Brazen in Blue by Rachel Miles is the fifth book in the Muses’ Salon. The books all can be read as standalones. The books are about the various women in the groups.

Lady Emmeline Hartley lost her heart years ago to a rogue. A man who seemed to have many faces and names. She finally was almost trapped into a marriage of convenience when on the day of her wedding, he came back. She knew he would help her.

Adam Montclair, an agent for the country is a man who could be many people and do many jobs. The only person who he ever loved, he lost due to his lack of social standing. Adam helps her escape and stays with her while she hides. Adam helps cover her path, but he knows that their time together is limited.

Emmeline and Adam were a great couple. The storyline of a love that cannot transcend societal lines was heartfelt, but felt the storyline of the criminal that Emmeline was supposed to help find was never clearly finished. This bothered me. Having a good ending was helpful to my enjoyment. Brazen in Blue by Rachel Miles was a new author and series for me to read. I found the book was okay.

Barbara’s rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Muses’ Salon #5
Publication Date: 8/25/20
Number of Pages: 352

This fifth book in The Muses Salon series brings us another Home Office agent, Adam Montclair, in search of the arch-villain known as Charters. They are getting closer to identifying him – they even think he might be an aristocrat, but they still don’t know who he really is. Only one person, Lady Emmeline Hartley, has the talent to recognize him from his voice. She has an odd talent for being able to recognize any voice she’s ever heard, and she heard the villain speak at a reform meeting. Adam and Em have a history and he certainly doesn’t want to involve her in this dangerous pursuit – except the Home Office gives him no choice.

Adam met and fell in love with Em a year ago on another mission, but he was convinced there could be no future for them because of the differences in their stations. She didn’t feel that the differences mattered – but he did – and so he left her. After she waited, she finally accepted a proposal from her childhood friend. Neither of them was in love with the other, they actually each loved someone else, but …

Adam arrives at Em’s estate just in time to help her flee her wedding. Em realizes that she cannot marry her betrothed because he now has a chance to marry the woman he really loves, but won’t break his betrothal to Em. Adam and Em take off on a journey where they must remain hidden in order to assure that Em’s betrothed doesn’t find her because he’ll surely come looking for her. The Home Office knows Adam is with Em – and his mission is supposed to be to convince her to help them identify Charters. Em believes Adam is a scoundrel of the first order and doesn’t trust him as far as she can see him. Convincing her to trust him again will be an impossible task.

Their journey takes them across England, to a lovely island that seems like a faery’s home, then to London where they run into the real danger. Can Adam keep his heart safe and protect Em at the same time. Will Adam ever realize that he and Em can have a future together or will he wait until it is too late.

I thoroughly enjoyed the read and visiting with the recurring characters. There is plenty of danger and intrigue within a lovely, moving, and sensual story. However, to me, there was a big hole in the plot. Maybe I missed something. Em identified Charters to Adam – but – then we never heard any more about it. Nobody at the Home Office went to work on the information. It was like the whole plot of the story was based on getting Em to identify Charter and when she did – Pfffffft – nothing more. Maybe some of that will be explained in the next book, but it sure left a hole in this one for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Brazen in Blue is part of the Muses series. It can be read as a stand alone. This is a second chance romance story.
Emmeline and Adam met , fell in love and became lovers. Then a terrible tragedy happened and they went their separate ways.
Now Em needs help getting out of a situation (her wedding), and she asks Adam to help her flee. May the adventures begin.
I thought this was a very good story. It was just a little short on the romance. The familiarity and the love were already there, it just needed to be rekindled.
I loved the part of the book with his sisters and cousins. I think that would make a great offshoot series. 5 women all with unique talents and very different personalities.
An enjoyable story that made you laugh and also brought tears to your eyes.
4 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐
I want to thank Netgalley for the chance to review this book.

If you like historical romance books, this one is a must have. The story line was fun and sexy. Leslie Miles will be another go to author of mine.

Brazen in Blue
Adam & Em seem to be at cross purposes at every point. She almost marries her good friend. Adam appears as if a out of the night, and this is how Em has finally figured out that Adam is an agent of the Crown. It still does not seem to help heal the initial pain of the lies told by Adam at their first meeting.

Em is so insecure about being loved for herself because of the way her father has viewed her as “broken” in her heart and mind. Whether he does or not she has no clue because he left her when she needed him most as most people have done is leave her.

Adam is a sole provider for his mother and sisters and he feels he is not Em’s equal. What could he possibly offer to her? He is truly a man of great principles and honor, but not land or monies. He cannot give Em the life she deserves or what he thinks she should have befitting her place in society. But, has he ever asked her what does she want? He might be surprised by the answer!

Who is plotting against who because remember Adam is an undercover agent and there are some devious things going on that involves these two! Someone is not only maneuvering against the government, but could they be after Em for her skills or wanting Tony because he is an efficient agent,

Star-crossed lovers will the two ever come together? Will the obstacles being thrown in their way be thwarted. Get this book it has lots of twists and turns!

