A View to a Kiss

The Bow St. Agents: Spies in Love #1

by Caroline Linden

Combining sexual chemistry with a touch of adventure, this first book of a clever, wildly romantic historical trilogy is a very entertaining Regency-set version of the popular James Bond spy novels and films.

It was a most coveted invitation—a glittering ball attended by all the important people of the ton. But Mariah, a ravishing beauty thought by all to be the catch of the season, never expected to find true love amid the shadows. The mysterious man she meets there ignites a passion within her she never thought possible. When he starts a clandestine midnight courtship in her bedroom, Mariah is scandalized—and enthralled.

Harry Sinclair is a man of secrets who would do anything to protect those in his charge. But when he lays eyes on the stunning Mariah, duty and desire collide. Though every man in London lusts for her, he knows the fiery attraction between them is unparalleled. But in a world where trust can turn to treason and scandal can topple the throne, Harry and Mariah will fight a perilous fight for their precious love—and their lives.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Regency, Espionage, Mystery

372 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 21, 2009

About the author

Caroline Linden was born a reader, not a writer. She earned a degree in mathematics from Harvard University and worked as a programmer in the financial services industry before realizing writing fiction is much more exciting than writing code. Her books have won the NEC-RWA Readers' Choice Award, the JNRW Golden Leaf, the Daphne du Maurier Award, and RWA's RITA Award, and have been translated into seventeen languages around the world. She lives in New England.

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Reviews

[WhiskeyintheJar · Rating 3 out of 5]

“No, no! Don’t go.” She retreated to her bed as she spoke. “But why must I stay over here?”
“We hardly know each other, miss,” he said with affected affront. “Keep your distance, if you please.”
Mariah choked back a snort of laughter. “You’re afraid of me?”
“A wise man never underestimates a woman."

I enjoyed this one but the romance felt a bit insta with our hero kind of going all-in with the heroine from simple seeing her. The heroine is instantly intrigued with the hero but with the vast majority of their meetings taking place for only a couple minutes at a time in her bedroom at night, I didn't really believe in their life long connection. The heroine is the one who really pushes for them to be together but her infatuation had a twinge of rich girl rebellion for the wrong side of the tracks guy.

The mystery, our hero is a spy, was a bit muddled as the circle of spies and their leaders wasn't flushed out quite enough, I struggled in the beginning learning who was who and what was what. Half-way through it becomes decently clear who the villain is and in such a way I think our hero should quit his day job, he was missing the picture for too long.

My favorite part of this was the author's sneaking political commentary, the romance genre is the best at this. Had a different feel to it, probably due to its little older publishing date 2009, but the hero and heroine didn't have the amount and depth of interaction I typically hope for.

[daemyra, the realm's delight · Rating 4 out of 5]

A View to a Kiss by Caroline Linden is sure to delight readers in the mood for what it has to offer. I am hesitant to really hype this up even though I actually quite enjoyed this, because of the way Linden writes the chemistry between Lady Mariah and Harry.

In romances, it can be rare to find this "first love crush" that I found Linden write so well between Mariah and Harry, from both ends. It felt a little bit like Romeo and Juliet because of that puppy love vibe, especially in how Mariah relates everything to her cousin, Joan, but the premise of Harry visiting Mariah at night in her bedchamber smacked of a Cupid and Psyche retelling to me, which was why I was a big fan of how this unique courtship unfolded.

The Prologue pulled me in right away - I enjoyed the action of the subterfuge, the many disguises, and acting that Harry did, and it was really fun. I also felt like all the characters were well-written in how they were described and portrayed.

I have recently skim-read Linden's What A Rogue Desires (I shouldn't have bothered finishing it), and it is also another claustrophobic love affair, but A View to a Kiss is the superior story.

[Julie (jjmachshev) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I waffled back and forth on Caroline Linden's newest read, "A View to a Kiss". She writes with flow and emotion and her characters become people I want to know. However, I really dislike amazing coincidences that solve problems and this novel had that at the very end.

Mariah is the daughter of an Earl--an Earl who is very highly placed in political circles. After spending several years with her parents on the continent, doing business for the government, they have finally returned to London and Mariah will now have her season and find a husband. The problem is that all the eligible men she meets see her only for her dowry and political connections. Mariah wants a man who will see and love her for herself. Now where to find such a man?

