold her own when it comes to negotiating with a Viscount.
Oh, don't misunderstand me - I also liked Richard a lot and the chemistry between them, yes, that wasn't bad either! The feelings they develop for each other are believable and convincing and their interactions are funny and sweet, okay, sometimes or some more times also sarcastic and they made me laugh out loud more than once.
And for those of you who have always wanted to know how identify the different classical artists, well, Sabine has a wonderful way of explaining it for everyone to understand.

I really loved this book and I'm very much looking forward to the other book by K.C.Bateman that I bought the other day!

Sabine de la tour is not who everyone thinks she is, the secret she hides can get her into a lot of trouble. Now she needs help and goes to the Viscount to sell her soul. Together they will work to get things on the up and up and try to hide what they fell for each other. The banter in this book is well written, and there is more to story than meets the eye.




** I received this book in exchange for an honest review**

Richard and Sabine are worthy opponents that can only be great together! This book started a little slow and before I knew it I was totally engrossed in the book and couldn't put it down.

K. C. Bateman continues her series of Regency Adventures with “A Counterfeit Heart” with another smart, sexy heroine with an unusual talent. It’s Richard, Lord Lovell’s turn to take the tumble with a surprising enemy. Lots of fun ensues!

The art and counterfeiting knowledge that forms the background of this book is really good, and it provides a solid structure on which to hang a seduction and danger-driven relationship.

I absolutely loved this book! From the very beginning, the plot of the novel was engaging and unique. Honestly, I loved every interaction between the hero and heroine -- their relationship was one of the best developed I've read in the genre. I enjoyed the intelligent heroine and the clearly well researched historic elements. Overall, based on this novel, I would definitely check out other books by this (talented) author.

I enjoyed this so much! Sabine and Richard were such fiery and intelligent characters. I loved seeing how their different goals and unerring loyalty twisted around each other. This book is absolutely worth the read if you love spies and romance. I'll definitely be going back to read the books that came earlier in the series!

What a great read!!! It was so good that I couldn't put it down and when it ended I was really, really sad. One of the hallmarks of books by this author seems to be that she handles a mystery and tense situation with humor and great characters. This is the third - and I hope not the last - book in the Secrets and Spies series. I would really like to see Kit get his own book although he's not been featured much so far.

What did I love:
-----All of the main characters, but particularly the H/h. Both of them are strong, smart, brave and so very drawn to each other. There are reasons they should and do mistrust each other so the author handles their inner turmoil brilliantly. Neither is manipulative and they tell each other the truth - it is just that past history and the situation makes each doubt the other.
-----The book is filled with wonderfully witty banter (I even laughed out loud a couple of times), sexual tension beyond belief, exceptionally good secondary characters, danger - you name it -- it has everything that makes a book great!
-----I LOVE that we get to visit with Raven and Heloise from book two. They are as wicked as they were in their own book. Raven takes great delight in the fact that Richard has met his match and I love the way he needles him all through the book.

What didn't I love:
-----Hard to say -- I loved it all. However, I can say that I would have appreciated seeing more of Kit. That one little scene just absolutely wasn't enough. I'm sure it is all build up to when he gets his own book, but -- well -- it would have been nice to have had a little dialogue to kind of see where he is now in his recovery. Maybe an epilogue-epilogue to catch up with what happened with Anton once he got to America. I liked him and wanted to see good things happen for him or maybe even get his own book too!

"I requested and received this book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher."

5 Stars!! I absolutely LOVED this book!! I didn't want the story to end & I couldn't put it down!! It was such a well written book-it had me wanting to cry at one point & I was giggling at other parts! I loved how the heroine wasn't a helpless woman but a strong, independent, smart, savvy woman! If I had to nit pick something about the book that I wasn't in love with, I'd have to say I wasn't crazy about her telling him she wasn't a virgin & him not noticing that she was & her never admitting the truth, even when she told him she'd never lied to him. Maybe it's just me, but I get kind of bothered when the women in romance books lie about being a virgin or not. Other than that, I absolutely loved the book! I 100% recommend this book!! It's definitely worth reading! Now I'm going to have to read more books by K.C. Bateman!!!
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!*

I love this series. There is intrigue, suspicion, passion, romance in every book. This one is just as hot as the others. I like that you get to see a glimpse of what's happening with previous characters. This story is about Richard Hapden, the third male in the spy group, who's a bachelor set in his ways of having a mistress every 3 months with no plans to marry. Sabine de la Tour is a French counterfeiter that works under an assumed name (male because that's more accepted) & comes to work for Richard so she can get legit money to move back to Paris & complete a promise for her deceased father. The two of them are at odds from the beginning but as there is in all good romances, you can sense the spark simmering under the surface when they interact with each other. K C develops rich characters that you enjoy getting to know & are rooting for the whole time. This novel will not disappoint her fans!!

