Review: Confessions of a Little Black Gown by Elizabeth Boyle

Synopsis:
She spied him in the shadows... and in an instant, Thalia Langley knew the man before her was no saint.

He might claim to be the Duke of Hollindrake's unassuming country cousin, but no man that handsome, that arresting, could be anything but...well, he simply must be an unrepentant rogue. His cat-like grace and power leave Tally shivering in her slippers at the notion of all the wicked, forbidden things he might be capable of doing...to her.

Indeed, Lord Larken is no bumbling vicar, but a master spy there in his majesty's service to find—and murder—a notorious pirate freed in a daring prison escape. Devoted to the Crown, Larken's not about to let an interfering (and not entirely innocent) Mayfair miss disrupt his ruthless plans. Yet how can he be anything but tempted by this lady in a little black gown...a dress tantalizing enough to lead even Larken astray.

I loved this book! One of my favorite qualities in any book is if it could make me laugh - and while reading this, if I wasn't giggling, I was trying to unravel the mystery of the missing American pirate that was freed from one of England's most secure prisons.

In the very beginning, the book didn't seem anything out of the ordinary [for a historial romance] but at about chapter 3, it really started to come to life. Tally (Thalia Langley) was such a fun, flirty character who was anything but ordinary. Lord Larken assumed the identity of the awkward and clumsy Vicar Ryder, but was in fact a very dangerous spy. Upon meeting, they both suspected that neither was what they pretended to be so their encounters were attempts to get each other to fumble their "pretenses" and reveal their true selves (which was actually amusing). Their encounters transformed from playing mind games to resisting their attraction and then finally giving in to their mutual passions.

Meanwhile, the truth of the missing American pirate Thomas Dashwell begins to reveal itself taking with it a slew of accomplices that totally catch you by surprise! This story is filled with twists, turns and surprises!

The storyline is a lot to keep up with because so much is going on, but I think it made it all the more fun. There is just a "dash" of the love story between Tally's cousin Pippin and Dash which I cannot wait to read about in Boyle's follow up, "Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress".

I give this book ★ ★ ★ ★ ★