Tag: The Rogue Files

Guest Review: The Duke Buys a Bride by Sophie Jordan

Posted July 18, 2018 by Tracy in Reviews | 4 Comments

Guest Review: The Duke Buys a Bride by Sophie JordanReviewer: Tracy
The Duke Buys a Bride by Sophie Jordan
Series: The Rogue Files #3
Also in this series: While the Duke Was Sleeping
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: July 24, 2018
Format: eARC
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 368
Add It: Goodreads
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three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

A bride wasn’t in his plans . . .

The last thing Marcus, the Duke of Autenberry, expects to see after sleeping off a night’s drunken shenanigans is a woman being auctioned in the village square. Before he can think about the ramifications, he buys her, thinking he’s winning the girl her freedom. Instead, he discovers he’s bought a wife.

A duke wasn’t in hers . . .

Alyse Bell is almost rid of the shackles that bound her in a name-only marriage, but the day her friend promised to purchase her in a wife auction, he vanishes, leaving her to face a mob of unsavory bachelors intent on owning her body and soul. But the appearance of a wicked, wealthy stranger changes her path forever.

The road to ruin . . .

Marcus doesn’t know what to do with the impertinent chit who clearly isn’t duchess material! Insisting their marriage isn’t legitimate, they leave for his estate in Scotland, hoping to devise a plan to get rid of each other. However, on a journey fraught with misadventure, their attraction grows and Marcus realizes he’ll do anything to keep this fiery woman for his own.

Marcus, the Duke of Autenberry, has gotten out of London and he’s more or less wandering the countryside trying to escape his woes. (I’m assuming his woes occurred in previous books but I didn’t read the previous books so I’m not sure.) He comes upon a village green one day and sees that there is an auction – of a woman!  He’s disgusted by the proceedings and when it looks like a disgusting man might get the girl, he bids a ridiculous amount and wins her for himself.  He doesn’t realize that this is a bride auction.  By buying her he is now her husband.  Of course he denies that with everything he is and sets off with the girl to his estate in the Highlands.  He says he’ll make her his housekeeper and pay her well.

Alyse’s dad died when she was just 14 years old – seven years ago.  He made an arrangement with a man with a ton of children for Alyse to marry him and take care of his kids in exchange for taking care of Alyse.  While she’s technically been his wife for years she’s really been a servant, raising his kids and taking care of his house.  The bride auction is a way to “divorce” her current husband and marry her long-time friend, Yardley.  Only when they arrive at the auction they find that Yardley high-tailed it out of town first thing that morning.  Alyse is devastated and tries to stop the auction but her husband has his eye on another woman so she’s out of luck.  When this man, Marcus, buys her she’s not sure what will happen but she figures she’ll take him up on his offer of a living as a housekeeper, save money and then become an independent woman.

As Alyse and Marcus travel they talk and find out more about each other, although Alyse doesn’t know he’s a duke.  Despite Marcus’s determination to stay away from Alyse he finds that he can’t manage it.  He’s desperately attracted to her.  Of course this causes him to be hot and cold with her and that’s frustrating for both of them.

This was a good story.  I liked so much of it and the whole premise grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.  I had no idea when I started reading that wife selling was actually a thing back in the late 17th century and continued on until the 19th century.  I understand only the extremely wealthy could get an actual divorce, but I had no idea this was a way of going about getting rid of your wife.  Yikes.  From what I read this was actually a mutual agreement between husband and wife, and the wife had a final say in who purchased her (it was also illegal).  In this book, she didn’t have a choice so therein lies our story.

Marcus was a bit of an ass at times but I liked him anyway.  Alyse was pretty fierce for being sold like chattel but she held her own and I liked her inner strength.  There was a time when a clan interfered in the story and I thought that Alyse acted ridiculously but there you have it.

I thought the story had some occasions where it dragged but overall I enjoyed the story and recommend it.