Brazen in Blue is a sweet, but difficult romance. Miles is great at developing characters you care about. Emmaline has a lot going on in her life, not only the ability to see voices in color following her family’s accident, but the question of who actually owns her estate is being decided without her knowledge. Several in the book have a vested interest in her life and estate.

Adam is an intriguing character and an unusual occupation working for the Home Office. Em and Adam truly love each other, have hurt each other and are still doing so. Their’s is such a complicated history that my heart hurt for them. As Adam helps Emmaline escape from a marriage of convenience, they have time to talk about their complicated past and reasons why they are not already together.

Let me briefly say Brazen is a stand-alone but could be better if read in sequence. Em’s ‘groom’ was the hero in Chasing the Heiress. He is in love with someone else. Thus, the runaway bride.

Em knows she did the right thing running away from marriage to a man she did not love. She knows she loves Adam, but that love hurts. Adam is trying to protect Em but knows he is going to hurt her anyway.

There is so much to like about Brazen in Blue. The characters are strong and likeable, the secondary characters are interesting, caring and many of them are manipulative (it’s kind of their job in the Home Office and as siblings to Em’s former betrothed). The villains are really kind of scary and far reaching in their goals taking down anyone they can to become more powerful and wealthier. It is enjoyable to link back to previous books to see characters and their lives. Loved the dogs!

I loved the Maid Marian nickname used throughout the book. Although I am ready to bring the villain/s to justice, I more enjoy a great book and series. This is another cliffhanger, leading toward catching the villain and his colleagues.

This is a road trip romance. This book tries to be a lot of things and has a lot of moving elements, but cut down to its basic structure, this is a road trip story.

This is the 5th book in the Muses’ Salon series, though I think it should be retitled the Home Office Spy series because there’s way more spy craft than Muse meetings. I believe a large portion of this book occurs concurrently with book 2, Chasing the Heiress, but it’s been so long since that book came out I can’t be certain. The chronology of this series is rather murky.

The romance was just ok. Their story felt like it was part 2 of their own saga, with the only referenced Peterloo massacre being part one. So we didn’t get to see them fall in love - we’re introduced to them with the knowledge that they’d been lovers for a while.

My favorite part was the dogs. Really says something when the best part of a romance were the canine companions.

I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The cover is gorgeous, Overall the story is a bit slow going. It was difficult to stick with it, and I will admit that I jumped forward to the end to see how everything ended up being resolved.

Emmeline doesn't fit into the the Muses' Salon, series. I enjoyed reading this book but it was more about her fleeing her wedding and Adam helping her. At the end she helps the foreign office to find the bad guy but that's not what the bulk of the book was about.

I like Ms. Miles' style of writing and I've read some of the other books in this series, but it's been so long between books that I forgot a lot of what happened previously. This book started out great--a bride having second thoughts about marrying her best friend and then asking a former lover to help her escape. Lady Emmeline Hartley just can't through with the marriage knowing that her husband-to-be loves someone else. She asks Adam Montclair to help her disappear even though the last time she saw him, she threatened to kill him. This was a great set-up for the story, but the book meandered too much to hold my interest although I did finish the book.

Unfortunately, even though the villain in the book was identified, that storyline was just dropped. I assume it will pick up again in the next book, but I felt like a good opportunity to wind up that plot line was squandered. Although this wasn't my favorite book in the series, I certainly will pick up another book by Ms. Miles.

Interesting book. Strong characters. Loved their interactions and the spy theme. Haven't read any others b this author but will be looking. Enjoyed this enough to order for the store.

I'd really give this book 3.5 if it was an option. I have never read anything written by this author, I was given an ARC by #NetGalley for an honest review.

First, I loved the writing style, it was very smooth I felt connected to the story and the characters; also it seemed pretty true to the period which is always a nice find. Most important take away is this is not a standalone book of a series, to understand more than half of it you really ought to start at book 1.

The story was interesting, pretty much about the pain of loving someone who is not of your station in life aka class and who has lied to you. There's a complex backstory to these characters which I'll address in a bit. Adam has helped Em run away from a wedding she knew was wrong, she was marrying the wrong man, seems her right man was Adam. It wasn't until chapter 24 for our hero Adam to say "I'm not worthy of you, Em. Not now, not ever." Em replies "But you didn't object to helping me run away from a marriage into one of the most important families of the realm. How far must I fall before you can accept me?" That pretty much sums up her angst and his issues. As I said, the author knows how to set a scene and follow through, she has a different dynamic here of the Heroine understanding that the trappings aren't her goal he's the one with more issues and more secrets. This should have been a 5 star book for me, alas that's not to be.

