To Rescue a Rogue - Jo Beverley

Lady Mara St. Bride has never backed down from a good adventure, which was how she wound up roaming the streets of London in the middle of the night, wearing nothing but a shift and corset beneath an old blanket. Luckily, her brother's oldest friend, the devilishly sexy Lord Darius Debenham, answered her plea for help. Now she intends to repay the favor....

Before Dare was wounded at Waterloo, he had embraced everything life had to offer. Forever changed by the war, he believes nothing—not even the interference of a lovely young minx like Mara—can rescue him from his demons. But Mara is determined to reignite his warm smile, and enlists the help of all the Rogues to offer Dare a temptation he cannot resist....

Another story of The Company of Rogues this one tells the story of Lord Darius Debenham, the Rogue. In previous books of the series we discovered that Darius was believed to be dead after Waterloo. But after years of grieving the Rogues discovered he was still alive albeit imprisoned by Nicholas Delaney's enemy Therese Bellaire who doused him with huge amounts of opium making him an addict.

As the story opens Mara St Bride, the sister of Simon of The Rogue's Return, is in big trouble. She is running through London in the middle of the night, half naked. I have to say Beverley knows how to write an interesting opening chapter!

Her rescuer is none other than Lord Darius (Dare) Debenham, he is in London, trying to get rid of his opium addiction, but he doesn't go about in society much. Mara is at first a bit embarrassed but quickly decides that she has to help Dare recovering. She is quite an enterprising young lady so she decides to badger him into taking her to visit London's attractions. I thought Mara had quite refreshing ideas on how to nurse someone back to health.

I did like Mara as a character although she has a tendency to get into trouble. And I did like Dare. I particularly liked the oriental touch Beverley gave to his recovery program and how Mara also became a part of that. They have some problems to work on and they do it as a couple. I guess the only thing stopping me from giving this one a higher grade is that there was little tension among them, in fact it was almost as they were fated for each other seeing how they fell in love so quickly.

While I was reading this book I realised that these books are better read in order and quick succession. There's so much talk of the other Rogues and past events that someone not familiar with them will not only not fully appreciate the story but also maybe think they are a bit presumptuous, always considering themselves so high and powerful. But the author really knows what she doing because in the end she introduces someone who really dislikes the Rogues. I couldn't wait to know more!

Grade: 4/5