Harry Sinclair is a spy. He works for the Home Office, hoping to eventually raise himself high enough to do political work to help those less fortunate. He's in disguise watching over some highly placed politicos after the Home Office received hints of treason...Mariah's father is one of these. From his first sight of Mariah, Harry is bowled over by her beauty. From their first meeting, on a dark and deserted terrace, he's attracted to her brains and temperment. But Harry is not titled and knows Mariah is so far above his station, seeing her is only a form of self-torture. But neither can seem to let it go.

A great match of hero and heroine. A fairly interesting mystery, but I guessed the 'bad guy' and his methods pretty early on. The relationship between the lead characters was well handled and grew over time rather than in the whole 'love at first sight' thing. My only beef is with the very end, but it really wasn't enough to spoil my enjoyment of the overall story.

Caroline Linden knows how to write attraction and love scenes that are both touching and racy. Her characters are multi-faceted and slowly unveil themselves to both readers and each other. While "A View to a Kiss" won't make my keeper shelf, I enjoyed the read very much. Now I hope she continues in this vein with one or two of her engaging secondary characters from this story!

[Gio Listmaker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

Insta-Love

Spoiled Heroine

Confusing Plot (Are They Spies, Bodyguards, Bowstreet?)

Wishy-Washy Hero (Charming or Grumpy?)

Slow Burn

I Usually Love Caroline Linden

This Being The Exception =((

[Ursula · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an ok book. Found the heroine very naive and for all the talk about the poor and the massive social unrest in London at this time. The heroine did not really change anything she did or seem more than superficially affected by it all. Quite disappointing and sort of shallow. I hope the others in the series are a bit more intense.

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unrealistic and unbelievable. Hero meets heroine repeatedly outside her window at night, which is so completely out of propriety for that time. I couldn't see why they fell for each other so quickly and so hard, the writing didn't reflect that. I just got a sense of attractive and smart heroine falls for mysteriously attractive hero and that's it. No sparks whatsoever. Not even a tingle in my toes.

[Pam Bereznak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caroline Linden is a fairly new author for me even though this is my 12th book by her. I read 3 of her books in 2021 but didn't pick her up again until June 2023. Although I like her writing and her stories, I hadn't planned on reading more of her books because as someone that reads over 350 books a year, I found some of her books a bit too expensive. I keep her on my list and check back to see if any books go on sale or I buy with credits. I recently finished her Scandalous Series which was really good. I have been reading some new authors that haven't impressed me much so went ahead and bit the bullet on the cost just so I know I would get a good read. I picked up this book thinking it was a standalone but then at the end of it, this book appeared at the end on my kindle as a book 2. Both Amazon and Fantasticfiction show them as stand alones but here on Goodreads it’s a series. Now I see there are actually 3 books in the series. Weird but good 😊

I really enjoyed Mariah and Harry’s story. I loved the suspense of it and the whole intrigue. Love the play on James Bond themed title(s) and being Bow Street Agents. Definitely a different trope than I’ve read in a while. So exciting. I couldn’t wait to finish to see how it ended. That’s when you know you have a good read. You think you know how it will end, as all my stories end that way 😊 but it still left me curious if it would or not. So good.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually like Caroline Linden's books - and this one was ok - but a couple of things bothered me about this book.
First, the leading lady, Mariah, is a very flat character. She is the ravishing daughter of an earl and she has lived abroad so she finds all of the English gentlemen boring...and that's it. No hobbies. No intellectual interests. She shows a fleeting interest in charity work - she's horrified at the description of the treatment of a dockside whore - but this interest quickly falls to the side in favor of increased physical intimacy with Harry Sinclair.
Second, the author used one of my least favorite air-brushes to make everything work out fine in the end. See, Harry Sinclair is a commoner - the son of an actor. And although he seems to be a match for Mariah in so far as this book explores (physically, mostly), he's not an appropriate match for Mariah. But wait - let's pull the viscount grandfather out of the hat! After spending a whole book exploring this unequal relationship, it seems too much like cheating to suddenly discover that after all, his birth is respectable.

This book had some potential - the spy scenario in the prologue was a real mystery and could have been better integrated into the book. And the company of professional spies described in the book (of which Harry is a member) include some interesting characters - they're probably just a hook for another book. Hopefully, the next one will be better than this one.

