Great new Regency spy romance series!

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Who's That Earl (Love and Let Spy #1) by Susanna Craig           

Now this is something different! An unlikely combination but it works. A lady writer of scandalous gothic novels, a government intelligence officer and a castle in the Scottish highlands hiding secrets.
When Lieutenant Thomas Sutherland comes back to England after seven years in Jamaica he doesn't expect his spy master, General Zebadiah Scott, to send him off to check out an inheritance that seems to have come his way. That inheritance is a title, castle and land in Scotland. A place Thomas grew up in. Now he's returning to Balisaig as the lord,  the Earl of Magnus, albeit with that information hidden for the moment.
Miss Jane Quale, a figure from his past, the woman he'd longed for and was spurned by, is the writer hiding out in the castle Thomas has inherited. It turns out she's also the recipient of death threats. Something Thomas is not going to take lightly, even if Jane does.
All this and it worked! Sure there's some racy moments but the storyline delivers.
It seems Thomas' commander, spymaster Scott has a soft spot for his officers who have worked diligently and if he can set their feet on another path, he gives them that chance. Like some benevolent Pan figure he thought not only to train up intelligence officers but he considered that he might have "a parallel duty to his men? A duty to ensure their health and welfare and even happiness?" Not that this seeming altruism doesn't also bring side benefits for the Intelligence Service.
I'm definitely looking to read the next in this rather different series.

 A Kensington Books ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change

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