The Rogue You Know by Shana Galen (Covent Gardens #2)
Released: September 1, 2015
Historical Romance
Sourcebooks
Reviewed by May
Susanna is ready to crack as this book opens and we really were just told not shown how bad her life is. Indeed we are told our heroine is very over protected to the point that she seems to have anxiety attacks and is in a constant state of wanting to scream or cry because her mother isn’t just protective – she’s a real nasty piece of work always picking at the girl.
In the previous book in this series Marlowe (lady street gang member) fell in love with the brother of Lady Susanna. That connection and story is important, because it is the only thread and reason why Susanna ever meets Gideon.
Who is Gideon? He was Marlowe’s good friend and fellow street gang member. He wants to get out of the thieving business and his plan is to steal a really fancy necklace to fund his new life. He literally stumbles across the very over protected Lady Susanna in her family’s home where he’s decided he should hide this treasure apparently. Immediately Susanna decides this thief should take her to Vauxhall because she wants to see it and her mother won’t let her. The pair set off on an adventure…
This book was an absolute disaster. Oh, I applaud the author at trying to make a story about a thief and a lady work. I applaud the effort of the secondary story between Susanna and her mother. But it was just a total and absolute mess for both plot and character development. This breaks my heart because I always do enjoy this author’s pacing and overall style of writing, not to mention her unique characters and ideas. Susanna was a delight and I wished she had more great moments like this:
“You use words like gall and unpardonable.” He imitated her accent and waved a pinky finger.
“You’re jealous because your vocabulary consists solely of words like arse and fuck.”
The moment the word escaped her lips, she clamped both hands over them. Her eyes, huge and owlish, darted from side to side, as though she feared someone had overheard.
Gideon grinned like a fool. He grabbed her hands and pulled them down. “What did you say, Lady Susanna?”
This pair had fantastic chemistry, and if they had been given more time and space and a better story I could have come to believe them as a couple. In fact, I really think it would have been better if Susanna could have met Gideon several times over a longer period as he was putting his life together in a new way and over time because the idea that she disappears with a stranger for several days (yeah, days), falls madly in love with him, and wants him in her life for always was just beyond my ability to believe.
Now I realize, this is fiction not reality. But I have to be able to believe in the tale and in no way could I believe Gideon looked or smelled good enough to romance Susanna. I understand he’s a nice man who has lived a hard life, but he’s still someone who decided to be a thief and live in that way his whole teenage and adult life. There were and are other options available to him and we didn’t see him actively choosing anything but more stealing so I found it hard to really like him.
Also completely unbelievable is her mother and the whole story happening there. I am going to have to cut this review short because I want to rant and that would lead to spoilers – so I’ll just say that the chain of events that happens in this book was in no way believable for me and I found it both unsatisfying and overall just a total mess.
Knowing how talented this author is, and how much I’ve enjoyed previous works by her I am going to say that I think this particular story just wasn’t for me. From page one with the strange opening:
This is the story of how I died.
Don’t close the book! This is actually a fun story, and if you want the truth, it isn’t really my tale to tell. I feature prominently, of course, so you have more of me to look forward to.
This opening wasn’t just odd, it was in no way needed. Yes, all the way to the final page and happy ending things were never quite right and I scratched my head in quandary more than anything else. If you are really good at suspending belief and want a thief and lady story just so badly – maybe you will enjoy this more than I did.
Grade: D
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