[Allison Merkey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of Spoilers (Maybe? I don't know)

I hated the female heroine. I've read all sorts but she was just a spoiled little brat. I don't hate on a lot of characters but grrrrrr........

"...when she had badgered the direction out of poor [horribly wounded character]" And these were the Author's words.

Then she "giggled nervously" while folding the letter she now had the address to after BADGERING A POOR WOUNDED DUDE. Oh My Gosh she's so spoiled and vapid. "Oh my dress." After narrowly escaping a deadly situation. Argh. It made my ovaries hurt.

Shoutout to my Goodreads community for making sure I don't give up on this author. I guess I just picked the wrong series to start with. Well, on to book 2. Le sigh.

[Joanna Loves Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dropping a star on this reread. Buddy read in HRBC. Will add more later.

[Cruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author: Caroline Linden
First published: 2009
Length: 367 pages, 4889 locations
Setting: London, 1820 (year after "Massacre at Manchester).
Sex: Not frequent. Naughty, not erotica.
Hero: Son of a theatre owner/actor. Spy.
Heroine: 22yo only daughter of Earl of Doncaster.

This had been a DNF for no particular reason but Shiny!. 18 months later and the first 25% was deja vu.

Even with that, I was mostly enjoying it. It's an interesting story of class and politics.

But it's v e r y s l o w.

Especially for a book about spies.

Nothing happens.

This book could have been so much better.

It's not in the least bit memorable.

There is nothing that makes it stand out from others in the genre.

I won't be bothering to look up the next in the series.

The Bow St. Agents: Spies in Love:
A View to a Kiss - Harry Sinclair and Lady Mariah Dunmore
For Your Arms Only - Alec Hayes and Cressida Turner
You Only Love Once - Nate Avery and Angelique Martand.

References:
Author's website: http://www.carolinelinden.com/aviewto...

(ISBN 978-0-06-176467-7)

-CR-

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hero is some Home Office/internal secret agent thingy, like most Regency heroes, SURPRISE! and falls for the daughter of one of the noblemen his is supposed to be guarding/investigating. He courts her entirely by midnight visits to her bedroom (I know, right? Apparently the ivy growing on these walls is like Rapunzel's hair to these guys). But the key to writing romance is not so much originality as execution, and Linden delivers likable characters and an interesting story despite the heavy use of obvious romance tropes and improbabilities.

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 I was in the mood for a sweet, light romantic fairy tale type story and this fit the bill.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, nothing like a fluffy romance novel with a smattering of spies. A quick and fun read.

[Malin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Lady Mariah Dunmore is the daughter of a highly regarded diplomat, and has lived most of her life abroad with her very understanding mother and father. They would like her to find a nice man to marry, but seem perfectly fine with her taking her time and as they have such a good marriage themselves, no problem with her wanting to marry for love. Sadly, Mariah finds all the gentlemen of the London season rather tedious and uninspiring, until she meets a mysterious man in the shadows on the balcony at her parents' ball, who charms her with his boldness and conversation. To her intense frustration, according to her mother (and the extensive guest list), there was no one called "Harry" among the evening's guests.

This is because Harry Sinclair was attending the ball in disguise, working as a spy for the home office. Wearing the guise of the elderly and cranky Lord Worth, his job is to keep an eye on Lady Mariah's father, as the Home Office suspect someone may want to harm him in some way. In the daytime, Harry poses as the lowly secretary for yet another high ranking nobleman involved in politics, mostly transcribing long letters about gardening and horticulture. He's snuck out on the balcony for a break when he comes across Lady Mariah, and although he knows she is far beyond him in every way, can't help but strike up a flirtation with her. While Harry's mother appear to be well-born (but was disowned by her family when she eloped with his father), his father is a retired actor who runs a playhouse. Harry hopes he can make enough connections spying for the Home Office to eventually establish himself in politics, so he can help the many poor and destitute of England.

While they are deeply ill-suited, Harry can't seem to stay away from places where Mariah will be, and soon starts climbing up the trellis outside her bedroom window for midnight meetings with her in her bedroom. He keeps being very secretive about his identity and background, but makes it very clear to her (although not why) that the reason they have to meet all clandestine-like is because her parents would never approve of him. Can the high-born lady and the commoner ever find happiness together, or will Harry be shot for trespassing with Lord Dunmore discovers him in his daughter's bedroom?

