About a Rogue audiobook

About a Rogue by Caroline Linden brings a fresh setting and engaging characters to this historical romance. Bianca Tate can’t stay silent and do nothing when her older sister Cathy needs to accept a marriage offer from Maximilian St. James. Therefore, she helps her sister elope with her true love and takes Cathy’s place at the altar. Max has had a hard life and has relied on charm and wit to survive. However, he has learned that he has the slim possibility of coming a duke. Bianca and Max are fully developed characters with lots of chemistry. However, this is not an instant love story. Additionally, several of the secondary characters are well developed and provide additional interest and conflict.When this author puts a marriage of convenience, a disdain for the groom, and an indifference to which sister is the bride together with a pottery works at the bottom of Marslip Hill, the novel is a winner. I enjoyed learning more about how the earthenware was produced. The world-building was great in the country setting and during the trip to London. There was always a strong sense of time and place transporting me to 1787. I also enjoyed the everyday life and the cricket game.Secrets, lies of omission, misunderstandings, business ventures, family, friendship, intrique, gambling, wit, enjoyable plot, hurt feelings, and much more keep the story moving at a good clip. There are some steamy scenes in the latter part of the book and there is very little violence. This novel isn’t super twisty, but if you like intelligent scientific female protagonists and strong male leads, then this may be the book for you.Overall, this was engrossing, entertaining, and a good start to a new series. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.I won a digital copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

I was given an Advanced Review Copy by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was extremely excited and feel privileged to be chosen, so I will write a bit more than usual. I don't know how Caroline Linden does it, but she always evokes an emotional reaction in me. She also frequently has Heroes who must grow on me throughout the book. Maximilian St. James was just such a hero. He arranged to marry Cathy, the beautiful eldest daughter of Samuel Tate, only to gain some control in the Perusia pottery works family business. Cathy was a very biddable daughter. She didn't speak up against the match to her father. However, she was in love with the local rector Mr. Mayne; and on impulse, she packed to run away in secret. Fortunately, her sister Bee caught her and helped her plan the escape more thoroughly. Bianca Tate was quite the opposite of Cathy--less porcelain doll perfect beauty, more fiery temper, and not biddable at all. She never planned to marry and worked long hours in Perusia, her first love. When the wedding day came and Mr. Tate found the bride missing, he confessed to the remaining daughter Bianca that he gave away 25% of Perusia. Since he would be in breach of contract, the only way to save the family business would be for Bianca to fill in and marry St. James. In anger, she agreed; and Max seemed to have no issue either. I felt Bianca's rage. I almost shook with tears of anger at her father. There may be readers who have an issue with the heroine. She was hard-headed and not malleable. She held on to her anger and did not give her husband a chance at first. However, I felt her stance so well, I thought it best she took a long time to come around. Max was her perfect match. Although he was a rake and a rogue in his past, he did have many good character qualities. He was slow to anger and willing to be patient to win the long game: "like a steady flow of water over stone, his attention and suggestive words were wearing away her resistance." Another consistent joy for me in Linden's writing is her movement. Her stories don't simply take place with the aristocracy in countless ballroom scenes. The characters have a greater purpose, and the action of the story takes place in varying location settings. In addition to some of the best character and relationship development, her stories have mystery that is unveiled seamlessly. I was happy to receive answers to all my questions about Max's past and greatly look forward to finding out what happened to Captain St. James in Book 2. Also included was a lovely E-ONLY Novella between the valet Christopher Lawrence and the lady's maid Jenny Hickson. It was a sweet bonus. All in all, this was a perfect romantic read I highly recommend to anyone, whether you have read the author before or not, even if you do not like heroines who take a long time before giving the hero a chance.