Rating: 3.5/4 out of 5

The Rogue Files

three-half-stars


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Guest Review: While the Duke Was Sleeping by Sophie Jordan

Posted October 25, 2016 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: While the Duke Was Sleeping by Sophie JordanReviewer: Tracy
While the Duke Was Sleeping by Sophie Jordan
Series: The Rogue Files #1
Also in this series: The Duke Buys a Bride
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: October 25th 2016
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Sometimes the man of your dreams . . .

Shop girl Poppy Fairchurch knows it’s pointless fantasizing about the Duke of Autenberry. Still, dreams can’t hurt anyone . . . unlike the carriage Poppy spies bearing down upon the unsuspecting duke. After she pulls him to safety, the duke lapses into a coma and Poppy is mistaken for his fiancée. But one person isn’t fooled: his arrogant and much too handsome half-brother, Struan Mackenzie. Soon Poppy isn’t sure what she wants more . . . the fantasy of her duke or the reality of one smoldering Scot who challenges her at every turn.

. . . is not who you think.

An illegitimate second son, Struan may have built an empire and established himself as one of the wealthiest men in Britain, but he knows he will always be an outsider among the ton. Just like he knows the infuriating Poppy is a liar. There’s no way the haughty Duke of Autenberry would deign to wed a working class girl. It doesn’t matter how charming she is. Or tempting. Or how much Struan wants her for himself.

Poppy has this dream about the Duke of Autenberry.  She fancies herself in love with him so one day when he leaves the flower shop where she works, and gets into an argument with another man and then a fistfight, she jumps in to save him.  Unfortunately saving his life made him bump his head and he goes into a coma.  She is in the carriage when the Duke is taken to his home – along with the man he was in a fistfight with – who turns out to be his half-brother.  When they get the duke to his house Poppy mumbles to herself about how he needs to get better because they were going to get married.  The housekeeper hears her mumbling and assumes he’s her fiancé.

Poppy has every intention of correcting the misunderstanding but people keep cutting her off when she speaks and of course, she does want to be with the duke while he’s recovering so she keeps quiet.  One night when she is sitting vigil his best friend overhears her talking to the duke and figures out she’s not his fiancé.  He talks her into keeping the secret until the duke wakes up and for some reason she agrees.

The half-brother, a bastard brother who the duke hates, is Struan Mackenzie and he’s completely attracted to Poppy from the word go.  She’s a strong woman who risked her life for the duke which he admires – but finds he hates that she’s in love with the duke.  He sets out to prove, more to himself than anything, that Poppy isn’t in love with the duke.  Unfortunately this only gets him closer to Poppy and the more he’s with her the more he finds he’s falling in love with her.

As you can probably tell by the title of this book the story is a play on the movie While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman.  I love that movie to death so was excited to read Sophie Jordan’s version of it.  It didn’t turn out to be quite as good as I expected but I still found a lot to like in the story.

As in the movie Poppy thinks herself in love with a man that she really doesn’t know.  It’s all based on looks and how nice he seems when he comes into the flower shop where she works.  Struan is the type of man that she thinks would be the farthest thing from someone that she’d fall in love with but she finds it happening none-the-less.  This relationship starts off as contentious but hot.  Struan and Poppy are pretty steamy together and I liked that part of the story.  I wish that we could have gotten to know more about the man he is now.  We are told a lot of what happened to him when he was younger but besides his desire to be included in the family we really don’t know a whole lot about him which I found a bit frustrating.

Poppy we see pretty clearly and she seemed like a good heroine.  One who looked out for other people and was a nurturer first and foremost.  She didn’t think of her own happiness so the thought of falling in love with Struan was a foreign concept.  I liked how she tried to stick to her guns about her love for the duke even though she knew deep down she was in love with Struan.

Were there many things different between the movie and the book? Yes, definitely.  I, however, found that to be a good thing and enjoyed the book.  If Jordan had copied the movie completely it wouldn’t have been interesting and I would have been comparing the two constantly.  I was happy with what she did with the concept and that she took it in her own direction.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

three-half-stars


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