For a book purportedly about spies, this book is really very slow and not all that much of an exciting nature happens. There is a brief action sequence in the last third of the book, but I really must admit I had been hoping for a bit more suspense than this book provided. If the hero wasn't a commoner, trying to win the hand of a woman way above his station (which you just don't see very often - a duke can marry a serving maid, or a dressmaker, or even a lowly seamstress, but wealthy ladies don't just marry nobodies), this would be a very solid 3-star book. It may still be, but I really did appreciate a romantic couple a bit outside the norm, even if most of their romance developed because the hero broke into her bedroom - which is probably a bit objectionable in itself (although Lady Mariah does seem pleased as punch about it, and he never takes any liberties that she's not offering up with enthusiasm).

Come to think of it, the lives of low-level spies are probably not all that exciting, and surveillance is probably both tedious and time-consuming. I wasn't necessarily expecting this to be the romance equivalent of a James Bond movie, but there could have been a bit more action and drama. I read romance for escapism - let me get carried away for a bit.

Caroline Linden has written some pretty good romances, this is one of her earlier efforts, and I'm not super excited. Since I have paid money for the entire trilogy, I suspect I'll get round to reading them eventually, but it makes me sad that this is not as entertaining as some of her later books.

Judging a book by its cover: I don't have a whole lot to say about this cover, because it's neither very exciting, nor particularly objectionable. A handsome dude and a lady who are at least partially (but possibly wholly) naked are about to kiss. This is a romance, you should probably expect that sort of thing to be happening. At least by choosing this approach, there is no chance of the outfits being deeply wrong for the period in question.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a prequel to the Scandals series. A spy named Harry disguises himself as a stooped peer to protect an Earl, and in doing so, he falls in love with his daughter Mariah. He sneaks into her rooms no night where they have conversations, and Mariah soon falls for him too, even though she knows nothing about him but she is determined to find out. This is a romance but the plot is about espionage and treason, so the mystery of which peer being protected is the traitor drives the story. The characters of Mariah and Harry were well drawn, and I liked seeing mention of people that show up in the Scandals series.

[Darbella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one. I am happy that it did not get too bogged down into the spy stuff. Was just the right amount of mystery, imho, for a historcial romance. I loved that the heroine parents were awesome. Her mom actually had me LOL at one point in the story. Too funny. Was a sweet romance. I also loved that she had a cousin friend Joan that she could go over things with. My take on his climbing into her bedroom was romantic to me. I totaly bought the premise that this heroine, since she had traveled abroad for 5 years, was excited when he visited her at night.

[CamryWagon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite enjoyable, but there was one moment that really, really, really bugged me. After a rather harrowing brush with death, the heroine's first words are a complaint about her (ruined) dress. It seemed out of character and based on how the scene played out, it would have made more sense if she had instead been concerned about her father in the ensuing chaos. I lost a bit of respect and sympathy for her character from that point forward and rushed to finish the book.

[Kathryn Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed it thoroughly!

Although at times I felt that the actions of the main male character were borderline creepy, Ms. Linden kept it in line and made it romantic and the twists and turns were enjoyable.

[Suzy Vero · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant spy story… a bit convoluted with the hero a spy who falls instantly for the heroine. Dragged a bit. One steamy scene near the end and another in the epilogue after they were married. It took me four days to finish it … which says how much I liked it. Not.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is bananas. I loved it. All external conflict and kinda convoluted spy plot... spoiled headstrong heroine... Hot working class hero.... Ivy climbing... When it looked like she was hitting on an elderly man LOL lord. Fast paced, fun!

[Cath · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a flat story. Not much depth to the H/h. Very tame too.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Really enjoyable, and a bit of a different vibe/less predictable plot than most historicals. I liked it. I'm a big fan of Linden's writing, which is very fluid.

[Ollie Z Book Minx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming, if implausible, and nowhere near as nuanced as her other work.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I didn't dislike this book, its age showed. There wasn't much beyond the surface and the characters were pretty standard. Romance has gotten much more interesting.

[SLW · Rating 4 out of 5]

8

[Helen Geng]

Read 2021

[Lindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked

[Lassarina Aoibhell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming and fun, and I liked seeing characters who would show up in other Linden books later.

[A.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I totally called it this book was actually so interesting.