I gave a lot of thought to how to rate this book, I read it twice then I read the authors first book in the series and I came to the conclusion that she uses far too much back story to let you enjoy the story you are currently reading. I felt as if I'd missed reading the build up to this couples issues or worse that I’d skipped over these parts? There were so many issues and complex scenes remembered I felt the previous book had to be their story part 1? Then I thought why bother reading the other book I know what went on if it is their story. This was jarring and unfortunate. This could have been a wonderful book with less reminiscing and more resolution of conflicts. By the time I got to the HEA I felt exhausted and wanted to shake this couple from frustration at their lack of communication. Then there's the evil character (which by the way runs through this whole series, another very confusing aspect) Em realizes she knows who he is, Adam tells his superiors then......... NOTHING! Talk about anticlimactic.

To sum up, will I read another book by this author? Yes. Will I read another of her books in series form? No, I’ll hope she has a standalone then I will enjoy her writing style and pray for a better outcome. Good Regency writers are hard to find these days, I wish her the best. I just can’t recommend this as a standalone the frustration factor is just not worth it.

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Romance novels provide an escape with their predictability - you know everything will end up right in the end, no matter how long it takes to get there. While Brazen in Blue is part of a series, I wasn't deterred from picking it up as many romance series are also successful as standalones; however, this was not the case.

The story begins with Lady Emmeline running from the altar with her sometime lover and Home Office agent, Adam Montclair. They journey to his home where Emmeline meets his cousins and sisters and learns new skills. From there, they are called to London where Emmeline must identify the nemesis of the Home Office, Charters, in exchange for help in saving her estate from claims by her grasping cousin.

Tension lacked throughout the book and it made it extremely difficult to finish because there was nothing to drive the multiple plot lines. There were lots of characters that were hard to keep straight and pieces of the plot seemed to be unnecessary due to underdevelopment. Emmeline was involved in a carriage accident as a child that left her with a leg injury, but it doesn't seem to matter much. She also can see voices, which is why the Home Office needs her help, but this never comes up in other storylines. Adam's female relations have an interesting philosophy about finding joy in work, but it seems random and not be addressing any specific conflict - Emmeline isn't some philistine that champions progress or industrialization that needs to take time to appreciate the art of doing. A fire at the end of the book still didn't bring me to care about the characters and, while there was resolution, and the plot didn't feel buttoned up nicely at the end, most likely as a dangle for next books in the series. Perhaps if I had read the previous books and was looking for a series I would have been more invested, but unfortunately this book did not hit the mark for me and I mostly skimmed through the second half.

3 Stars!! This is the 5th book in ‘The muses’ salon’ series. This is also the first book I am reading in the series but I’d definitely recommend reading the previous books in the series first. This book is NOT a standalone! In the beginning, I was lost with what was happening & who everyone was. It felt like I started reading this book from somewhere in the middle. However, I am glad I finished reading the book and had I read the previous books, I would have liked this book more.
*I received this book at no charge from the publisher and I voluntarily left a review.*

I love Rachael Miles and this book was a good one. It was a quick read with interesting characters and story line. There were a few places where it went a little slow/I got pulled out of the story but overall it was very enjoyable.

A fair story overall, but I struggled a bit to stay invested in the characters. Liked the dogs the best, which were adorable. Em and Adam make a good couple too. Would recommend.

When I got to the end, I was so disappointed...I wanted to stay and visit with Adam and Em. This story is great! I never write a spoiler, but this story has intrigue, evil, family, joy, love. Everything you want in a story. You really get to know the characters too.. Now I can't wait for the next story in the series, and look forward to seeing the villain get his just punishment! Well done Ms. Miles!

This story was full of intrigue and spies and secrets. The heroine, a strong lady in spirit and character, had a childhood injury that left her with a limp and a slight facial scar. The hero is a man who works for the government. When they initially met, it was perfect and the heroine gave the hero her greatest gift, her heart. After he abused it by lying about himself, he returns to ask for help. She refuses. The next scene is right before her wedding to a friend. She flees the wedding with the hero and he has to pretend that the groom's family hired him when actually she requested his help to get away. And the story just gets more action, intrigue and danger from there. The heroine is slightly based on modern women, in her acts and deeds. The hero is just your normal hero who thinks he isn't good enough, but can't stay away. All together, a powerful story that the reader will not forget anytime soon. The story is very well written and just flies by. It is so smooth and over before the reader realizes it. I read it twice and it is a good story that will stay with you. This is a well written, cohesive story with likeable characters. There are no danglers and I like the characters very much. There were very many supporting characters and sub stories going that will probably be the main story in another book. This type of writing where the stories meld together instead of moving in a jerky pattern needs a very precise style of writing and this author achieves what most just hope to accomplish. I recommend this story with 5 stars.

Unfortunately it was a fairly forgettable story, the two main characters Emmeline and Adam were flat and one dimensional and had little in the way of on page chemistry.

Rachael Miles is a great author who writes stories that intrigue and make you want to stay up late into the night to complete the book. Em and Adam share a story that brings two classes of people together and shows that status should never stand in the way of true love.