Mistress Spy by Pamela Mingle is the story of Madeleine 'Maddy' Vernon and Nicholas Ryder.
Maddy was out to avenge her brother's death which lead her to be a part of a rebellion attempt. Robert who with his father works for the Queen to gather needed information and protection. Maddy is brought to Robert's attention who he makes a deal with Maddy to become a spy/informant into a household that they think to be traders to the Crown. With no real choose, Maddy has to go forward with working with Robert. But they both have a hard time keeping this to just 'business' when their attraction and feelings become to much.

A superbly written tales of spies, secrets and seduction from an extraordinarily talented writer of historical romantic fiction, Mistress Spy’s beguiling blend of action, passion, intrigue and suspense is sure to hold readers in thrall from beginning to end.

Madeleine Vernon is not like most girls. While her contemporaries idle away their days thinking about balls, suitable romantic matches and marrying gentlemen of distinction, Maddy’s life revolves around revenge and a desperate desire to avenge the death of her brother. A woman of great courage and determination, Maddy will go to any lengths for vengeance and to ensure that her brother’s killers do not go unpunished, however, her desire for revenge propels her straight into the path of danger when she is captured by the queen’s men and compelled to become a spy by her captor, a mysterious man who is as dangerous as he is seductive: Nicholas Ryder…

Enigmatic, brooding and handsome, Nicholas’s life has always been dominated by duty and responsibility. Having spent years working for his father in Queen Elizabeth’s service, Nicholas has recently begun to chafe at the confining shackles which his father had imposed upon him. Nicholas yearns to break free and to be his own man and has recently begun putting into motion plans to ensure his freedom. However, after he gets lumbered with the beautiful Madeleine Vernon, Nicholas realizes that he has got quite a challenge on his hands. He must, at all costs, protect her and keep her safe or else she could end up arrested for treason and executed as a traitor to the crown. However, the more time Nicholas spends with Maddy, the more he finds himself falling head over heels with his captive…

When a dangerous mission compels Nicholas to send Maddy on a dangerous mission to gather information, the lines between captor and prisoner begin to blur as they find themselves entangled in a dangerous web of jeopardy and desire. The stakes have never been higher and Nicholas finds himself forced to choose between his duty to the Crown and his desire for the woman he has grown to love.

Will their dangerous passion be their undoing? Or will a bright future beckon for Nicholas and Maddy, if they have the courage to fight for what they want?

Mistress Spy is a thoroughly enjoyable read that will take your breath away! Full of skulduggery, chicanery, deception, passion and heart, Mistress Spy is a wonderfully written historical romance that sweeps readers away from the refined ballrooms of Regency England and into a world of royal duty, dangerous secrets and captivating romance that will delight readers everywhere.

Pamela Mingle is a talented storyteller who has written a riveting and compelling historical romance that sparkles with richly drawn characters, heartwarming romance and spine-chilling suspense. Mistress Spy was the first Pamela Mingle book I read, but it shall certainly not be last!

Madeleine "Maddy" Vernon is taken prisoner during a failed rebellion attempt. Maddy joined the rebellion to avenge her brother Robert's death, he had been part of the previous uprising and was hanged as a traitor. While imprisoned, Maddy is brought before Nicholas Ryder.


Nicholas needs a spy, he offers Maddy a full pardon in exchange for her cooperation. She will be placed in service to Lady Jane Darce, a suspected sympathizer to Queen Mary of Scotland. Nicholas wants Maddy to find out if Lady Darce or her step-son have any plans on aiding Queen Mary.

Maddy has no desire to be a spy, but she has even less desire to hang. She agrees to work with Nicholas, but reminds herself that despite her attraction to him, Nicholas is not her friend.

The intrigue starts almost as soon as she arrives, a man from her past is there using a false name, but she doesn't have a chance to tell Nicholas. Later she decides to keep that information to herself. She settles into a routine with Lady Darce and is able to glean a little information.

When she sees Nicholas again, she meets his ward/nephew Daniel. She is taken with the boy and admires Nicholas for his care of his nephew, who stopped speaking after his father's death. She wonders if she misjudged Nicholas. She passes on some of what she has learned, but doesn't tell him everything. Nicholas is fighting his attraction to her and when he learns that her brother is not dead and the Queen has pardoned her, he keeps that to himself - afraid she will leave if she learns the truth.

With danger, secrets, murder and intrigue dogging their every step, is it possible for them to find love?

