I've learned to be wary of romance novels that try to weave in a full-fledged adventure/mystery/action/espionage/thriller/whatever plotline as I've discovered that many romance writers, not surprisingly, aren't that good at things that aren't... romance. They have a tendency to either make such storylines either TOO BIG or too small.

In the books where they're too big, the adventure/mystery/whateverface becomes a bloated, convoluted mess that distracts from the actual main romance plot -- not least because many writers seem unable to conceive of how to write such a plot without splitting into the POVs of countless minor protagonists and antagonists. In books where they're too small, the author often seems to forget about it halfway through in favor of fun, sexy times and then throws in a contrived resolution in the last 5% of the book. (I prefer the latter to the former simply because when I'm reading a romance I'm here for the... romance, not the author's attempts to let out their inner James Patterson.)

The Perils of Pleasure, however, is a romance novel that makes the other storyline just about the right size. The hero and heroine, Colin and Madeleine, are thrown together in the very opening of the book. He's about to hang for a crime he didn't commit; she's been hired to rescue him from the gallows. However, once Madeleine succeeds in fine fashion, she's betrayed by the person who hired her and so ends up stuck working WITH Colin to discover: a) why the same person who disposed of the only witness to his innocence appears to be the very one who hired Madeleine to rescue him, and b) why the very same person suddenly wants Madeleine dead. Oh, and of course, all of London is looking for Colin due to that whole spectacularly disappearing in the middle of his execution thing.

The book stays pretty closely with Madeleine and Colin for the whole and reveals both of them as people as they get to know each other better. (Spoiler alert: she falls in love with the mark.) Thus making the adventure/mystery plot actually SERVE the romance instead of being this separate distinct thing that's incidentally happening to them.

Their romance is a slow burn that has to build itself up through initial distrust, grudging alliance, and genuine camaraderie as they are left with only each other to depend on. My only complaint was that the final resolution of the romance was saved until literally the very end of the book. Though I did think that the secondary romance and Colin's relationship with his brother were very well portrayed for the tiny, tiny amount of relative page space they were offered.