Wednesday, October 22, 2008

To Rescue A Rogue (A Novel of the Company of Rogues)

To Rescue A Rogue by Jo Beverley (2006)

Pages: 411

ISBN: 9780451220110

Description: Lady Mara St. Bride has never backed down from a good adventure, which was how she wound up roaming the streets of London in the middle of the night, wearing nothing but a shift and corset beneath an old blanket. Luckily, her brother's oldest friend, the devilishly sexy Lord Darius Debenham, answered her plea for help. Now she intends to repay the favor...

Before Dare was wounded at Waterloo, he had embraced everything life had to offer. Forever changed by the war, he believes nothing-not even the interference of a lovely young minx like Mara-can rescue him from his demons. But Mara is determined to reignite his warm smile, and enlists the help of all the Rogues to offer Dare a temptation he cannot resist...

Review: The story begins with Lady Mara wandering the streets of London trying to reach her sister's London home without getting caught. Did I mention that she is also only in her corset and wrapped in a blanket? Somehow, she manages to find her brother's best friend's home, but alas, he is not home. After a few moments of Terror, Dare arrives home and saves her. Lady Mara has known Dare for some time, but now she is grown and not the adventurous child she used to be. Even though he is recovering from wounds suffered in Waterloo (and opium addiction), Dare cannot resist helping Lady Mara. In return she tries to help Dare. By planning little outings, she learns more about the man Dare has become and falls in love with him. Dare can't help himself and has also fallen for Lady Mara, but he doesn't feel worthy of her due to his addiction. However, he can't let her fall into some other man's hands so he proposes to her with a condition... he has to be free of the Opium. Other outside forces collide with this couple and they fight for their love to survive.

This is one of the last books in Beverley's Rogue series. The great thing about them is that you can read them apart and still figure out what is going on. I really liked the characters of Lady Mara and Dare and cheered them on throughout the book. The book did start to lag in the middle and there did seem to be a lot of extra drama thrown in that really didn't need to be there. It almost felt like Beverley was trying to make the book at least 400 pages so she had to throw in some extra drama to fill it up. Overall, it was a good story and I did enjoy reading it.

Score: 3 out of 5

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