Tuesday, September 12, 2023

My Thoughts and More on Reclaiming the Spy by Lorri Dudley

About the Book

Book: Reclaiming the Spy

Author: Lorri Dudley

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: August 29, 2023

How can he protect her from himself when she keeps winding up in his arms?

She never gave up hope. After ten years of prayers for her husband, presumed dead in the Peninsula Wars, Abigail Emerson is shocked to discover him alive. Yet what should be the happily ever after of fairy tales becomes a nightmare when he coldly instructs her to forget she’d ever seen him. Abigail refuses to let her beloved slip through her fingers again, and she’s willing to battle for his love, despite the walls he’s created to barricade his heart.

Nicholas Emerson’s time as a spy for the War Office has left physical and mental battle wounds. He can never be the charming, carefree man he once was—the man his wife deserves—but when a threat to Abby’s life returns him to their small Midland village, keeping her safe proves more challenging than expected. If only Abby would forget him and remarry, then he wouldn’t have to face the torment of all the tender, buried feelings she evokes. The consequence of his life as a spy means he can never have her again…

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My Thoughts:

I adored this story and have been waiting for Abby and Nick's story since finishing the first in the series. They have been married for ten years, really only spending one day and night together, their wedding day, before Nick was expected to pay his due to his commission. A reckless decision he made when he purchased that commission, all due to a snide remark that Abby made once upon a time.

Now ten years later, Abby is living on her own having just lost her mother-in-law. She has not given up on her hopes of Nick being alive, even though the crown had a funeral for him and declared him dead. There was no body, and Abby is not quite ready to let the love of her life go.

Nick is a spy, and his next mission has brought him close to home. However, he cannot bear to let Abby see his scars that almost killed him. Nor can he control the night terrors he is suffering because of his PTSD. He does not want to harm her, nor does he want to be sent away to Bedlam and never return. So, he keeps to himself, working missions alone, hoping that Abby will move on with her life.

That is not to be done once Abby finds out her husband is alive. She is willing and will fight the uphill battle for him. She is so thankful her prayers were answered that she views his scars as testament to those answered prayers. But she is fighting alone, as Nick is very hardheaded about his views.

Nick and Abby belong together, Abby and everyone else knows that. Nick needs to realize that too and to fight for his marriage. Ten years have already gone by. This makes for a great fall read as talks and rumors of a werewolf roaming about the woods adds to the drama.

I was provided a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author

Lorri Dudley has been a finalist in numerous writing contests and has a master’s degree in Psychology. She lives in Ashland, Massachusetts with her husband and three teenage sons, where writing romance allows her an escape from her testosterone filled household. Find her online at www.lorridudley.com.

More from Lorri

When writing stories, I delve into research to provide the best experience for my readers, hoping to transport them to another time and setting, in this case, the lush green rolling hills of England’s Cotswolds at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. However, God had an alternative plan for me during my research and writing of Reclaiming the Spy. To prepare for the beginning scene with Mama Em, I read Glimpses of Heaven by Trudy Harris, RN. Trudy Harris was a hospice nurse and wrote about her clients in their final days. I’ve never sobbed through every book chapter quite like I had this one. At the same time, I was encouraged to hear how many of her patients heard glorious music, observed beautiful scenes, had visions of past friends or family members, witnessed angels, or even saw their Savior, Jesus Christ.

I didn’t realize that God was preparing me through my research for my dad to go into hospice care. In his final stages, my dad spoke of seeing his parents in vivid dreams, and thanks to reading about similar situations in Glimpses of Heaven, I know they were waiting to welcome him into heaven. I’m so grateful for how God readied my heart, and I was able to draw comfort in seeing how He blurs the lines of this realm and the next to make for an easier transition. God is good all the time, and I felt his presence beside me the entire way.

I’d initially titled my manuscript Love Never Fails because Abby and Nicholas struggle to learn the qualities of love from 1 Corinthians 13, “Love is patient, love is kind… love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Nicholas’s debilitating spells and nightmares after serving as a spy in the Napoleonic Wars cause him to fear Bedlam and that he may hurt Abby. Post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t a mental health diagnosis of the early 1800s, but it did exist. Mental hospitals (or madhouses) were frightening places where inmates were often treated like zoo animals. Spectators would come for enjoyment to stare and laugh at the men and women housed there.

While my parents didn’t have a wartime story like Abby and Nicholas, they shared a love that endured through good and bad times and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past year. The last few days my dad was alive, he sang Amazing Grace and to my mom a Doris Day song, I Love You a Bushel and a Peck. They shared a love that never failed, and that is the love I hoped to convey through Abby and Nicholas’s story.