I thought this book was well written, but I found it to be mediocre and I didn't care for Maddy. I never understood her motivation for keeping information from Nicholas and thought the story lagged a bit in the middle. The love scenes where warm, but I honestly never "felt" the love between them, it was almost as if the author was writing a spy novel and halfway through remembered that it was supposed to be a romance and threw in the required elements. I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book and settled for 3 stars because as an intrigue novel, I would rate this 4 stars, but I would be hard pressed to give it more than 2 stars as a romance.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher*

Madeleine Vernon is a survivor. She is fiercely loyal and loving. She's made mistakes, but is able to rise above them with grace and a determination to do better. Madeleine is generous in her ability to also forgive others who have harmed or hurt her. Nicholas Ryder is a man of hidden depths. He struggles with his duty to his father and his queen. His true nature can be found in his love for his deceased brother's child. Can two people on opposing sides of a forced situation find love? Read this well written story to find out.

Mistress Spy by Pamela Mingle

In 1569 a young woman and her friends go to join a fight on the losing side. Madeleine Vernon wants revenge for the hanging of her brother. He fought against the queen and was considered a traitor but she found him only misguided and worthy of life. Anyway, she is captured and given the opportunity of saving her traitorous life IF she is willing to go undercover to try to expose plots against the English Queen. Not wanting to hang as her brother did, Madeleine accepts, is cleaned up a bit, given clothing and sent to the Dacre home to spy by her handler, Nicholas Ryder…well…at the behest of his father who is much more into spy-craft and keeping the queen safe at all costs.

So, off Madeleine goes with spying to do, information to get back to Ryder, a guest in the home Madeleine knows is not who he says he is and a lot of tension to endure. Then, a woman goes missing, reivers (or are they?) come visiting, Madeleine’s life is at risk and eventually a plot with an evil killer is exposed and he is done away with. Throw in a cute nephew of Nicholas, a bit of romance and the potential for a HEA and you have a historical romance that I found myself skimming at times as it seemed a wee bit predictable and the characters not different enough to hold my attention fully.

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled-Amara for the ARC - This is my honest review.

3 Stars

1569 the fight for the rightful Queen of England. In reading this story, I felt like I was in the middle of the rebellion because the descriptions and emotions were so real! Filled with suspense, intrigue, spies and traitors combined with betrayal and danger, I was kept on the edge wondering what would happen next. She lost her brother in the fight and she was determined to avenge him by joining a group of rebels. Even dressing like a lad did not help her when she was captured by the enemy and thrown in a dank cell. He was working as a spy for the Queen and used her to gather information in return for her freedom.
So much emotion and twists and turns that me talking to the characters to help them! I really enjoyed this book and look forward to more by this author!!!

Madeleine is a very determined woman with the need to avenge her brother's death. But this need has triggered her capture with the only way to survive being to work as a spy for her enemy. That enemy is Nicholas who after working years as a spy himself for Queen Elizabeth is close to making his own way. Now he has a traitorous beauty to protect.

My Thoughts:

Madeleine is a very determined woman with the need to avenge her brother's death. But this need has triggered her capture with the only way to survive being to work as a spy for her enemy. That enemy is Nicholas who after working years as a spy himself for Queen Elizabeth is close to making his own way. Now he has a traitorous beauty to protect.

Maddy is attracted to her captor but this is a perilous mix of deceit, betrayal and desire which tears her in different directions.

Ultimately, Nicholas must decide whether duty to the queen is more important than winning Maddy’s heart. Will the secrets he is holding from her surface and will they be what tears this would be couple apart?

How will this clash of wills play out?

I gave this title 4.5 of 5.0 stars for storyline and character development. The Elizabethan Era is not one of my favorites but this intriguing story captivated me and I couldn't put it down.
I received a complimentary digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley to read.
This in no way affected my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

1569 Madeleine Vernon rushes to battle to avenge the death of her brother but in doing so she goes against Queen Elizabeth. But she is caught, and her position has become perilous. To save herself she must act the spy in the Dacre houshold, under the eye of Nicholas Ryder - for some years now he has worked for his father in the service of the Queen.
A good paced and well-written story with characters I liked almost immediately. Overall an enjoyable story.

Unsuspected trickery and deception makes this an enticing read! Captured by Queen Elizabeth's men, Madeline is forced to spy for her handler and spymaster, Nicolas. Slow at times, then the action picks up. Secrets abound including Maddie's and Nicolas'. Enjoyed the action, unraveling the mysteries and the romance. 3 1/2 stars.
Voluntarily read ARC, through Netgalley and publisher, for honest review.

