Let me start by saying that The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean is my favorite book of hers to date. If you’ve read her, or know me, then you know that I just said a thing. I mean, there is a scene in this book where the hero sensually rubs honey on the heroine’s body while she dreamily describes the bookstore she’ll own one day.
Damn.
The Rogue Not Taken is the first in the Scandal and Scoundrel series. MacLean was inspired by modern day celebrity scandals as well as the tabloids of the period in which she writes. In this book the heroine, Sophie Talbot, is the youngest of the Dangerous Daughters–the Talbot girls Seraphina, Sesily, Seline, and Seleste. Their father is a wealthy coal miner who managed to snag himself an Earldom. The girls are known as social climbers, willing to do anything to snare a titled husband. They are often in the scandal sheets, infamy they all delight in–except Sophie.
Based on the “S” names and the gossip pages, I’m assuming the girls are loosely based on the Kardashians. Now, I actually know very little about the Kardashians except that one of them–Kim–is married to Kanye West and had a sex tape, and that they are all excellent examples of vocal fry. I’m not saying this in a snooty, “I don’t do reality TV” way. I saw part of their show and someone had pooped in the dressing room of their store and I had to turn if off because I got gaggy just thinking about it . I have watched the train wreck that was Rock of Love and Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels. I watched one season of The Bachelor–the one with the virgin guy who wasn’t really a virgin but virginity is a social construct anyway so who cares.
Anyway, all of the Talbot girls enjoy being part of the celebrity circus, except Sophie. She yearns for the quieter days when they were just a normal family living in Cumbria. They’re at a party when Sophie runs into her sister Seraphina’s husband, a duke, making out with some other lady. He says some not nice things about Sera, so Sophie calls him a whore in front of everyone and shoves him into a fishpond.
Sophie knows she’s in trouble with her mother now, and also that she’s going to make the scandal sheets, so she decides it’s time to get the fuck out. She wants to return to Mossband, the town she grew up in, own a bookstore, and live off the radar. In the process of running away, she collides with Kingscote “King,” The Marquess of Eversley. King is a notorious scoundrel, and when she runs into him, he’s dashing away from the most recent lady he’s ruined. He’s also going in the same direction Sophie wants to go. King is on his way to Cumbria to see his dying father–a man he hasn’t spoken to in years. King’s father tore him away from his first love because she was a commoner and not worthy of a duke’s son, and as a result King has promised never to marry or bear children to spite the old man.
Sophie pays one of King’s footman for his livery, dresses like a boy (which remarkably no one except King notices is bullshit) and hitches a ride. The bulk of this book involves the shenanigans that take place as Sophie and King journey to Cumbria. At one point, Sophie is shot defending two children from highwaymen (like you do) and that’s when King takes it upon himself to make sure she gets to Mossband safely even though he finds her really irritating.
A lot of this book deals with preconceptions. King assumes Sophie is a social climber and that she’s putting herself in a compromising situation in order to trap him into marriage. Sophie thinks King is a heartless rake who enjoys ruining young women.
While King and Sophie are attracted to each other, they also get on each other’s nerves, and so this book is full of snark. King makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with Sophie (he excels at accidentally insulting her) even while he sports a massive boner while rubbing honey into her gunshot wound to keep it from getting infected. Sophie acts like she doesn’t care what he or the world thinks, even as she runs from the gossip pages.
This is book is fun. It’s a crazy road-trip involving cross-dressing and gunshot wounds and hiding from Sophie’s father’s men. There’s a lot of movement in this book, a lot of action, but the emotional development always keeps pace.
Another thing I liked: King is a hero who is more than happy to just go down on a lady for awhile, no reciprocation needed. I need this to be a requirement of all romance heroes moving forward (note: I will also accept finger banging heroes in addition to cunnilingus).
The only thing that made me a little squinty was the conflict between King and his father. Basically their entire multi-year feud could have been resolved by one conversation. People fight with family members over stuff that could be resolved through talking all the time, but I still thought King’s father would have at least sent a letter or solicitor or something explaining what really happened.
The conflict between Sophie and King was more solid though, and that was what really mattered to me as a reader.
If you are a fan of Sarah MacLean or of Regencies that don’t take place in London drawing rooms and ballrooms or if you love a good celebrity gossip story, then pick up The Rogue Not Taken. It will be worth your time, trust me.
Heads up! Fun times ahead!
We have a special Early WORD giveaway, if you’d like to win an advanced bound manuscript copy of this book. And, as a grand prize, in addition to a bound manuscript – $75 to WORD bookstores! Have a look!
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Thanks!
Oh, I just love Sarah MacLean! Pippa Marbury from One Good Earl may be my absolute favorite heroine, not to mention my aspirational spirit animal. Thanks so much for the review– this is going in the must-read list.
I love me some Sarah MacLean. One question: how much kicking-up of smiles is there? It’s one of her favorite phrases and drives me NUTS.
