Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Dancy #1

The Fashionable Spy

Rate this book
A reissued story originally published in 1992 under the name Emily Hendrickson.

Miss Victoria Dancy was as fearless as she was fiercely determined to avenge the death of her parents at the hands of the perfidious French. Willingly she braved the dangers of unearthing enemy agents in England. But when she met the handsome, icily self-assured Sir Edward Hawkswood in a game of mutual deception, she faced an even more trying test. For she could neither trust nor resist this man of mystery as he so skilfully set about unmasking her secret life and stealing her heart away.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

5 people are currently reading
35 people want to read

About the author

Emily Hendrickson

59 books22 followers
Doris Emily Hendrickson lives in Reno, Nevada, with her husband, a retired airline pilot. Of all the many places she has traveled around the world, England is her favorite, and the most natural choice as the setting for her novels. In addition to her Regency romances, she has written a Regency Reference Book.

She is also the recipient of the Romantic Times award for the Best Regency of 1993 for Elizabeth's Rake and the Colorado Romance Writers 1997 Award of Excellence for The Debonair Duke. She is a nominee for the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Regency Romance.

Emily also enjoys stamps and stamping, and several of her flower designs, originally created for bookmarks for her Regencies, have been made into stamps.

Many of my books were re-published in England by Robert Hale Publishing House of London. My publisher requested that I use three pseudonyms for my English hard cover books. I chose the names: Emily Hendrickson, Emily Johnson, and Emily Harland.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
10 (21%)
4 stars
10 (21%)
3 stars
21 (45%)
2 stars
5 (10%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Amy.
3,102 reviews629 followers
October 11, 2019
2.5 stars
Fun little novel with obvious historical research. I'm always a fan of spies so that element was fun, if somewhat secondary. The villain (can you call the person that?) was highly foreseeable.
Nothing remarkable but nothing heinous either. Clean and fun. I think I even laughed out loud at one point.
Profile Image for Lauren Link.
45 reviews
September 19, 2023
While I enjoyed The Fashionable Spy I would have preferred for there to have been more excitement and fewer misunderstandings. It is a shame that the author did not provide Sir Edward with more of a background, I believe that he had been rejected by past loves because of his limp so it would have been interesting for him to have opened up to Victoria.

Overall, I felt that the plot was weak and that many of the characters were equally weak, especially the French Spy. I did appreciate that the book was innocent and sweet which made it perfect bedtime reading!
Profile Image for Lexie.
2,066 reviews358 followers
March 29, 2016
There's a comedy of errors here that made me laugh whenever Victoria and Edward would square off with each other. The verbal acrobatics the two engaged in to cover their trails, determined what side the other was on and who they could trust, and was certainly the highlight of the story for me.

Add in the peculiar nature of the Dancy sisters, and you have a refreshing and entertaining novel set in Regency England. Victoria is the 'brave' one, the adventurer who sets forth to gather the intel while her sisters, Julia and Elizabeth, help to puzzle out the clues and decipher the meanings at home. This isn't to say they are idle, but at some point it was agreed that Victoria should be the one to gather the papers.

Edward is turned left, right, and topsy turvy by Victoria from their first meeting. Between the crash; the (innocent) night spent in a barn together; being drugged and then lied to... the poor man's senses were addled, and I don't blame him for being suspicious of Victoria. Their romance grew gradually from their first fissure of attraction to each other, but as they both were hiding many secrets, the relationship itself was not developed until later on, when shock, the truth entered into their dealings.

This is the first book of her 'Dancy' books, previously published by Signet (under Emily Hendrickson) that reached a grand total of eight books. The second book, ELIZABETH'S RAKE, is due out soon from Robert Hale as well, and according to the author's website, at least three more will be published by Robert Hale.
3 reviews
September 3, 2012
Victoria has a strong personality. I loved her character
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews