Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen (Royal Spyness #5)

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Summary: Georgie tries living on the wild side.  Things do not go well.

Almost five years ago when I started the blog that eventually turned into Bookwi.se, I significantly reduced the number of series books that I read.  Not because I do not like series books (although many series lose steam), but because it is hard to say much more about a series after you are several books into the series.  It is also hard not to give away spoilers. And for review readers, these later books are not interesting to read about if you have not read the earlier books.

Naughty in Nice is the fifth book in the Her Royal Spyness series.  And the series is progressing nicely.  I want to keep reading them. The storylines keep allowing the characters to grow without violating what works in the books.

In the book, Georgie starts in London as normal.  Except her Brother and Sister-in-Law are living with her in the London house and driving her nuts.  They end up going to Nice (but not inviting Georgie because it is too expensive).  And then they kick Georgie out of the London house to help justify the expense of their trip to Nice.

Luckily the Queen asks Georgie to go to Nice to watch Mrs Simpson and retrieve a stolen snuffbox.  And for once, the Queen offers to pay Georgie’s way.  So not only does she get to go to Nice for the winter, but she has the ability to get there.

One thing leads to another and there is another dead body and a mystery that Georgie has to solve.  Again in the book, Georgie is moving into a more active detective role and less into solving crimes by accident.  There still is a good bit of ‘I am a clumsy oaf’, ‘no one would love me’, ‘I am going to end up an old maid (at 22)’.  But the book seems to know that is a problem and is working on helping Georgie gain some more confidence.

There is continued relational tension between Georgie and Darcy (who happens to be in Nice as well).  But in this book Darcy is a fairly small character.  Instead Georgie really shines on her own.  She takes initiative (not always wisely) and tries to get to the bottom of the crimes.

On the whole, this is a better book than the last two.  It is also the first one that I have exclusively read on kindle instead of at least listening to part on audiobook.  The previous audiobooks have been very well done.  So I don’t want to complain about the audiobooks.  But they are fairly quick reads and the audiobook is not always necessary.

Naughty in Nice Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

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