Review: When the Rogue Returns by Sabrina Jeffries

It had been a decade since Victor Cale, first cousin to the Duke of Lyons, had seen his wife. After some royal jewelry went missing from the jeweler’s shop where they worked, Isabel Mertens disappeared. When Victor gets word of a woman who fits his wife’s description, he sets out to confront her. But he discovers that nothing is as it seems—and revenge is never as sweet as true love.

Isabella was just 18 years old when she married Victor Cale. She truly loved him and wanted to save him from her sister and her husband who were planning on stealing jewels and then taking a fake jewelry piece she had made and putting it in its place. Isa tried to fake illness in order to stop the robbery but when she woke in the morning her sister stated that it had been done. Her sister, Jacoba, stated that Victor had ended up helping them with the theft and that he had left for Antwerp to try and hawk them and that he would meet them in Paris. Isa waited and waited but Victor never showed. She finally takes a job and heads to Scotland with an assumed name.

Ten years later Victor is working for The Duke’s Men, really named Manton Investigations. His first job sends him to Scotland to look into a woman named Sophie Franke. She is spending time with a Baron and the Baron’s mother wants the scoop on this older woman (she’s all of 28!) Victor heads to Edinburgh and finds his wife, Isa. She wants nothing to do with a man who stole jewels and he wants nothing to do with a woman who played a part in stealing jewels. There are a ton of misconceptions flying around, all perpetrated by Jacoba and her husband. Victor and Isa find that they still love each other and eventually find out the truth about what happened 10 years ago but is it enough to let them heal after so many years of distrust?

Sabrina Jeffries does it again. She brings another fab story to us and weaves an intricate tale into it all. I loved the ins and outs of the whole jewelry heist and getting to the bottom of it all. I felt that Jeffries did a wonderful job of leading us to doubt Victor and that was part of what I loved about the book. You just wanted to trust but you weren’t sure if you could.

Sophie/Isa was an incredibly strong woman and I really liked her character. Her intelligence and courage in the face of everything she went through was highly admirable. She made a life for herself starting from nothing and that’s not easy – especially back then.

Victor, the poor man, what just confused. He’s thought for so long that Isa had everything to do with the jewelry heist but he still loved his wife and truly didn’t want to believe that she could have done such a thing. Yeah, he acted like an ass at first but after what he went through after the theft it was understandable.

Overall it was an exciting story and one that I had to pick up and read whenever I could. I didn’t want to put it down but life kept getting in the way! lol I definitely recommend this one go in your TBR pile.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Sabrina Jeffries

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