Name: Francesca G's review of The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean
Item: The Rogue Not Taken
Rating: 3
Author: Francesca G

Sarah MacLean

'Smart, sexy, and always romantic' Julia Quinn, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Bridgerton series 'Fabulous' Eloisa James 'For a smart, witty and passionate historical romance, I recommend anything by Sarah MacLean' Lisa Kleypas The first in Sarah MacLean's sensational new Scandal & Scoundrels series . . . all the fun and guilty pleasure of celebrity gossip, with a Regency twist! Lady Sophie's Society Splash! When Sophie, the least interesting of the Talbot sisters, lands her philandering brother-in-law backside-first in a goldfish pond, she shocks society and finds herself the target of very public aristocratic scorn, leaving her no choice but to flee, vowing to start a new life far from London . Unfortunately, the carriage in which she stows away isn't saving her from ruin . . . it's filled with it. Rogue's Reign of Ravishment! Kingscote, "King," the Marquess of Eversley, has never met a woman he couldn't charm, which results in a reputation far worse than the truth, a general sense that he's more pretty face than proper gentleman, and an irate summons home to the Scottish border. When King discovers stowaway Sophie, however, the journey becomes anything but boring! War? Or More? He thinks she's trying to trick him into marriage. She wouldn't have him if he were the last man on earth. But carriages bring close quarters, dark secrets, and unbearable temptation, making opposites altogether too attractive . . . This is the first novel in the Regency romance Scandal & Scoundrels series by New York Time bestselling author Sarah MacLean - perfect for fans of Lisa Kleypas and Eloisa James Scandal & Scoundrel series: The Rogue Not Taken A Scot in the Dark The Day of the Duchess Praise for Sarah MacLean 'Sarah MacLean has reignited the romance genre with a bolder edge' The New Yorker 'Funny, smart, feminist and roastingly hot' BookRiot.com 'Do yourself a favor and discover the compelling magic of Sarah MacLean' Amanda Quick 'MacLean writes with an entirely unique blend of elegance and ferocity that bursts from every page' Entertainment Weekly 'Great chemistry, intelligence and sparkling humor' RT Book Reviews

The Rogue Not Taken

Rebecca

Lady Sophie's Society Splash! When Sophie, the least interesting of the Talbot sisters, lands her philandering brother-in-law backside-first in a goldfish pond in front of all society, she becomes the target of very public aristocratic scorn. Her only choice is to flee London, vowing to start a new life far from the aristocacy. Unfortunately, the carriage in which she stows away isn't saving her from ruin . . . it's filled with it. Rogue's Reign of Ravishment! Kingscote, "King," the Marquess of Eversley, has never met a woman he couldn't charm, resulting in a reputation far worse than the truth, a general sense that he's more pretty face than proper gentleman, and an irate summons home to the Scottish border. When King discovers stowaway Sophie, however, the journey becomes anything but boring. War? Or More? He thinks she's trying to trick him into marriage. She wouldn't have him if he were the last man on earth. But carriages bring close quarters, dark secrets, and unbearable temptation, making opposites altogether too attractive . . .

Francesca G

cute but it felt like 5 different storylines in one

menna

dija

I read this on my way to college and throughout my 3 lab classes. 10/10 would totally recommend i love when men are proven wrong again and again

Lover of Romance 

This review was originally posted on Addicted To Romance
  

 
  
    Summary 
  
 
In a moment of rashness, Sophie Talbot, was reaching out to protect her sister and pushed her brother in law into a pond in front of the ton. She knew she couldn't stay in London any longer, so in order to see that her family could stay in London and enjoy the pleasures of the city, she escaped on the back of a carriage of the Marquess of Everlay. Dressed as a boy, King recongnizes who she is immediately, and calls her out on it and blames her for the loss of his servant who she convinced to work for her father. She is determined to escape to the country, to a small village where she grew up and marry a baker she played with as a child. But while on the journey, she is forced to partner with King whom she despises as a rake of the highest order. But while they journey up north they will face some danger and a desire they don't see coming.
 
