TWICE TEMPTED BY A ROGUE

Author: Tessa Dare ISBN: 9780345518873 7/2010 HISTORICAL Publisher: BALLANTINE
Time Period: Regency

Luck is a double-edged sword for brooding war hero Rhys St. Maur. His death wish went unanswered on the battlefield, while fate allowed the murder of his good friend in the elite gentlemen’s society known as the Stud Club. Out of options, Rhys returns to his ancestral home on the moors of Devonshire, expecting anything but a chance at redemption in the arms of a beautiful innkeeper who dares him to take on the demons of his past—and the sweet temptation of a woman’s love. Meredith Maddox believes in hard work, not fate, and romance isn’t part of her plan. But when Rhys returns, battle-scarred, world-weary, and more dangerously attractive than ever, the lovely widow is torn between determination and desire. As a deep mystery and dangerous smugglers threaten much more than their passionate reckoning, Meredith discovers that she must trust everything to a wager her heart placed long ago.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

We first meet Rhys St. Maur in ONE DANCE WITH A DUKE, where he is dark and death-obsessed. He is certainly not someone you would want to happen upon in a dark alley. Rhys in TWICE TEMPTED BY A ROGUE has been stripped of all of the things that make him interesting.  Now, he’s someone who was tortured as a child and believes unwaveringly in the power of fate. His belief in fate plays an enormous part in what drives him to pursue Meredith, and I, for one, found it an easy way to throw Rhys and Meredith together without really laying the foundation for why such a match should work. My biggest complaint about Rhys is that he’s so tortured, he’s not interesting anymore. Add to this the fact that he believes so heavily in fate, that what you’re left with is an infinitely boring story. You know this is a romance, so you know Rhys and Meredith will end up together; but on top of that you have Rhys, who in the beginning isn’t even trying to woo Meredith because they are destined to be together.

Considering the whole Stud Club trilogy is based on figuring out the murder of the Club’s founder, it’s not a surprise that TWICE TEMPTED BY A ROGUE is on the dark side. It’s darker than I generally enjoy, however, and I found myself skimming some parts just to get through them. I will certainly read THREE NIGHTS WITH A SCOUNDREL, but TWICE TEMPTED BY A ROGUE, so far, is the weakest link in the Stud Club trilogy.

Jilian Vallade