About a Rogue was my first book from Caroline Linden, but it won't be my last. I found it to be utterly delightful. I was sort of afraid that Max would be a difficult MC to like, but he was really someone I enjoyed for the entire book. He was smart and resilient, and just very, very likable. Plus. his chemistry with Bianca was electric. I really enjoyed the slow-build, enemies-to-lovers romance, and I felt as though everything evolved very organically. Bianca was a little harder to like as she hates Max at the beginning, and runs with that hatred for way longer than Max deserves. However, I liked how fiercely loyal she was and how she fought for what she believed in. Everything from the plot to the supporting characters was really well done. It was the kind of book where I had trouble finding something I didn't enjoy. Sure, it wasn't the kind of book that I stay up all night reading, but I would recommend this book again and again to my historical romance-loving friends. A very solid romance and a great introduction to Caroline Linden. A big win for me. *Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*goodreads|instagram|twitter|blog

4.5 stars. Ah yes my first ever hr book with a marriage of convenience married couple that supports each other outside and inside the bedroom doors. He's literally her business partner and bounces off ideas with her for her family business. And it's an enemies to lovers where she has low self esteem since she's not her sister while he has his dark secrets of his own that he thinks he won't be suitable for her. And they're so so so adorable when they're living together and spending time together. All the stolen glances. Small touches. And secret smiles??? Kill me.

3.5 starsI 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.

This was pretty good. I don't usually bother with Georgian-era historical romance, but this had remarkably little of that period beyond occasional mentions of powdered hair and suchlike. Max himself is, of course, his own man and wears his long hair in a queue unpowdered like god intended. Or something. Okay, I'm poking fun and the book doesn't earn it. Most of it is outside of anything that'd have a strong imprint of the era so it ended up being much less a factor than I'd feared.Not that Linden goes out of her way to be period accurate. I mean, Max and Bianca are openly talking trade with Max's noble friends and nobody says boo and he even brags on Bianca's way with inventing new glazes. To an actual ducal buddy of his. And everybody is all impressed and stuff. So yeah, pretty ahistorical, I'm thinking. And that's before we get to the Tate family response to Max's great secret.But I didn't actually mind all of that because frankly, I was in it for Max and Bianca and I liked both of them a ton and was pulling for them to join as a team from the beginning. Max made for a great underdog to root for and Bianca was tough, but fair, if a bit fast on the judgement about Max. Both are hard-working and since they care deeply about the same thing, that worked out fantastic. I loved when they worked together, whether it was for the Tate family business or playing cricket.Not so happy-making was Max's great secret. Worse, it was the kind of secret that the author kind of had to keep coy about for it to have any impact at all—mostly because it was the kind of thing that wouldn't strike modern audiences as something Max should dread at all. And since Bianca and her family responded like truly enlightened people (i.e. modern), it really was a lot of angst over nothing just like a reader would have suspected if Linden hadn't been so coy. Which is a long way of saying that the secret keeping was annoying and the reason for it turned out to be lame.So the minor annoyance of the era attitudes being warped in the protagonists favor and the whole secret keeping thing makes this a four star read, though solidly so for me. And yeah, that's mainly because I liked the protagonists so much and really loved seeing them develop love, trust, and intimacy.A note about Steamy: There are most of three explicit sex scenes putting this in the middle of my steam tolerance. They were about what I expected they'd be so . . . serviceable enough. By the time they happen, the couple is already intimate in every meaningful way so they're mostly gratuitous, really.

I really enjoyed this story. It had a nice plot, a little bit different than the usually regency book. I especially liked the heroine, Bianca had a nice evolution and she matured into a strong and wonderful woman. The Hero was a respectful and lovely man. I liked how he waited for her to feel secure before bedding her even tho he had blue balls. 😅There were things I wanted to see more of and were left unexplored. But it was an enjoyable read.

I'm really pleasantly surprised here!This is such a nice and heartwarming story!I loved the romance and how the hero changed by himself! It was really lovely to read!The same can be said about the heroine! And how she changed her view of the hero because she was able to actually think! And that's so rare in romancelandia! LOL

Best part about this book was neither the hero or heroine did a suprise 180 at the end and needed to apologize/atone for something as in the case in the majority of romance books. Instead these were two flawed but good people trying to make a unplanned marriage work to the best of their abilities and they did. I totally believed they fell in love fully and completely by the end. I loved the cricket match and the end with (view spoiler)[Bianca's great aunt totally supporting and welcoming Max's aunt who was recently rescued from an awful mental institute. I am always here for families supporting families. (hide spoiler)]I have book 2 and 2.5 on hold through Libby. Fingers crossed they come in soon because I need more of this series in my life (even though we all already know its the lost Frenchman that will wind up with the dukedom by the end haha)