Thrilling, exciting, interesting and romantic. This is my first book by this (I think fairly new) author and it definitely won’t be my last. It is well-written and well-plotted and I just couldn’t stop reading. I enjoyed all of the characters, even the villains and that is rare. Another thing I liked is that it wasn’t filled with Dukes, Earls, etc. Just plain folks in the northern region of England in 1569 – well – not plain folks as in farm laborers, etc. but people who had nice homes, but weren’t necessarily the aristocracy.

In an exciting opening scene, we have our heroine, Madeline Vernon, riding into battle against the Queen’s army. Why? She wants to avenge her brother Robert’s hanging as a traitor. Actually, he was a traitor, but he never even got to have a trial for any facts to come out – he was just hanged. Those were some dangerous times between England and Scotland – Elizabeth was the Queen of England and Mary was Queen of Scotland. Mary was imprisoned by Elizabeth and the Catholic religion had been outlawed. Everyone was forced into the ‘new’ protestant religion. Naturally, the Catholics didn’t want to give up their religion and many of them went underground while others blatantly defied the law and openly practiced their religion.

The battle does not end well for the rebels lead by Lord Leonard Dacre. They were a rag-tag group armed with dirks and pitchforks – certainly no match for the highly trained and well-armed Royal troops. Many of the rebels were killed and even more were captured. Madeline (Maddy) was one of those captured and she spent six very trying days in prison awaiting her questioning/torture or her hanging. She had no idea which it would be, but she was sure it would be one or the other. She had so many regrets about what she had done – especially dragging two of her friends into the uprising. Then, her jailer comes to take her up for her interrogation – but – that isn’t really what she got. She receives an offer she can hardly refuse – become a spy in the home of someone the Crown believes is a traitor or hang.

Nicholas Ryder, a representative of the Crown, sat and awaited the prisoner’s arrival – and when she did arrive, she was the most bedraggled woman he’d seen in his entire life. The stench was unbelievable, she was injured, and you couldn’t even see her face for the dirt. He makes her an offer – assume the role of companion/secretary in the home of Lady Jane Dacre aunt to Leonard Dacre. Maddy is to spy on the Dacre’s to find out what, if anything, they had to do with any of the uprisings. This branch of the Dacres appear to be loyal to the queen, but there are doubts.

Maddy enters into what appears to be a loyal, protestant household – but there are so many undercurrents. Add in Mr. Vine, who Maddy knew many years ago as someone other than Mr. Vine – and an innocent sixteen-year-old maid who goes missing and you have quite a tale. Is Mr. Vine as evil as Maddy thinks he is? Where is the sweet maid and did Mr. Vine do something to her? Could Lady Dacre, who is kind to Maddy, really be a traitor?

As Maddy carries out her task and reports weekly to Nicholas, their relationship grows and they come to care for each other – but so very many things stand in their way and do their best to keep them apart.

I absolutely loved Nick’s ward – his nephew Daniel. He was a wonderful addition to the book because he was such a sweet and loving little boy – and so troubled. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him grow.

It is a lovely read and I’ll definitely be looking for more books by this author.

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"I requested and received this e-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."

This was the first book by Pamela Mingle that I have read and I look forward to reading many more. Mistress Spy is well-written and kept me enthralled from the start. I love how strong Madeleine was. I really loved the dynamic between her and Nicholas. They were on complete opposite sides until their passion brought them together.

Mistress Spy by Pamela Mingle centres around Madeleine Vernon who has been captured by Queen Elizabeth's men. After the death of her brother, she decides to avenge his death but to escape execution, agrees to become a spy for the crown. Nicholas Ryder organises to send Madeleine into the household of a suspected traitor, to infiltrate and discover any treasonous acts. This is a fast paced 16th century spy thriller, peppered with romance. I must admit that the romance between the two was not the strongest aspect of the story but the detail in the historical aspect and the characters, trumped the romance, making for a good read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Mistress Madeline Vernon made the mistake of taking part in a rebellion against Queen Elizabeth. She was bullied by the men who took her prisoner into taking work with a suspect household or following her brother to the executioner. She is in a high risk situation, not knowing who to trust.

Nicholas Ryder works for his father as part of the Queen's information gathering network. He is not happy about putting a woman at risk, but needs must. He would much rather look after his nephew and his roses.

The danger and intrigue in this period of history is fascinating. Lots of action and emotion make this a real page turner.

I loved the unusual characters.

