Review: About a Rogue

About a Rogue by Caroline Linden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

Bianca resolved before noon on her wedding day that she would hate and despise her husband for the rest of her life. 

About a Rogue kicks off the Desperately Seeking Duke series with an intriguing start. Readers might be thrown at first as we get the story first and then the characters, which is different from the more typical introduction to characters and then we follow them to get the story. Here, we are first introduced to the Duchess of Carlyle and her man Mr. Edwards and through their discussion and the duchess' musings, we learn that her younger son has just died. This is particularly important because her husband is dead and her oldest son is intellectually disabled, an heir is needed for the vast and rich Carlyle dukedom. Mr. Edwards has discovered three possible heirs, “An army man, a cardsharp, or a Frenchman,”, choices the duchess isn't particularly excited about. When the army man, Captain Andrew St. James and the cardsharp, Maximilian St. James show up, she interviews them and explains that she will give them an allowance and keep a watch over them to see how responsible and settled they are and in six months time they are to report back to her. Max is the second heir behind the captain but he has had at least one foot in poverty all his life and is determined to not let this opportunity pass him by, he's going to find a way to turn the duchess' allowance into a permanent flow of money he can control. 

He suspected they had both acted on impulse, even if her impulse sprang from passion and fury while his came from an iron-willed determination not to let this opportunity slide through his grasp.

Bianca has lived in Perusia all her life, a town founded by her father's pottery works business, she loves creating new glazes and working there. When a man starts coming around and her father is impressed with his fine London ways, connections to a dukedom, and seems to be trying to court her older sister Cathy, Bianca is instantly on her guard. Bianca knows that Cathy is in love with the local curate and when their father approves a marriage between them, Bianca helps Cathy plan her elopement. When the day of the wedding comes and there is no bride, Bianca and her father fight and push each other until Bianca agrees to marry Max in Cathy's place, thinking Max will refuse. Max just wanting to accomplish a stakehold in Perusia, agrees to marry Bianca. 

Even in his plain, sober clothing, wearing spectacles and reading a dust-dry contract. Obviously he knew he was a handsome man. Bianca was wildly annoyed that she had to know it, too. 

With the marriage of convenience, there is also some enemies-to-lovers and Taming of the Shrew. Bianca only calls Max “That Man” and will test your resolve with her very caustic and borderline bratty attitude. Max through it all just plays the calm and unruffled husband trying to build and implement some new ideas to improve Perusia, while also non-confrontationally challenging Bianca. It's around the 40% mark that Bianca starts to thaw towards him and their relationship takes over as the focus of the story as they travel to London for some Vauxhall sexiness and then come home for what turns out to be some foreplay in the form of a competitive game of cricket. There's obviously some slow burn to this couple but what I really enjoyed was how there felt like purpose to their sex scenes. Max decides early that he won't push anything or in fact act on any signs from Bianca until she is all in with her desire, which can be read as Max wanting that emotional connection from her. They start off oil and water but as each emotional connection is built, so is the feeling of desire and it made the eventual physical scenes have that much more heat to them. 

No one had ever spoken to her like that. No one had ever looked at her this way. It made her feel wild and beautiful and powerful, that this man wanted her. 

This story was more about the present time and Max and Bianca connecting. There is some background to Max, his father being a wastrel, his mother writing to the Duke of Carlyle for financial help and only receiving a five pound note, and his aunt ending up caring for him, that explained aspects of his personality and helped fill out his character. Bianca was outshone by him as her beginning attitude was aggravating in The Shrew way. I also thought that the ending issue with Max's aunt had a bit of forced in drama, instead of adding to the story, feel. Overall, though, this had an appreciated different feel to it while still giving the tried and true Vauxhall but adding in some interesting pottery works elements. Max and Bianca were a sparking spot to stop off at for a while in the overarching plot of finding an heir for the Carlyle dukedom. The ending brings us back to the beginning with the Captain and, as of now, first in line heir, not heard from for a while and missing. This series started off fresh and intriguing, I'm looking forward the next. 

He smiled, that lazy rogue’s smile that both put her on guard and made something inside her soften treacherously.

View all my reviews