  
    Plot and Story Line 
  
 
I honestly want to say that I loved this book, but I can not say that. The first half of the story was a bit hard to really get into. The plot was great, the characters were superb but the flow of the story was uneven and didn't feel right. This has happened with this author on occassion which is odd considering her first few books were AMAZING!! So it breaks my heart, wanting to fully enjoy a story and can't get fully engaged even when I want to be. But once we reached about half way, is when the story started to change for me. Then it got really great, and I loved the evolvement of the plot here. It gets pretty full of action and sensual delights. The chemistry between these two is explosive. They don't like each other too much but yet are fascinated with one another. I wasn't a huge fan of the hero, I liked him but didn't really love him that much at least not till the very end. Then I was won over in two pages--yeah I was impressed. I am curious about the second book though, I loved Warnick he was so amusing.
 
  
    The Cover 
  
 
Beautiful cover, its not very common to see a navy blue on a cover like this, and the stepback is so pretty....I love the settee and the pose.
 
  
    Overall View 
  
 
The Rogue Not Taken is a delightful and humorous romance I found entertaining.

  


[foogallery id="20824"]

Kate

The ending fell apart for me a little bit ("I can't love her!" Dude every thought you have is basically about how much you love her) but overall it was delightful.

Amanda J 

Renee Delcourt

I seriously adore Sarah MacLean's writing. Her stories feel so real to me and this book had me feeling all the feels. I legit was pouring tears trying to pretend everything was okay at one point. I love the back and forth banter of Sophie and King. 

I think the one thing that really irked me was the treatment of Sophie by her family.... It left me feeling disgusted and sad since she fights so strongly for them.

b.andherbooks

Re-read 2020 for #SummerofSarahMacLean
I enjoyed my second romp with King and Sophie, especially the tight focus in on these two as they travel in various conveyances across the countryside to King's childhood home/estate. Seeing the glimpse of Lady Sera and her upcoming standoff with her husband was very emotional, because he seems truly irredeemable in this novel. Absolutely no way in heck would I EVER forgive him. But wow Day of the Duchess pulled it off!

I still think King needed to grovel more, that wedding was so sad and I felt so terrible for Sophie.

Lady Sophie's sisters are the Kardashians of Regency England. Scandal-filled and sensational, they are Sophie's opposite in every way. Sophie simply wants to avoid society and make her family happy. Too bad she starts her own scandal when she pushes her sister's philandering husband into a fountain.

Hoping to escape, she stows away in a carriage, the wrong carriage. It's occupant is none other than the fabulously rich and titled Marquess of Eversley, and he thinks she is out to trap him into marriage. She isn't! She really isn't. But, he may want to be trapped after all...

I adore Sarah MacLean. Her historical romances are fun, genre-defying, and full of feisty female leads who take the reins. I am looking forward to additional titles in this series.

Find this review and more at 
  kimberlyfaye reads
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After bingeing not one, but TWO of Sarah MacLean's historical romance series late last year, I fell in love with her writing. She's definitely one of my top three historical romance authors. I love her characters – particularly the women who are always just a bit different and unlike most other heroines out there – and the writing. The banter and chemistry between the heroes and heroines are perfection. They're smart and funny, but romantic and all kinds of swoony. When I learned she was writing a new series, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and find out if I'd love it as much as I did her other books. You know what? I did. It might be my favorite of all her books. Maybe. It's a tough competition. Really, I just adore all her books. 

Sophie and King were fantastic together. Opposites truly attract in this book, even if it takes them a little time to get there. King isn't used to women who are resistant to his charms, so I really loved how Sophie was able to put him in his place. They had tons of chemistry, but it was really their banter in the first part of the book that made me smile. The Rogue Not Taken was sexy and romantic and it also gave a fair dose of feels. At one point I found myself with tears streaming down my face without even realizing I was crying. I was so engrossed in the book and the emotions that I didn't realize how hard it was hitting me. This was a fantastic start to a new historical romance series by MacLean and I can't wait to see what happens in the next book. I need it now! 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

Sans

I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t get along with MacLean’s books. Objectively, they’re good. They just aren’t for me.

