Shana Galen and her favorite fictional spies

Shana Galen, author of Love and Let Spy (out this week!), loves her some spy romance. She shares some of her favorite fictional spies with HEA.

Shana: I don't know about you, but if I'm having a lousy day I have two tried and true pick-me-ups: watch Tangled again (Flynn Ryder, sigh) or pick up a romance novel with a sexy hero. I might be biased, but I think some of the sexiest heroes (and heroines) are spies. There's just something about the mystery, the nobility, and the cleverness of spies that makes them irresistible.

My love of spies began with that "demmed elusive" Scarlet Pimpernel. I first watched Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour in the 1982 film adaptation. It was love at first sight. The movie prompted me, at the tender age of 10, to visit my local library and check out Emma Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel. I loved Percy Blakeney's bad poetry and his desperate love for Marguerite and the pain her betrayal causes him. And I loved how noble and valiant Blakeney was as The Scarlet Pimpernel, fighting the evil Chauvelin, who everyone knows is no hero because his cravat is always less than perfect.

When I began to read romance, imagine my excitement when I realized spies could be romance heroes, too. One of my first spy heroes was Lyon from Julie Garwood's The Lion's Lady. Lyon is the perfect warrior-hero. He didn't have Percy Blakeney's wit or perfect cravat, but he had his passion both for country and the heroine.

Since those early days of romance, I've enjoyed spy series by a number of enormously talented authors, including Eileen Dreyer's Drake's Rakes series and Celeste Bradley's The Royal Four series. My absolute favorite spies are written by La Bourne (that's Joanna Bourne for those of you who aren't rabid fans). I love that her spies are both male and female, and I love the way she makes them strong and vulnerable at the same time. I looked forward to The Black Hawk for a long time, but I think Doyle from The Forbidden Rose is still my favorite. He's an alpha, but he's no bully. He uses his strength and size for good. There's something very sexy about that.

Great spy books are published every month. Most recently I enjoyed books by Vanessa Kelly and Robyn DeHart. In Confessions of a Royal Bridegroom, Vanessa Kelly's rakish hero, Griffin Steele, is saddled with a baby and a spy's daughter. The mystery is as enticing as the romance between the prim and proper Justine Brightmore and the bad boy Steele. In No Ordinary Mistress by Robyn DeHart, both Remington Hawthorne and Emma Masterson are spies. The two are torn between love and duty, which is exactly the kind of battle I love to read.

I would be quite remiss in my recounting of fictional spies if I didn't mention the iconic fictional spy, James Bond. We can argue over what actor played Bond best, what villain was the ickiest, or what Bond girl was the prettiest, but Bond is the spy that probably comes to mind most often when we think of spies and spy movies or books. It should be no surprise then that when I was struggling to come up with another modern spy movie to make into an historical spy romance, I started thinking about James Bond. I'd already done Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Lord and Lady Spy) and True Lies (True Spies), and I couldn't end the series without a nod to James Bond. Thus, the idea for Love and Let Spy was born. I kept all the fun Bond tropes, but I turned James Bond into Jane Bonde. Jane likes her ratafia shaken not stirred, she relies on Q's exploding quill and other gadgets, Moneypenny has carried a tendre for Jane for years, and M is actually her uncle.

But I didn't read all of those spy books and not learn that gadgets and fast-paced plots are fun, but a romance is all about the characters and the emotion. Both Jane and her hero, Dominic, fight demons from their past. Jane's are about to collide with her on her latest mission, and Dominic's are always with him. But he might be saved by the love of a woman like Jane.

Even more important, Dominic's love could save Jane. I always felt a little sorry for James Bond. He might spend a torrid night with a woman or complete an exhilarating mission for the Crown, but what did he have when he went home to his London flat? Probably not even a cat to keep him company. In Love and Let Spy, Jane finally gives James his happy ever after.

Find out more about Shana and her books at www.shanagalen.com.