This is a good story, however I recommend reading the books previous to this in the series as you miss important details. Good sexual tension but romantic scenes are short, closed door, not detailed enough for my liking. I was left saying “that was it!?”

Brazen in Blue is an enjoyable read. It was a little slow to start, but I absolutely LOVE Emmeline from the start. She's independent and has a good heart. She's not perfect, but that just makes her all the more endearing. The premise was definitely good - but I would have liked a little more balance between the intrigue of trying to complete the mission and the second chance at love Em and Adam get. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Brazen in Blue by Rachael Miles is book 5 in The Muses' Salon Series. This is the story of Adam Montclair and Emmeline Hartley. I have read the previous books which of courses added to my enjoyment of this one, but I do feel you can make this a standalone book if you wish to do so.
Adam is an agent for the Home Office which dictates his life and who can know who he really is. Which is why when he meet Em he couldn't be honest with her and had to leave. But now he is back needing her help with an assignment using her special talents. Em lost her heart to Adam but he had left when he reappears at her wedding of convenience she asked him to help her leave it. This opens them up to adventure and a second chance at their feelings.

A Regency drama, 5th in the Muses Salon series, this is a series where reading the previous books would help fill in the details and relationships that the author seems to assume are known.
A runaway bride Lady Emmeline and her support dog, Queen Bess, are aided by Adam Montclair, with whom she has a past and hopefully a future, to overcome their handicaps, to escape all their pasts and reveal the evil person who would destroy all that they and their friends hold dear. There in is the biggest flaw in the book. Em identifies the villain but nothing happens - obviously book 6.. That is why I give this 3.5 stars and not 4.
Danger, treason, and love are welcomed elements to this story that leaves many loose ends.
I was given this arc by Netflix for my review.

I struggled my way through this. I just didn't enjoy the way we began, and how everything got pieced together. It felt so awkward and I didn't enjoy the way Emmeline and Adam interacted. It felt like this should be a second book, which would spare us the constant stream of reminders via thought. I'd rather "watch" their relationship develop than be told how it happened while they're in a new situation. I was hoping it was just them, but the telling continued.

Just not my cup of tea.

First of all, I really liked the main character. Her personality, her struggles, and her growth were really nice. I liked reading about her. It was also nice to see a disabled main character in a historical romance.

I didn't like the romance, though. It didn't have the chemistry for me. While it started alright, the issues got repetitive and annoying pretty quick. I also stopped liking the male lead after a while. His inner monologue was the SAME all the time. It was not cute.
The romance started out alright but I was not rooting for them by the end.

The author tried to do a lot in this book. There were multiple threads in the plot which were supposed to connect well at the end but they didn't. It felt like the book was being pulled in different directions.

There were also quite a few characters, many who are not important in this story. I understand that some were added as cameos because they were the main characters of previous books. But it was not friendly to new readers and they felt very out of place with barely any introduction.

I enjoy reading about diverse heroines, and Miles certainly delivered with Lady Emmeline. After a horrific carriage accident that resulted in the passing of her mother and siblings, Emmeline is left with a brain injury and a mangled leg. The addition of a support animal, Queen Bess, was so much fun to see. Honestly, I loved Bess the most. Adam was every bit the chameleon you would expect from an agent of the Home Office. A former lover of Em's while he was undercover, there is plenty of tension between the two when they reconnect.

Unfortunately, I think I was expecting more intrigue going in. I was surprised, and a bit disappointed, to see it was primarily a character-driven story and light on plot. We spend a lot of time inside Adam and Emmeline's heads but this plot against the Crown was very much a secondary, or even tertiary component. Additionally, I didn't particularly care for either of the characters. Miscommunication was rampant on both sides of this relationship with flimsy reasoning to boot. It drove me up the wall each time they chose to keep something from the other party needlessly. I loved Em's recall ability and I wish it played a bigger roll. I found myself forgetting this remarkable ability repeatedly, especially during an unnecessary tutorial in crafting. I'm a knitter and have dabbled in spinning but I just didn't think it fit this story and it threw off the pace.

I would definitely try the author's work in the future but unfortunately, this story just didn't work for this reader. I do recommend for fans of character-driven historical romance with fade to black intimate scenes and lovers of the second-chance trope.

**I voluntarily read and reviewed a review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I feel like I've been hit by a bad-luck spell when it comes to historical romances lately. I've loved only one out of the four books I tried (if you're curious, I'm talking about A Proper Charade). I'm so sad about it since I know how wonderful historical romances can be. I haven't lost hope but maybe I'm going to take a step back from that genre and take a little break. I'll go back to it eventually.

