Well! This is an unusual Regency romance!
The Virgin and the Rogue (The Rogue Files #6) by Sophie Jordan
A young engaged woman, Charlotte Langley, takes a concoction to treat the onset of her menses, made up by her herbalist / pharmacutical inclined sister, Nora. After feeling strangely like her skins on fire, she then 'jumps the bones' of her brother-in-law's visiting illegitimate step brother, the rakish, handsome Kingston.
My head was reeling and this was just the opening salvo! After deciding she had obviously been under the influence of an aphrodisiac mixture, Charlotte does it again...and again. Like a cat on heat really when she's around the gorgeous Kingston. And this is the quiet, boring, middle sister.
It was so ludicrous, verging on the comic, that I found I had to keep reading even as I mentally winced...continually!
All this whilst Charlotte is betrothed to a childhood friend, Billy, whose mother is a social climbing tyrant.
I'm in two minds about this novel. It's either a five star brilliant parody playing with the rake and innocent young miss genre, or it's a one star trite historical romance relieved by heaps of panting sexuality.
I've decided to settle for somewhere in between. The plot calls for suspension of belief of any preconceived notions of how a Regency miss should or would behave. I felt like I'd wandered into an Alice in Wonderland plot, where the innocent Alice (Charlotte) goes down a rabbit hole and comes out at the Fanny Hill end. I kept reading to see what was going to happen! Charlotte overcome by the force of attraction for Kingston keeps succumbing to her feelings, even when the excuse of having unknowingly drunk an elixir that stimulates her hormones runs out.
The story is littered with surprisingly insightful cameos, even as the storyline made my head spin. Like Charlotte catching a glimpse of Billy's grandmother peering out from a window, seemingly trapped within the walls of the house, looking out at the world, and never being able to partake. In that moment Charlotte makes the connection of how her future with Billy and his pernickety, bossy mother would be. Hauntingly realistic.
I was annoyed when Charlotte kept failing to find her voice. The moments never seemed right for her to exert herself. Someone else's need is always paramount. When Charlotte did find her voice it came as a complete shock to all. Now that was a wonderful show stopper!
Kingston the misunderstood rogue is at heart a man who we just know can grow into a better person when given the chance, and of course I kept hoping that Charlotte will be that catalyst.
So for this regency reader, this is a winner if somewhat astonishing.
I'm now contemplating what the series has in store for Nora, our pharmacy whizz. When she comes into her own I except her story to be equally as strange and complicated.
A HarperCollins ARC via NetGalley
****
My head was reeling and this was just the opening salvo! After deciding she had obviously been under the influence of an aphrodisiac mixture, Charlotte does it again...and again. Like a cat on heat really when she's around the gorgeous Kingston. And this is the quiet, boring, middle sister.
It was so ludicrous, verging on the comic, that I found I had to keep reading even as I mentally winced...continually!
All this whilst Charlotte is betrothed to a childhood friend, Billy, whose mother is a social climbing tyrant.
I'm in two minds about this novel. It's either a five star brilliant parody playing with the rake and innocent young miss genre, or it's a one star trite historical romance relieved by heaps of panting sexuality.
I've decided to settle for somewhere in between. The plot calls for suspension of belief of any preconceived notions of how a Regency miss should or would behave. I felt like I'd wandered into an Alice in Wonderland plot, where the innocent Alice (Charlotte) goes down a rabbit hole and comes out at the Fanny Hill end. I kept reading to see what was going to happen! Charlotte overcome by the force of attraction for Kingston keeps succumbing to her feelings, even when the excuse of having unknowingly drunk an elixir that stimulates her hormones runs out.
The story is littered with surprisingly insightful cameos, even as the storyline made my head spin. Like Charlotte catching a glimpse of Billy's grandmother peering out from a window, seemingly trapped within the walls of the house, looking out at the world, and never being able to partake. In that moment Charlotte makes the connection of how her future with Billy and his pernickety, bossy mother would be. Hauntingly realistic.
I was annoyed when Charlotte kept failing to find her voice. The moments never seemed right for her to exert herself. Someone else's need is always paramount. When Charlotte did find her voice it came as a complete shock to all. Now that was a wonderful show stopper!
Kingston the misunderstood rogue is at heart a man who we just know can grow into a better person when given the chance, and of course I kept hoping that Charlotte will be that catalyst.
So for this regency reader, this is a winner if somewhat astonishing.
I'm now contemplating what the series has in store for Nora, our pharmacy whizz. When she comes into her own I except her story to be equally as strange and complicated.
A HarperCollins ARC via NetGalley
****
Comments
Post a Comment