Intriguing elements and dark mysterious hero but only given a promise of that never delivered. Story plods along with not much happening but repeated scenes and romance drags out only to be given a few bedroom scenes without much relationship depth.
Tempted to read the next in series though because of promise of author.

'When a Lady Dares' by Tara Kingston is book Two in the "Her Majesty's Most Secret Service" series.
This is the story of Sophie Atherton and Gavin Stanwyck. I have read the previous book but feel this can easily be a standalone book.
Sophie is undercover as a medium's assistant when she meets Gavin. Sophie works for the Crown and also works as a journalist for the Herald under a different name. So she is used to repeating lies and knowing when someone is lying. So when she meets Gavin who is a treasure hunter she knows that he isn't telling the truth.
Gavin is looking for answers on his friend's Peter death. To get those answers, Gavin poses as a Treasure Hunter. Gavin thinks a Spiritualist may have the information he is looking so he needs to hide who he really is. But Gavin has found the Spiritualist assistant, Sophie is a temptation he might not be able to resit.
This book was a great mystery mixed with romance story that once you got a few pages in you wanted to see what would happen next. Gavin and Sophie I thought had good chemistry and both were very likable characters.
I enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more from Ms. Kingston.
"My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read."
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Johanna Templeton came from England to America to look after her sick sister and niece Laurel. Johanna’s sister passes away and Johanna stays to take care of Laurel while her brother in law continued to disappear from business trips. When he decided to take Laurel to Scotland Johanna didn’t know anything was wrong until her brother in law was killed and Laurel kidnapped. Johanna had received a ransom letter for Laurel Johanna has to take a certain book to the kidnappers.When Johanna brings the book to the kidnappers they don’t have Laurel.  The ransom was actually about finding  the map to the demon’s heart- a rare ruby linked to the MacMasters family.Johanna is rescued by a Highlander Connor and he is determined to protect Johanna. Johanna and Connor are attracted to each other but armed assassins are determined to get Johanna to their boss Connor does not stay in one place long because of being a spy. That leaves little if any time for a relationship.. Connor is on a mission as a spy for Queen Victoria. When meeting Connor tries to keep her troubles to herself. .

I enjoyed this story. I enjoyed the intrigue and suspense.This is fast paced. The plot was good and I definitely enjoyed reading this. But I did feel this book was a little long and could have been shorter. I did find it hard to put down as I wanted to know what what was going to happen next. But I thought Johanna was overly distrustful of Connor when he had rescued her and felt maybe she had an issue with trusting men or maybe just trusting. This story had a lot in it: adventure, suspense, mystery, romance, a demon’s heart jem, action, murder, thieves, kidnappers, artifacts, passion, betrayal, greed, and so much more. I really liked the characters and the ins and outs of this story and I recommend.