Edit: I just checked and I have a bunch of ARCs that need to be read and reviewed soon-ish so my "break" will probably only last a couple of weeks max.

Anyway, let's talk about Brazen in Blue. I honestly don't have a lot of things to say about this story because the book never managed to grab my attention and hook me. I was waiting and waiting for that to happen but it never did and that left me really bored with the whole thing. I also didn't really find her escaping her husband-to-be very exciting. I didn't feel any sparks or chemistry which also didn't help matters. I didn't really care about the characters and the fact that I didn't know what to make of them and their relationship for a while frustrated me. They clearly had a past but it wasn't really explained and I just wanted to know without waiting I don't know how many pages/hours. That left me thinking that maybe you would enjoy this book more if (unlike me) you'd also read the entire series. Don't quote me on that though. I'm clearly not an expert on this series.

(Thank you for letting me read and review an arc via Netgalley)

Lady Emmeline Hartley is a spinster who had to face a lot of challenges in her life. Rejected by the man she loved, she agrees to a marriage of convenience with her oldest friend only to get cold feet. Her first love returns in time to help her escape the marriage if she agrees to help him find a man the Home Office wants him to find.

I liked the premise of this novel and I tried to finish it, but the plot truly dragged for me. I don't know if it's because it was the 5th in a series which I didn't realise until I went to the title on GoodReads, but I just didn't warm to either character and I couldn't finish it in the end which is disappointing, since it's only the 2nd book on Netgalley I couldn't finish.

Brazen in Blue turned out to be a nice historical romance with interesting characters.

The main highlight of the story was the characters. I enjoyed Emmeline and Adam in the lead role and liked that they were not stereotyped. Emmeline seems to be the more stable one in the relationship, while Adam is the conflicted one facing issues. Adam feels inferior to Em because of their status, and I liked their dynamic. Also, it was refreshing to see Em mature and grow in the story. Similarly, I loved the supporting characters like Adam’s sisters. Miriam, Augusta, Caroline and Deborah are all unique and interesting, and have their own talents.

Moreover, I enjoyed the author’s style of writing. She writes the tale in a captivating manner that makes you easily visualize the characters and settings of that era. At the same time, I loved the chemistry between the characters and thought this would be an amazing story.

However, as this is the fifth book in the series, the author dives right into Adam and Em’s relationship. Since I have not read the previous book in the series, I was hoping the author would provide a quick recap of their relationship. However, the story does not detail this properly. Instead, the author makes multiple references of incidents which I could not relate to. Hence, I would not recommend to read this as a standalone unless you have read the previous books. Also, the story-line starts off with a bang, but staggers a bit in between. Moreover, there is also a villain in the story which I felt was unnecessary and sidetracked from the plot.

Overall, this book had all the right elements to be perfect, but missed its mark because of the above reasons. Otherwise, it is very entertaining.

I’ll be honest and say that this book was very hard to read. I attempted to start reading and had a hard time getting through the first few chapters. It’s hard to begin reading and feel like you should have read previous books to know what’s going on. The premise was a little to complicated for me.

Unfortunately this was not for me. This is the 5th book in a series and I really missed out by not having read the previous books. This was choppy and a little hard to follow, and to be honest, I did not finish this. I couldn't connect to the main characters and I just couldn't get through it. The writing isn't bad, it just didn't quite work for me.

I'll say at the top, I'm a big fan of this series, and I've mostly enjoyed my experience.
I was excited to get Emmeline's book, she had instantly been an interesting character to me, but her romance with Adam seemed bland and I can pinpoint one thing that happened in this book.
It's somewhat of a dual timeline with the book that comes before it, and I thought that was an interesting concept, but it leads to comparison that I don't think this book held up to. At least six weeks occurs in this book where actually nothing happens. There were more characters than necessary thrown into this book, who didn't have enough personality to make them distinct.
The climax was literally the last 95% of the book, and the villain (same villain, the whole series) seemed more of a footnote until the end with the 3rd act breakup.
Just somewhat disappointing.

For those that love historic romances, this is your book. Beautifully written by Rachael Miles, this is one of the best romances I have read in a while.

I was bored to tears with this one.. It was so slow and I found the characters to be flat.

I do not recommend this one.

I wanted to like this book more, but it left me with a disjointed feeling and a lack of finality in the end… There are many side stories going on in this book, which makes me believe that if I had stared the series at the beginning, it would have flowed better for me.

Somethings that I enjoyed about Brazen in blue was the dogs included almost as supporting characters, Queen Bess the heroines dog and companions was a delight. I also love a good second chance romance and a road trip, which this book had both!

In general the side story and the switching of the narrative was just too jarring and left me not enjoying the HEA for Emma and Adam as much as I should have.