This is definitely my favorite in this series - I loved this book!! It has it all witty banter, incredible sexual tension, amazing chemistry between the H/h, secrets, danger, hot love scenes and a great cast of secondary characters.

Richard Hampden, Viscount Lovell is a spy who always gets his man (or woman). But for years the counterfeiter Philippe Lacorte has eluded him. So imagine his surprise when the infamous Lacorte shows up at his house and is a beautiful woman!

Sabine de la Tour has survived the last eight years in Paris as a counterfeiter - but not just any counterfeiter, the incomparable Philippe Lacorte.

When Sabine offers to provide Richard with the means to thwart a plot to destabilize England's financial market in exchange for immunity and a small fortune - she didn't expect to be so attracted to him or have to negotiate her terms!

Sabine reluctantly agrees to Richard's terms but refuses to divulge all her secrets. Richard is not used to having his orders disobeyed nor is he used to a woman not falling over herself to do his bidding.

As things heat up between these two and secrets are revealed, they will have to learn to trust each other if they have any hope of a happily ever after.

This was a fantastic book and I hated to see it end! It could easily be read as a stand alone title but I would highly recommend the entire series. I sincerely hope this is not the end of the series, because I would love to see Kit get a HEA!

I loved Raven's Heart and this one was even more entertaining. Bateman writes a fun caper with two heroes that in love before they know what hit them. I also liked getting to spend some more time with Raven and Heloise. Bateman has fast become one of my favorite historical romance authors.

It took me almost halfway through before I could muster any real interest in the characters. Just as I began to become engrossed in the story, it seemed to drag and in the end lost this reader's interest.

Philippe Lacorte, the infamous French counterfeiter, and Sabine de la Tour are one in the same. Sabine and her best friend, Anton, decide to leave France for England, the home of her mother, for safety. They plan to try to live honest, respectable lives but need ‘real’ money to do so. Sabine goes to the home of Richard Hampden, Viscount Lovell, in England to blackmail him into giving her money for her an Anton to live on in exchange for not flooding the English financial system with counterfeit funds. He had been hunting Philppe Lacorte for years.

It takes a bit for her to convince Hampden she is who she says she is, while Anton is living on his own, hoping to leave for America to get away from one of their French enemies. Once she convinces Hampden, he wants to use her to help bring charges against a group who are planning to also ruin England, but in other ways. During their meeting with this dangerous group, Hampden realizes there is more at stake than he and the home office originally thought. Sabine thinks of Anton frequently and worries for his safety all the time she is with Hampden.

This couple, Sabine and Hampden, will keep you turning pages or rushing through your kindle to see how they try to outwit and out guess each other. One of the funniest chapters is the delivery of all the items Sabine bought using counterfeit documents to spend Hampden’s funds and have everything delivered at the same time.

Throughout the story Sabine was convinced she was only a counterfeiter, not a thief, not a murderer, she has morals. But, she began to see the wide implications of the affect her skills had on others. It really is a great revelation with Hampden helping her see how she hurt others.

Anton seems to kind of disappear for a while with Sabine worries he cannot stay hidden until he is able to leave England. For so long he had been like a brother to her. She was just as protective of him as he was of her. They had a strong sibling type love for each other. Since Hampden is trying to outwit Sabine, he does not ask her directly who she has been meeting.

You will love this story as it continues the Secrets and Spies series. This is the third and each of these books keeps you wanting to finish is at quickly as possible. The love scenes are tastefully written and not too overboard. Hampden has standards of who he will bed – kind of funny, too. Thank you Net Galley for sharing this book in exchange for an honest review.