The Rogue and the Rival

I loved her first bookThe Heir and the Spare (Negligent Chaperone Series) and this was another winner. This is story of Lord Phillip (Devon was his twin brother from 1st novel) and is a terrible man and rake. He wakes in a Abbey surrounded by nuns after being left for dead. Angela has not taken her vows and has been put in charge of caring for Phillip. This novel take the reader on so many emotional rides , I would become overhead is certain parts, angry and frustrated in other and sometime anxious that something bad was going to happen, and in the end it will leave you with a smile. Enjoy! If you enjoy this genre I would also suggest; Good With His Hands (Zebra Debut), Compromised (Berkley Sensation) , At the Bride Hunt Ball (Avon Romance) and As Luck Would Have It (Leisure Historical Romance).

It was such a pleasure to read a romance book that didn't just stick to the tired old conventions and actually developed proper characters and storyline. The two principal characters are fantastic and the abbey scenes are wonderful. If I had to pick holes I would say that in the last few chapters I wanted Rodale to get on with it and get them to the altar already but that might just be my impatience talking. The thing I like with these books is that it feels like I've come across the new Julia Quinn or Eloisa James and at the moment I have her all to myself. I have a feeling that it won't be long before Maya Rodale is up there with the best.

This 2nd romance of Ms. Rodale's is a remarkable followup to The Heir and the Spare. This book kept me intrigued and constantly wondering what could possibly happen next. Everytime you settle into the story a gripping turn occurs. I have read other romances and none draw you in as the story and writing style of Ms. Rodale's. This is the book all Girlfriends need to share with each other and pass to a friend with a nice bottle of wine!

Phillip Kensington, Marquis of Huntley, is a womanizer and a wastrel. He drinks too much, he gambles too often, and he breaks women's hearts. The ultimate rogue, he has never had to own up to his behavior until now. Having gambled to the point that he has no money whatsoever to pay his debts, he is on the run from his creditors. Injured by a gunshot wound from the people chasing him, he wakes up in a barren, severe room at Stanbrook Abbey. Not sure where he is or why, Phillip is brazen to the point of rudeness when his nurse finally shows up. Once he gets a good look at her, however, Phillip begins to imagine all sorts of risqué things. Angela, his nurse, is having none of it. The more Philip pushes the more she pulls away or at least tries to. Phillip is anything if not persistent and the couple fall in love and plan to be married. Angela Sullivan has spent six years at Stanbrook Abbey and even planned on taking her vows there. For six years she has prayed and repented and wished for forgiveness for ruining her family with her indiscretion with a lord of the ton. When Lord Huntley is injured and Angela is assigned the task of caring for him, she refuses to allow her heart to really see the man inside his impudent outer shell. Falling in love with him happens almost instantaneously and Phillip asks her to marry him. She accepts but no sooner does that happen then Phillip disappears without a trace and Angela is once again heartbroken. Refusing to take her vows, she travels to London to become employed. There she sees the first man that broke her heart. When Phillip returns, will Angela still love him or will the man who ruined her, now a widower, resume their relationship where it ended? Phillip was the ultimate degenerate bad boy. Borderline alcoholic, he gambles and cats around with women just because he can. Never having to own up to anything in his life, Phillip is used to being the rake and his older twin the good guy. Or rather, he is becoming used to it ever since the truth about his birth order was finally told. My heart went out to him because underneath his bluster and blunder and bad manners was a man yearning for love. Angela was no different. She was an unwilling victim of society and its rules and its cruelties. She gave her heart to a man, not her husband, and when he found out that her dowry was not as big as he thought, he remembered he was betrothed to someone else. Because of this, Angela spent six years paying for her mistakes and embarrassment to her family. Wanting nothing more than forgiveness, she doesn't know who to forgive herself. She knows her desire to be a wife and mother is more than she can hope for but she does. THE ROGUE AND THE RIVAL is the second installment of Maya Rodale's Negligent Chaperone series. It is a regency historical romance set in the English countryside. Perfectly written and freshly engaging, I am happy to report that THE ROGUE AND THE RIVAL took me away to a

When I turned the last page of The Heir and the Spare, I bid good riddance to Philip Kensington - he got what he had coming to him, vile and spiteful as he was. I was stunned to learn on mayarodale.com that he would return as a hero in The Rogue and the Rival! Maya Rodale delivered a brilliantly written and very clever story in which Philip not only redeemed himself, he proved most deserving of love. Like The Heir and the Spare, The Rogue and the Rival has intriguing, smart characters with exciting story twists and is even richer, more vivid and complex. Maya's description of what a man should know about how a woman should be kissed was so incredibly insightful, I read the passage to my husband and was rewarded with a lovely kiss of my own! (that would be page 77 readers.) It was fun revisiting The Heir and the Spare characters, like Lady Palmerston, and finding the scattering of references to The Darcy Darlington novelette - well done! With winter on it's way, The Rogue and the Rival is the perfect complement to a rainy or snowy day with a soft, downy blanket and a nice cup of tea (English tea of course!)