I have never been a huge fan of historical romance because, in general, it lacks originality and diversity. OR SO I THOUGHT! Something about the beginning of July 2017 made me want to try another regency romance, and MAN OH MAN, I’m glad I did. Sarah MacLean is becoming a new favorite of mine, I can already feel it. This book made me giggle and gasp and love (almost) everything about these characters.
In The Rogue Not Taken, Sophie Talbot draws attention to herself in the worst of ways – she strikes her sister’s wandering husband and knocks him into a fish pond. Then she runs, knowing that she disgraced her sister and her family. She ends up in the carriage of Kingscote, the Marquess of Eversley, heading north to his estate. Many crazy mishaps happen along the way before Sophie and King end up back in a carriage together, and that’s when the sparks really start to fly.
Okay, I’m terrible at describing the plot of romances since everyone knows how they’re going to end, but this one is so good! Just trust me. 🙂
3 Things I Love
- Sophie. OMG. You guys. Sophie is snarky and badass and feminist and I loved her. Even when King was horrible to her (which he was through most of the book) she stood up to him and held her ground. Honestly, I would have been just as happy if she had ended up alone, but I like how King came around and turned into a nice(r) guy.
- The road trip. Road trip stories are super fun, and this one was in a carriage and included sexy time. Speaking of…
- The sexy times. ALL I’M GOING TO SAY IS THAT SARAH MACLEAN IS REALLY GOOD AT WRITING SEXY TIMES OKAY? OKAY.
Dislikes/Problematic Content
If we’re talking about problematic content, the only thing I can think of is how absolutely terrible King treated Sophie THE WHOLE TIME. He talked shit about her body, her way of life, literally EVERYTHING, and that was pretty hard to read at times. I love a grumpy hero, but DUDE, like, you were too much. I did grow to like him in the end, but it was touch and go for a lot of the book. And I’ve seen a lot of reviews on Goodreads that said similar things.
Once I embraced that King was a grump because of *life* (mostly his horrible father), it was a little easier to get on board with them as an actual couple. Man, those sexy times helped make up for it too.
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!
Okay, so sure, King took grumpy to a bit of an extreme. But Sophie more than made up for it in spunk and feminism and sass. So, as a whole, I’m giving The Rogue Not Taken a BLUE rating, because Sarah MacLean writes good shit and I’m always on board.
What did y’all think of this book? Have you read any other Sarah MacLeans? I’m listening to the second installment in the series on audio right now and I’M LIVING FOR IT. ❤
Happy reading!
-A.
Snark & Squee 
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