Beloved Rogue

by Deana James and Alex Brown

Book Overview

Genteel and proper British lady Maria Thorne joins forces with Jocko, a self-confessed, street-smart thief and rogue, to rescue her young sister from the sinister world of Victorian London's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821746820
• ISBN13: 9780821746820
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Zebra Books
• Length: 439 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

I Can't Help It-- Deana James Is a Guilty Pleasure

Not her best book, by far, but an engaging read, this book rather harks back to one of her first books, Crimson Obsession. In Crimson Obsession, the hero was a self educated scoundrel who was bored with his career as a pornographer and gaming house keeper and wants to write Real Stories (like Charles Dickens). Yes, I know it is ridiculous but it's also quite fun. In this book the self educated, lower class hero mainly wants to stay out of jail. So he allows himself to be blackmailed into following the heroine as she seaches for her sister. The heroine, who is living in genteel poverty, is pretty solidly middle class. Due to a misunderstanding about her father's income, she is not a virgin and not married. Her sister, who is younger and prettier, is missing under suspicous circumstances from her ownjob doing something genteel for a noble family. No one else is looking for her, mainly because they figure she has entered a brothel-- either voluntarily or involuntarily-- and, well, that pretty much is that. Being a prostitute, even an ex-prostitute does not look well on the social resume. Anyway these two hook up with the hero using his low connections and the heroine using her high connections to look for her sister. There are some amusing nontraditional romance moments such as when it occurs to the reader that the hero could possibly be about 19. Then the heroine starts fretting about whether she has seduced an innocent-- Oh, no, oh, no. But there are also some hackneyed moments such as the heroine dressing up like a prostitute to search for the hero and wowing them at the local gin mill. The baroque family connections among the aristocracy also make for some over the top drama-- boy, is that villain villainous. Snidely whiplash move over. This is a fun one if you don't take it too seriously.

An Original, Meaty tale full of Endearing Characters !

Beloved Rogue is James' best offering. This is my idea of a great romance novel. It takes place in the underbelly of London and the plot parallels historical events. The atypical heroine, Maria, is aided by her love interest, Jocko, a young, former thief whose unlawful acts are not entirely in the past and not forgotten by the local constable. This constable blackmails Jocko into helping Maria. Maria's little sister has been kidnapped and is installed in a "house of ill-repute" frequented and owned by aristocrats. Sound typical? It's not. Throw in some spicy, three-dimensional characters from various levels of society, Maria's and Jocko's unique personalities and appearances and the facts within this story regarding white slavery in centuries ago London, which the author tells you more about...and you've got a highly entertaining romantic suspense novel unique among all others.