I cannot, in all honesty, say this book was fantastic. It was mediocre and at best somewhat interesting. Overall I found the book to be a boring and tedious affair. I simply could not get into the tale and the only reason I finished the book was to find out the full plot put into place against the crown and whether Maddy and Nicholas managed to stop it. The setting was somewhat intriguing but the characters were just blah.

This was my first book by Pamela Mingle. I'm looking forward to many more!

Madeleine is caught by Queen Elizabeth's men while she is attempting to avenge the death of her brother. In order to escape the noose, she agrees to become a spy for the Queen, and Nicholas will be her handler. Thus begins a page turning spy thriller that takes place in the 16th century. There is also mystery and suspense here, together with romance. The spy thriller part of the story is what kept me glued to the pages. Who is on which side and who can be trusted? I tore through the pages, dying to know what would happen.

The only thing that seemed a little weak to me was the character of Nicholas. Though I loved his interaction with his nephew, his romance with Madeleine wasn't particularly compelling to me. However, I really did like both characters. Nephew Daniel was my favorite character, though. Well, Daniel and Useless the pup! All in all, a very satisfying story.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are strictly my own.

Mistress Spy by Pamela Mingle is an enjoyable historical romance with plenty of twists and turns to keep you hooked. I found the storyline to be interesting and the characters engaging while the world in which everything centered was defined and brought to life by the author’s wonderful writing.

An ARC was generously provided in exchange for an honest review of which this is both honest and completely voluntary.

Good historical details that were very interesting. The hero was portrayed well. The heroine's demeanor started out very strong, but she seemed to lose some of her pluck. This was the one of the few historical romances I've read during this time period and it was well worth the read. I would recommend to young and old.

I was given a free copy of this through netgalley by the publisher and this is my own opinion of the book freely given.

Mistress Spy by Pamela Mingle is a fast paced, page turning Elizabethan novel. When a line between prisoner and capitor become blurred, all bets are off.
With deceit, betrayal, and desire a perilous mix is created. Add in treason, danger, surprises, you have a definite page turner. Well crafted and well written with charming and engaging characters. The plot is intriguing, unpredictable and captivating. Twists and turns abound in MISTRESS SPY. What a brilliant and exciting story! There is some edge of your seat moments with a HEA. #NetGalley,#Mystery
"I voluntarily received a complimentary copy, however, these are my honest opinions. I was in no way required nor compensated to write a review."

Rating: 4.5
Heat rating: Mild
Reviewer: AprilR

What this poor young woman goes thru. Her brother is executed because they feel he is a traitor, there was no trial. She is angry and decides to go fight to get her revenge She is captured and sits in a stinky cell for six days before she is bought for questioning. Nicholas Ryder wants to interrogate her and get her to take a spy job they need intelligence on. The protestant Dacre's are suspected of wanting to help the Queen, Mary of Scots.
There is a lot of things going on in this story. there are so many twists and surprises in this tale The fight to keep Mary and her son free. The interference of the English in Scotish business. The characters are varied and very well written. I have not read this particular author before but I loved her work. When Maddy meets Daniel, he just loves her and clings to her skirt. His parents are dead and he does not speak anymore. The book keeps your interest and it is time well spent, reading it.

My 1st book by Pamela & Wow !!!! a very good story... it is a mystery, suspense, spy thriller ...lots of intrigue ... The title of the book caught my interest....am very happy to say the book didnt disappoint...Pamela has done an excellent job ...

This is the story of Madeleine Vernon & Nicholas Ryder...Maddy is captured by the queen’s men when she is on a vendetta to avenge her brother’s death & joins the rebels . She is forced to become a spy by her mysterious but attractive captor who is none other than Nicholas ...He is a Spy working for many years for his father under Queen Elizabeth's service...He blackmails & plants Maddy into a household of suspected traitors to garner information which can foil plots against Elizabeth....

Maddy & Nicholas are reluctant spies & unhappy but both are under different pressures to work for
the crown... The sizzling but slow chemistry , attraction, romance between the characters is heart warming ...The story line is simple yet captivating... very well written, scripted & presented ...the plot is fast paced & full of twists , turns... Despite the undue circumstances Maddy & Nicholas stay together, overcome many obstacles & achieve their goals ... .

Maddy 's character comes out as a very strong, sensible, bold, brave, smart women who manages to maintain her sanity, courage and dignity despite all troubles faced by her...Nicholas comes out as a lovable , dependable , helpful, compassionate human being ....I would recommend the book ...its atleast a compulsory one time read ...