Review: The Smuggler Wore Silk

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The Smuggler Wore Silk

4 stars

Alyssa Alexander

Genre: Historical romance

Subgenres: spy novel

Heat level: spicy

Excellent novel. Whenever I try out a new author, I tend to start with their later work, assuming that it usually takes a couple books to get into the groove. However, I have no reservations about recommending this one to my readers. If you like what you read, Alyssa Alexander has published several novels since this one, so you'll have plenty of good follow up reading.

The main characters in The Smuggler Wore Silk are very likeable, which isn’t that easy to do when the heroine is essentially a criminal. It’s not easy to get people past the idea of a smuggler, and a female one at that. (One of my characters was in the same profession.) Alexander does an excellent job using secondary characters and back story to help create a compelling and sympathetic leading lady.

 Julian is also a greater tortured hero. His story (a spy getting old – for a spy - and somewhat jaded) has certainly been done before, but Alexander manages to avoid making him too cliché. And because The Smuggler Wore Silk is a spy thriller, it feeds the hunger of those of us who like a little adventure in our romances. It is also thoroughly a romance and easily enjoyed by those who care for little else.