Regency romance fans can depend on fun in WHAT A ROGUE WANTS, the first of a series called Lords of Deception. The second son of a titled family, Grey can't live up to his father's expectations. With no inheritance, just an income, he romps around pursuing girls when he really ought to know better. WHAT A ROGUE WANTS is recognition and affection, but lack of it has seen him struggling to escape a girl's irate father.

Lady Madelaine Aldridge and her friend Abby, the housekeeper's daughter, arrive in the arty district of London on a day's excursion. Here Bohemian life is much less formal than in grand society. Madelaine even displays her archery skills in a most ungenteel manner. But the fun has a bitter edge, for Madelaine is going to have to take a position in Court so her northern father can find her an eligible man. Girls don't have many choices in life.

From this intrepid beginning I was hooked. Bohemians, Romanies, and archery! The tale settles down into the restrictive life under Queen Charlotte's gaze as Madelaine withers in her new role as lady in waiting. The one kind companion she has, Lady Elizabeth, is Lord Grey's sister. The men at Court, equally bored, become licentious and she can't abide their wandering hands. When Grey comes to visit Elizabeth, he's captivated by the prospect of a girl who enjoys archery, but the Court gives no chance for frivolity.

The adventure deepens to intrigue as spies against Napoleon's agents are needed, and all loyal subjects have to serve the Crown. Madelaine is destined to uncover some family secrets, and as a proper young lady she tells the roguish Grey that she wants a husband, not an affair. I couldn't really be sure if Grey mends his ways because he's not used to being thwarted, or because he realises that Madelaine could make him happy. In those days, most wealthy people expected to marry for advantage. Kept almost at arm's length, he mends his manners, but I find this adult romance is still a lot friskier than a Jane Austen novel.

The most interesting men are those who defy conventions but we also like them to treat a lady well. Too much to ask of our heroes? Julie Johnstone has written several books on the theme of rogues and rakes, so if they are all as entertaining as WHAT A ROGUE WANTS, we are in for a rare treat.

Book Summary

Lady Madelaine Aldridge might be the worst lady-in- waiting to ever grace King George III’s court. An oddball who prefers archery to embroidery and honesty to deception, she earns the dislike of the Queen, the cruelty of the other ladies-in-waiting and the advances of a lecherous fiend who wants to possess her body. Her father demands she find a proper husband―a task that seems hopeless until Lord Grey Adlard rides into court.

Grey Adlard lives up to his reputation as a dangerously handsome rake when he proposes Madelaine meet him in the stables for a tumble. Yet when she needs a protector the most, Grey offers his services and vows he wants to court her. Wary yet intrigued by the mystery he presents, Madelaine slowly allows Grey to capture her confidence and then her heart.

Things seem perfect until her father is imprisoned for plotting against the King and Madelaine learns Grey is not who he pretends. As King George III sinks deeper into insanity, Madelaine must prove her father’s innocence in order to save his life. With the future of England hanging in the balance and a ruthless murderer hunting them Grey and Madelaine engage in a clash of wills and a battle fraught with suspicion, secrets, betrayal and two hearts that cannot deny the impossible, irresistible love between them.

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