I'm beginning to warm to Deborah Simmons - I avoided her for a long time because I'd heard she wrote "wacky comedies".
The Last Rogue by Deborah Simmons
(1998, Regency Historical) 5/25/06
Grade: 4
When Deverell, Viscount Raleigh, wakes up next to plain vicar’s daughter Jane, he has to marry her - to both their dismay. But even though Raleigh is a bit of a rogue and dandy, he’s determined to make the best of this marriage, even though Jane is a bit more skeptical. They head off for his new estate, Craven Hall - which may be haunted...
A nice combination of marriage-of-convenience and gothic, this book mostly succeeds on the shoulders of the ever-amused Raleigh, who is a wonderful hero. I also liked Jane, although she’s harder to warm up to. The gothic touches with the seemingly haunted house are fun, a bit of a throwback to the gothics I enjoyed years ago. The comedy here was less "wacky" than in the previous book, which I appreciated. But overall, it's the hero that really gives this book an edge over others with similar storylines.
I went to Amazon to find out the publication date of this book, and I was surprised by all the bad reviews - all centering on the heroine, who is raked over the coals for being "unlikeable". She takes a while to warm up to, but I can't help thinking about all those alpha jerk heroes who treat the heroines like dirt and who are easily forgiven - double standard, anyone?
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I'm beginning to warm to Deborah Simmons - I avoided her for a long time because I'd heard she wrote "wacky comedies".
Where in the world did you get that idea??? Really, that is definitely not how I would describe any of her books.
Anyway, The Last Rogue is quite possibly my favorite Simmons and I mentioned it recently on my blog. Here's the direct link: http://bevsbooks.com/?p=108
And, yeah, there is definitely a double standard between romance heroes and heroines, although I've never heard it applied to Jane in TLR. Odd.
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