THE CARE AND TAMING OF A ROGUE

Author: Suzanne Enoch ISBN: 9780061795145 11/2009 HISTORICAL Publisher: AVON
Time Period: Regency

How to tell if a man is an unrepentant rogue: 1. He has no patience for frivolous debutantes 2. He kisses you after a single dance 3. He makes you forget yourself and kiss him back . . . After years away from London, Captain Bennett Wolfe is back—and alive, much to Society's surprise. Having been presumed dead, this rugged adventurer is now much sought after by every marriage-minded young woman . . . but Bennett only has eyes for the intriguing Lady Phillipa Eddison. Phillipa would rather read than flirt, but she does know a thing or two about proper courtship rituals. A gentleman does not kiss a lady senseless, and he certainly does not bring his pet monkey when he comes calling. Lady Phillipa's ever been so scandalized . . . or tempted. She simply must teach Bennett some manners—before she succumbs to temptation as wild as the man who offers it.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

When writing this review, there were several factors that needed to be sorted out first for this to work.  One was how the male lead came off; second was how the female lead came off; and lastly, how it all wrapped up in the end.  Individually there would normally be problems, but together, all the details seem to work.

Bennett Wolfe, the male lead, has almost no polish at all.  He has spent almost all of the last decade and more traveling around and living in rough circumstances.  What little use he has for polite society—and he truly has little use for it—he reserves mainly to keep up with one or two close friends and to fund his various explorations.  Rogue is an apt description, since he doesn't play by anyone's rules unless it benefits him, which he explains to Phillipa.  Often.

Meanwhile, Phillipa Eddison was both vexing and charming.  She fretted over the fact that Bennett paid her attention instead of the bevy of beautiful girls and women throwing themselves at him almost obsessively.  She could not, even under duress, understand why any man would pay her court when her older, more beautiful and accomplished sister Olivia is still available.  Other than her sister getting paid more attention by the beau monde, I couldn't quite understand where her lack of self-esteem came from.  She wasn't treated badly at home, and a lot of her isolation was purely her fault because she kept herself tied up with a book or chose her clothes unfortunately.

Together, however, they were brilliant.  Caught between amusement and offense, Phillipa was never quite certain how to handle Bennett, even at his most civilized.  He also had an unfortunate habit of jumping the shark—he presents her two dozen blood-red roses only days after meeting her, not realizing what red roses symbolized.  Bennett continually tries to get her to be more confident (and passionate), and she constantly tries to get him to at least pretend he can be civilized.

The background story, of Bennett trying to regain his rightful property and bring Langley to justice for stealing his work and publishing it as his own, doesn't quite fit.  Bennett gesticulates between the two, and until the latter quarter of the novel, the two don't mesh together at all.  The almost after thought family reconciliation, of sorts, between Bennett and his Uncle, is also just there with little to have it hang on to.

I did enjoy THE CARE AND TAMING OF A ROGUE quite a bit despite some of the issues I had, and I was more than pleased with what happened to Langley in the end.

Alexandra Cenni