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I love the premise of this series – an ailing duke suddenly without a successor, the search for potential heirs on a sparse family tree and the challenge to the heirs from the elderly duchess to start acting like ‘duke material’.
In book one of the series, About a Rogue, Maximilian St. James is one of the potential heirs called to Carlyle Castle by the aging Duchess of Carlyle. Two of the three candidates for the next Duke of Carlyle have been located and the Duchess admonishes them to change their ways and start behaving as a future duke should, and she offers to fund their transitions. Max has always lived on the fringes of society, supporting himself through his talent at gambling, but he has been making plans for the past few years to become completely respectable and financially stable. Now, with the funds provided by the Duchess, he is able to act on his plans. He travels to Marslip Hill in Stafforshire where the Tate family owns a very successful pottery manufactory. His plan is to marry the beautiful, dutiful younger Tate daughter Cathy and become a successful businessman. With Cathy in Marslip and Max spending most of his time in London showcasing and selling the wares from Tate’s business, Max figures he can still indulge his roguish side and also enjoy the benefits of financial security.
That’s exactly what Cathy’s sister Bianca is worried about. Cathy, while feeling obligated to abide by her father’s wishes and marry the cousin of a duke, is already in love with the local vicar Mr. Mayne. Bianca is convinced that Max is a scoundrel so when Bianca discovers Cathy’s plan to elope with Mayne, she supports the plan and, the night before Cathy’s marriage to Max, aids in the couple’s elopement. The following morning, in an attempt to placate her furious father, prevent the shares he’d bestowed on Max leaving the family, and head off a suit for breach of promise, Bianca agrees to marry Max instead and the two embark upon a marriage of convenience with Bianca continuing to believe the worst of Max and Max happy to at last be on the path to a secure and lucrative future.
I love a good marriage of convenience story and, for the most part, About a Rogue delivers. Bianca and Max have good chemistry and it is obvious from the start that they share a mutual fascination. Bianca is committed to the family pottery business and works on the dyes and her own designs. Max is equally invested in the business (although it takes a while to convince Bianca of this) and Ms. Linden cleverly uses their working interactions to bring them closer and closer. Bianca has to respect her partner and it’s fun to watch Max work hard to convince her of his worthiness. As a couple, they truly shine. And I liked them as individuals too.
My only problem with the story is that there is an obvious secret Max is hiding from Bianca and it’s not until close to the end that all is revealed and by then it’s a jolt to the plot, and the misunderstanding that results is a bit boring. Max also seems determined to hide some of his roguish past from Bianca – a subplot that is never really resolved. I would have rather seen him admit to his past and have them both move on than have that storyline just fizzle out.
Even with my disappointment over some of the storylines, About a Rogue is an entertaining tale and I look forward to reading the rest of the Desperately Seeking Duke series. Ms. Linden ends About a Rogue with an interesting twist that will lead nicely into book two of the series. I look forward to seeing who the next Duke of Carlyle will be!
Note: the Kindle edition includes a bonus e-novella.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
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Grade: B
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 01/07/20
Publication Date: 06/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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How can there be any question of picking a candidate? Surely the dukedom falls to the next in line, regardless of their character?
Hi Suzanna, you are right of course and the book is quite clear about that as well.
But there are two twists:
So the hero of this book, while currently not the heir might conceivably become the heir
Thanks for explaining that. The “pick an heir” thing is a deal-breaker for me, when the author hasn’t bothered doing even minimal research on titles. Glad to hear it’s not the case here – I like Linden’s books.
Katja is right – I left Evelyn’s comment about wanting to know who the next duke will be, because of information we receive at the end – which is a spoiler – and because of the mysterious third “dark horse” potential heir.
Oops, I hope my comment wasn’t a spoiler. Since we are told about the rather insecure situation very early in the book, I thought my comment was safe. If not, I apologize and please feel free to delete.
No, it’s fine – the situation as regards the possible third heir is discussed within the first few chapters,.
The biggest problem I had was with the subplot. CL did something similar in her last book – had a secondary plot that was very much in the background for almost all the book which then completely took over in the last few chapters. I’d probably give it around the same grade, but it would have been higher had it not been for that plot!fail.
I can’t even remember the subplot! I just recall wanting to tell Bianca to get a grip!
This was a 5 star read to me until his secret was revealed. This ridiculous subplot nearly ruined the book for me. I liked her, I liked him, I liked this story…everything was humming along nicely until Linden gilds the lily with this terrible twist. The DIK went to a B- on that alone.
I’ve gone with a B for the story in my audio review, but I had exactly the same problem with it as you did. The issue was certainly one that carried a terrible stigma for any family but it felt like an afterthought.
The plot twist was jarring – it felt like the train went off the tracks for a moment and had a hard time recovering. I will definitely read the next books in the series.as the setup is intriguing and I do want to see how it is all resolved.
I found Bianca almost unbearable. I suspect that her self-absorption is supposed to indicate liberation but, to me, she is hard to root for.
Interesting. For me Bianca was the highlight of the book. I didn’t find her self-absorbed as much as focussed on her experiments and her job. Which I quite liked. She wasn’t playing at working, she was taking her work very seriously and clearly loved it. Maybe she was too preoccupied with the company, its future and her place in it, but she clearly also cared very much for her sister, so I didn’t mind.
In contrast I found Max charming but a bit predictable.
So many historical romances right now feature heroines in various professions and tell us how damn good they are at their jobs, but rarely are we shown them doing that job or anything vaguely businesslike. I was pleased that wasn’t the case here, so kudos to Ms. Linden for that.
I liked her dedication to her work. But her treatment of Max was shabby.
Linden’s another never-disappointer for me; this looks great!