I highly recommend starting this series from the start in order to fully enjoy it. This book had some great characters which I wish I could have appreciated more.

Brazen in Blue by Rachael Miles was released August 25th, 2020.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Zebra, Kensington Book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#BrazeninBlue #RachaelMiles #Netgalley #pinkcowlandreads

There's so much to love about this book...but it didn't quite get all the way there. There is just SO MUCH plot. A spy plot, a weird fairies thing, a lovers to haters to lovers, a runaway bride, etc! And we start at the middle of their relationship, so it feels a bit as if we have been left out of the good parts. There's a lot of backtracking to understand what happened first. The writing is good though. And there is romance and chemistry. It's a good book overall, just not a favorite.

Spinser Lady Emmeline Hartley has valiantly overcome the various trials life has thrown at her but now, rejected by the man she loves, she's just about to enter a marriage of convenience with her oldest friend. But when she realizes she can't go through with the it, the man she truly loves is their to help her escape. Em decides to accept his help and perhaps convince him to take a chance on their love.

As one of the best agents the Home Office has, Adam Montclair is used to filling many roles. But as often as he associates with the aristocracy, he is painfully aware of his own lowly status as the son of a clergyman. No matter how much he loves Em, he believes he could never be worthy of marrying her. His latest mission to uncover the identity of a nobleman plotting against the government requires Em's talent for recognizing voices and, though he despises telling her only half-truths, he agrees to help her knowing it will suit his purposes as well. It's torture for Adam to spend so much time around Em and the more dangers they face, the more Adam's priorities begin to shift as regards their relationship and his position.

Boy this was a convoluted plot. I've only read one other book in this series, so that's likely the problem but there were so many loose threads here that I struggled to follow where we were going. I'm wondering if perhaps the books in this series are all occurring concurrently or at least close to it; they must be as I kept feeling like I was missing large chunks of story throughout the book. Adam and Em's past relationship wasn't ever fully explained so I felt a bit adrift from the start and struggled at times to keep all the secondary characters straight. I did like the overall vibe of the book, but it was a struggle to get through because the flow was so choppy and Em was so hot and cold all the time, while Adam was mostly just fatalistic and too lacking in self-worth. I also found this to be rather lacking in steam, intimate scenes were very vague and left me questioning just how close Em and Adam had really gotten, making their relationship development confusing to follow. After all that struggle, Adam still wound up being pretty disgraced and the story line of the villain was left unresolved, though I'm guessing that's being left for a later book. Overall, I liked the mystery and subterfuge aspects here, but the book left me feeling like I'd just been dumped into a party at which I knew no one. It was just a bit disorienting. I think for me the dogs were the best characters here and this series must be read as a whole, and presumably in order, to be enjoyed fully. This was an okay read, but wound up just a bit anticlimactic for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Another wonderful addition to the Muses series. I enjoy reading stories that are different than the norm and this series definately fits the bill. I loved this newest addition.
Neither main character is as you'd expect. Lady Emmeline, having been raised by the servants on her estate, is as far from a debutante as you can get. Adam, an agent with the Home Office, adapts to whatever the situation calls for. Although in love, Adam feels he's not good enough for Em and refuses to envision a future with her.
Along with help from their friends, these two will face their feelings while also fighting to stay alive. I highly recommend this book as well as the others in the series.
Thank you Rachael Miles, Kensington Books and NetGalley for allowing me an advance copy for my honest feedback.

Emmeline had agreed to get married to her best friend, but it was kind of an agreement under duress... When the day came for the wedding, she saw an opportunity to run and did it.

Adam came to his best friend's wedding to see if witnessing the vows would purge the bride from his mind. He never counted on her coming to him to help her run away.

Emmeline and Adam had meet and fallen in love. But while they fell in love, Adam was on a mission for the Home Office. Emmeline didn't even know his real name. When the mission was over and Adam had to leave, it was played out that Emmeline and everyone else thought he was dead.

But when Adam shows up at her wedding, Emmeline knows that he is the only one that can help her. Adam agrees to help. But then when it is learned that Emmeline has run, Adam is tasked with finding her and the man that she ran off with.

Adam and Emmeline are still in love, but with everything against them, can they get their HEA?

While I really did enjoy the story, I was a bit confused at times. They would mention things that had happened in the past and while I've read all the other books in the series, it still left me perplexed at times. It was just a little too nonlinear to me.

But having said that, I really enjoyed watching Adam and Emmeline finding their way back to one another. Adam was in role when he fell for Emmeline, so while he knew her, she couldn't say the same of him. She needs to know the man that he was without the act that he is putting on for the job. Overall, this was a great addition to the Muses' Salon series.