100% COSIGNED on the heroes who go south without expecting the same. Yes.
cannot wait for this book!
@Tika No kicking of smiles, at least not that I remember 🙂
Thank you Amazon, for informing me that I already pre-ordered this book (apparently back in July), and not letting me pre-order it a second time as a result of this review.
So Jelly you bitches get to read it earlier. Hitting the pre-order button cos I live in Singapore and can’t participate in the giveaway or get my grubby hands on the book earlier. D:
I do wish that giveaways AND Galley books open up to international readers beyond America & Europe.
@Janessa:
ME TOO. I try as much as possible to host giveaways that are open to everyone worldwide because I know there are romance readers all over the globe. But sometimes, due to things like rights belonging to a particular publisher for a particular set of countries for example, I can’t open the giveaway to everyone in the world. Most of the giveaways I do are open to everyone, and I’m really sorry that this one is not.
ALL THE SQUEE!!!!!
Better than Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake? My absolutely absolute favorite !!
OMG totally loved this. Definitely my favourite Maclean so far. Had to keep putting it down as I didn’t want it to end!
Now that I’ve read it- love! I couldn’t put this book down. It’s not my favorite Maclean (DUNCAN WEST, need I say more?) but it’s definitely up there and I love how the world she’s creating keeps enlarging and getting richer.
Possible spoiler alert?
When I realized the heroine, Sophie, is the Sophie from the balcony in Never Judge A Lady By Her Cover and the hero was the man Chase paired her with I did the happiest happy dance!!!! Yay! We DID get to see her HEA!
My gripes would be the pacing at the end of the book- hero has to digest, by my count, at least three pieces of world-shaping & shattering information and he just kind of rolls with it.
That being said I’m so glad this is a series. I predict we will see Warnick again and I really hope Seraphina and her husband work it out.
Really enjoyed the characters, the world building, the dialogue, and the arguing/frustration they felt with each other- very true to life. Thank you Sarah Maclean!
I gobbled this up in two sittings, and really liked it, though something at the end didn’t sit well with me.
SPOILER ALERT:
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Sophie agrees to her father’s plan to trap King in a marriage to save his business and her sisters. After talking to Sera, she decides not to go ahead with the plan, but she still Goes to King’s room to tell him she loves him and making love to him, knowing that her father would come to King’s room to catch them together in a compromising situation. Did I misinterpret this? She knew what was going to happen, and even though she didn’t want to trap him into marriage anymore, she still went along and put King in that position.
Also, not sure if Sophie’s sister is a future heroine in this series, but a word on what happened to her would have been nice in the epilogue as well!
Finished it a week ago & still can’t put it squarely in the “yay” or “nay” pile. Hear me out: I adore most of MacLean’s heroes & root for her heroines without question. I try not to play favorites…oh, who am I kidding?? Michael & Penelope will always hold a special place in my heart since they are the first Bourne (see what I did there?!) of her Scoundrels series. And I could read about Callie’s antics all day long. But my heart (& some sexy time fantasies) always, ALWAYS yearn for Cross – and that’s at least 50% due to his perfect, likable match in the form of one Philippa Marbury.
For whatever reason I felt sort of “eh” about Sophie. Perhaps it’s because I had a difficult time removing the specter of her Kardashian-like family from my head & had a whiplash moment when **SPOILER ALERT** Sophie & King get their HEA, the remaining Talbot sisters return to London once again the toast/talk of the town, suitors in tow AND Mr/Lord Talbot is propped back up as an aristocrat by King & his father even after Papa Talbot forced Sophie to snag the future duke in order to restore the family’s wealth & title. What??? The remaining Talbot sisters all seemed rather dim-witted & unlikeable so why would anyone outside of a scandal sheet publisher wish to restore them to the ton?
That said, I hope MacLean fleshes Sera’s story out. I’d love to know what happened before/during/after her Duke’s koi pond swim.
Love sarah maclean novels, sat up until 6am to finish this one. It was such a laugh riot with the madcap journey filled with witty banter between King and sophie. loved King but was a bit mad at him for being so pigheaded regarding his vendetta against his dad:
A. It was just an childhood infatuation in the past
B. if he had loved sophie so much especially after he realised the mistaken beliefs he held regarding his past, he should have accepted her much earlier and tried to save her from the utter scorn she would have faced from society post her journey with him
C. except for that one issue where his father refused to acknowledge his previous love, king seemed to have a childhood filled with loving memories with his dad, so he should have been more open towards reconciliation ten years after the accident especially when he was called in for what appeared to be a death bed apology from his father.
Also sophie should have explained her family’s plan to him in bed that last night as she knew beforehand that this was gonna happen, would have avoided a lot of unnecessary angst near the end.
but overall it was a wonderful book (maybe im just tooo critical lol)
anyone else had such similar thoughts with regards to this book????