A Rogue by Any Other Name: The First Rule of Scoundrels (Rules of Scoundrels, 1) Mass Market Paperback – February 28, 2012

So I have a new favorite author and its all thanks to a friend. I'm in charge of a big writing competition and one of the major deadlines were coming up, so I told her to name something fun for me to read. That I needed nothing that upped my stress level, just something to help me decompress at the end of the day.She recommended One Good Earl Deserves Another by Sarah MacLean which is one of her all time favorites books. However, I noticed that there was a book before it in the Rules of Scoundrels series and I have to read books in order so I picked up A Rogue by Any Other Name first.Let me just say... I lost a LOT of sleep because I couldn't put this book down.You have our heroine, Penelope, who is twenty-eight years old and unmarried because of a broken engagement from eight years ago which scandalized her. She's also turned down other engagements because the man who broke it off for her did so because he wished to marry the woman he loved. Penelope wants more out of life. More than being the proper lady who becomes the proper wife, more than a life in a loveless marriage, more adventure.When her father wins a particularly prime piece of real estate and attaches to Penelope's dowry, determined to get her married off, it looks like she'll get the adventure she's wanting.Our hero, Michael, Marquess of Bourne, lost his fortune at twenty-one in a game of chance and vowed revenge ever since. When his once childhood friend's father wins his land from the bastard who stole it from him and attaches it to her name, Michael kidnaps her with plans to ruin her and force her into marriage. He would have his inheritance back at any cost.It's been nine years and since then he's amassed his own fortune and runs one of the most legendary gaming hells in London. All with his eye on revenge.Penelope hasn't seen Michael in over nine years, since his ruination, but she's never stopped thinking about him. Always writing him letters, always putting flowers on his parents grave. When he shows up at her home one dark, cold night, she's happy to see him until she realizes just how much he's let his bitterness take over his life. This is not the boy she once knew.Knowing he is going to ruin her anyway, she strikes a deal. Michael insures that their scandalous marriage does not hamper her two younger sisters from making good matches on the marriage mart and she'd agree to marry him.When Michael agrees, he does not know what he's signing up for: A return to society, pretending to have made a love match, and a very tempting bride who wants adventures in his dark underworld.But they begin to wonder what part of the marriage is farce and what is true.This was a fabulous book that was almost painful to put down. When I did have to lay it aside and get work done, my mind was constantly one it. Well written, great tension, and just a fun read all around. Wonderful characters. I can't recommend this book enough.As I read each little snippet of letter at the beginning of each chapter, I would smile. They were one of my favorite parts. And I always got a sense that, even if Penelope didn't realize it, the reason she kept turning down for proposals was she was waiting for Michael.

TITLE: A Rogue by Any Other NameAUTHOR: Sarah MacLeanSERIES: Rules of Scoundrels, Book 1SETTING: early 1830s (post-Georgian, pre-Victorian), mostly LondonTHEMES/TROPES: old friends-to-lovers, coerced marriage, revenge, redemption, spinster, “heartless” hero, reformed rake, gaming hellOVERVIEW:Lady Penelope Marbury has languished in Society for several years after a broken engagement placed her desirability in question, turning down a handful of so-so suitors and, without realizing it, putting her sisters’ futures in jeopardy—but her father is determined that it’s time she married. He’s added a valuable piece of land, newly acquired, to Penelope’s dowry, and the suitors are about to come pouring in. Though she knows she wants more than a bland Society marriage, Penelope is ready to accept a proposal from an old friend and settle into a comfortable life.That is, until another old friend, Michael, Lord Bourne, comes bursting back into her life, determined to have her dowry: the ancestral land that he lost on a foolish bet years earlier. Bourne has spent several years focused on two things, regaining his land and seeking revenge against the man who took it from him, and a wife seems a small price to pay to achieve at least one of those goals. His plan, however, did not account for the fact that the bride in question is the one woman who knew him before he was the dark, hardened Bourne—when he was happy, carefree Michael. Nor did he consider that his revenge might be something that hurts Penelope. And he certainly didn’t consider that he might care about hurting her. It all comes down to a decision between the goal he’s been chasing for so long—as goal that has hardened his heart—and giving Penelope the love and adventure that she’s always wanted.PROS:Love developing between old friends is one of my favorite romance archetypes, so this storyline automatically appealed to me. The concept of Bourne’s goals, and his guilt and shame at having lost his land to begin with, are a fabulous background for the story because it puts him and Penelope in a position where they’ve been separated for years and become very different people. Not only do they need to rediscover one another and their friendship, but his drive for revenge propels the drama between them.The two characters are both well-rounded and interesting, and their relationship develops at a good pace. Penelope is finding the gumption to seek some adventure in her life, but she’s not throwing propriety to the wind because she wants to help her sisters make good matches more than anything. Bourne is infused with a good amount of devil-may-care attitude with hints of solicitousness to show that he’s not truly heartless. I like that he has a major screw-up in his past because so many heroes are so infallible. Bourne is constructed as a very driven character, so it felt believable that once he found a goal that brought out the best in him (namely, love and family), his drive would make him strive to be better.The pace of the romance is fairly good, with plenty of trust issues because of the charade of a love match they put on for Society to make their marriage look less scandalous. Because they spend so much time pretending to be in love, there are points when the emotional progression feels a little redundant—“he cares about me … no, that was just pretend … but he does seem to care … no, that was just acting again”—but those emotional circles mostly make sense in the plot.One detail of this book that I love is the use of letters as epigraphs for each chapter, starting with letters between Penelope and Bourne when they were quite young and continuing to letters from Penelope that he never answered and then to letters that Penelope kept writing but never sent.CONS:The one aspect of Bourne that I found a little perplexing was his very insistent belief that he and his life aren’t good enough for Penelope. Perhaps if we got more information on the things he had done during the years when he was trying to earn back his lost fortune, this might make more sense, but the glimpses we get of the gaming hell he co-owns, particularly some details about how well-regulated it is and how well they treat their employees, does not paint a picture of a particularly dark life.The plot was very much focused on their emotional progression, which is not necessarily a con in itself, but the plot could have had more interest by being a bit more eventful. I would have liked a bit more of Bourne and Penelope interacting with secondary characters. I usually love secondary characters, and I did enjoy Cross, one of Bourne’s partners, but there just wasn’t a lot of the other characters in this story.RATINGS:Writing: 4/5 MacLean’s writing is consistently good.Characters: 5/5 Well-rounded and interesting.Plot: 4/5 Could have been a bit more eventful.Setting: 4/5 Bourne’s gaming hell is nicely detailed.Romance: 5/5 I love a friends-to-lovers story.Sexiness: 5/5 Well-written and integrated with romance.Humor: 3/5 Touches of humor, but not much laugh-out-loud.Average: 4.28 Great Romance Development between Old FriendsOTHER INFO:This is the first of MacLean’s Rules of Scoundrels series, each book focusing on one of the four owners of the gaming hell called The Fallen Angel. Penelope previously appeared in the Love by Numbers series as the betrothed of the Duke of Leighton, the hero of the third book, and their broken engagement plays a big role in how she got to the place she’s at in this book. Reading that book before this one isn’t necessary, but I would recommend reading this book before moving on to the rest of the series because this book gives good background on Penelope’s sister Pippa, who is the next heroine in this series, paired with Bourne’s co-owner, Cross.