Lacey

Originally posted at Booklovers For Life

Sarah MacLean is, hands down, my favorite historical romance author. She always gets me so sucked into her stories and makes my emotions go haywire. I’m obsessed with her Rules of Scoundrels series, so when I heard she was writing a spinoff, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it! The Rogue Not Taken is the first book in the new Scandals & Scoundrel series, and it was pure fun to read. It had a little Gossip Girl to it, a fantastic road trip, and hilarious, witty banter between the main characters. I didn’t love it quite as much as my favorites from the Rules of Scoundrels series, but if you’re a fan of Sarah MacLean, you still won’t want to miss this new series!

We first met Sophie Talbot in Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover, and even though I wasn’t a fan of her then, I’m a huge fan of her now. I really loved Sophie’s character. She’s funny, sarcastic, protective of her family, and she hates the way society treats her family with scorn. Sophie is the ‘uninteresting’ one of her sisters, but when she creates a scandal that shocks even her siblings, she decides to leave London and most importantly, Society. But along the way, she comes across the Marquess of Eversley, an infamous scoundrel she can’t help but dislike on sight.

He was everything he was purported to be. Scandalous. Sinful. An utter scoundrel. Everything Society vilified, even as it celebrated it.

King, also known as the Marquess of Eversley, has built his reputation as a scoundrel for a reason. So he shouldn’t be bothered that Sophie doesn’t like him based on his scoundrel ways, but for some reason he is. As the two of them are flung along on an adventure across England, they go head-to-head in the most entertaining, delightful of ways. To say the two of them don’t get along is an understatement – the first half of the book is filled with hilarious banter, and witty remarks are constantly exchanged. But what I loved most about their banter was that it allowed King to see Sophie as more than the ‘boring’ Talbot sister. The two of them slowly start to fall for each other during their little adventure, but King proves stubborn and won’t allow himself to ever be vulnerable again.

She thought too little of herself, and King had suddenly wished very much to change her mind. As insane as that sounded.
He blamed her beautiful smile.

The second half of this book is a lot more emotional than the first, and Sarah MacLean had my heart aching and pounding for her characters. And as usual, she writes some HOT scenes in The Rogue Not Taken – the chemistry between King and Sophie is on fire. The build-up of the steam between them is fantastic, but I really wish we could’ve gotten more than the one sex scene there was.

I really enjoyed The Rogue Not Taken – I loved Sophie, but King took me a while to warm up to. He was too stubborn sometimes and I wanted to shake him when he grew frustrating, but the ending definitely made up for it. This was a great series starter, and now I can’t wait to see what Sarah MacLean has in store for the rest of the series!

Thanks to the publisher for generously providing me an ARC to review.

Quotes are taken from the ARC and are subject to change in the final version.

Amazon Ebook: http://amzn.to/17STMtQ
Amazon Paperback: http://amzn.to/1KnRynR
Audible: http://amzn.to/1UhAwIw

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ausra

Ella Patterson

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Martha McLendon

Laura

Sara Piteira 

The first in Sarah MacLean's sensational new Scandal & Scoundrels series Lady Sophie's Society Splash! When Sophie, the least interesting of the Talbot sisters, lands her philandering brother-in-law backside-first in a goldfish pond, she shocks society and finds herself the target of very public aristocratic scorn, leaving her no choice but to flee, vowing to start a new life far from London . Unfortunately, the carriage in which she stows away isn't saving her from ruin . . . it's filled with it. Rogue's Reign of Ravishment! Kingscote, "King," the Marquess of Eversley, has never met a woman he couldn't charm, which results in a reputation far worse than the truth, a general sense that he's more pretty face than proper gentleman, and an irate summons home to the Scottish border. When King discovers stowaway Sophie, however, the journey becomes anything but boring! War? Or More? He thinks she's trying to trick him into marriage. She wouldn't have him if he were the last man on earth. But carriages bring close quarters, dark secrets, and unbearable temptation, making opposites altogether too attractive...

Rebecca &
The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean

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Rebecca &
The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean