Last year, I won a copy of the second book in Lauren Smith's League of Rogues series; His Wicked Seduction. I don't like starting a series mid way through, so I went back and bought the first book in the series; Wicked Designs. I quickly fell in love with both the League of Rogues and Lauren Smith's writing. Since then, I've been waiting for the third book in the series to come out, when it arrived a few weeks back on my kindle (having pre-ordered it as soon as I could) I had to start reading straight away. (In case you're wondering, I tend to be a couple of weeks behind in my reviews).
The League of Rogues are a group of handsome Rogues, who stick together through thick and thin, in Regency England. First meeting at Cambridge, they have been there for one another ever since. Indulging in all kinds of roguish behaviour, especially when it comes to women, one by one, the men find themselves meeting and falling in love with, their perfect women and doing what they thought they never would; marrying and settling down.
In book three, two of the Rogues have already found their partners. Life for Cedric, Viscount Sheridan though, hasn't been going well. Having lost his sight in a fire, he feels like a shell of his former self. No longer the dashing, confident man about town, he thinks that he no longer fits with his old life and lacks confidence when he goes out.
Anne Chessley suddenly finds herself pursued by every fortune hunter in London, after the death of her beloved father. She approaches Cedric and suggests that they marry, saving her from the fortune hunters and him from his half life since the accident. Cedric agrees, but under the condition that it is more than a marriage of convenience, that they are fully husband wife in the bedroom, with all the passion that that implies.
Anne has a reputation of being an ice maiden, but there's far more to her than first appears. Not only have Cedric and Anne been drawn to one another since they first met, but Anne's stand offish temperament is down to a traumatic incident from her past. The threat that hangs over all of the League is still very much in evidence and threatens the couple, taking Cedric's eyesight was not enough...
I really love this series, although the second book is still my favourite so far, I love the stories and the way that the characters develop. There are still plenty of scenes with the previous couples that we've met and the other members of the league, which help give this series far more depth and story than many other regency romances have, without slipping into the ridiculous, as some less well written books have a tendency to do.
I love Lauren Smith's writing style and she certainly knows how to write a steamy love scene and build a romance. While I've been loving her other books and series that she's been writing, it was the League of Rogues that I first fell in love with and like a first love, they'll always have a special place in my heart and be the ones that I look forward to coming back to the most. I only wish I didn't have to wait to read the next book in the series, I'm really looking forward to Ashton's story, especially after the little glimpses and hints of what's to come that we've been getting in this book.
League of Rogues and in this case Her Wicked Proposal? Highly recommended.
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