A review by burningupasun
The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee

4.0

I feel like on a large scale, I enjoyed this book. The plot was mostly tidy again, and the way Mary's family/background was addressed was weaved well into the other plot. I was glad simply to have her background addressed somewhat, and not just pushed away. In addition I was happy to see the progress in the romance in this book, I was worried it would repeat the previous two, and have them conveniently break apart at the end yet again.

However the book was somewhat spoiled for me by the scenes involving sexual harassment and what very nearly amounted to rape. It wasn't so much the first instance of harassment that bothered me so much as the second, or rather Mary's reaction to it.

Spoiler

I could 'understand' first the Prince's companion and then him coming onto her and assaulting her (by 'understand' I mean from a context of the setting and the 'norms' of the time), but Mary's internal monologue over whether it was worth giving up her bodily autonomy for the Agency, was just too upsetting for me. Her internal acceptance of basically giving up her virginity by what amounted to essentially rape (since she wasn't truly willing, just trapped in a corner) as 'worth it' for the Agency/her job, was nauseating, and frankly wasn't really fixed by her last-minute panic and pushing him away.

Minus that, though, it was a good book, and I especially enjoyed the ending and the set-up for the fourth and final installment.