October 24, 2020

A DARING PASSION by Rosemary Rogers


PUBLISHER: HQN, 2007
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England/France
MY GRADE: B-

SYNOPSIS: Headstrong but sheltered, Raine Wimbourne longs for adventure--and when her ailing father reveals a closely guarded secret, she seizes her chance. Disguised as England's most notorious highwayman, Raine vows to uphold her father's legacy as champion of the poor. Then a midnight encounter with the powerful Philippe Gautier shows her the price of protecting her family's honor...
 Philippe Gautier has a mission of his own--and the beautiful impostor he's delivering to justice may hold the key to saving his brother's life. He will stop at nothing to keep Raine close. But as they travel from the town houses of London to the streets of France, can he convince his untamed captive to risk it all on the promise of passion?
MY THOUGHTS: The years this took place weren't mentioned but Napoleon was so it's gotta be the early 1800's but he works for King George IV, doing dirty deed for, so I have no clue. I'm not sure of the timespan either. Early on it jumped ahead two months and later there was some traveling to France, so let's say at least three months. Then the last chapter jumps ahead one year to Portugal.

Philippe is on a mission to find out who framed his younger brother Jean-Pierre, who's been sent to Newgate prison, accused of treason. Raine's dragged along for the ride from early on. The "free Jean-Pierre" plot took over this entire story and I got a bit bored with it, hence the B-. It just never let up. So it's fair to say I was disappointed in this. Oddly enough we never even meet Jean-Pierre!

Raine is a typical headstrong Rosemary Rogers heroine. She's got amber hair and "dark" eyes. Her mother died when she was little and she was raised by her almost-forty-year-old father, who's a secret criminal. Raine's been unaware of that until recently. Her age isn't given but since her mother died sixteen years ago when Raine was little and she'd been in a convent for the past seven years, she's at least in her early twenties, I would think. We only got one incident of her being the highwayman, "The Knave of Knightsbridge", which was disappointing.

Philippe has dark hair and green eyes and is thirty-one. He's from France but has lived mostly in Portugal. He's arrogant, self-centered, for the most part, arrogant, and possessive. Everything I could ask for in a fictional hero. He's an investor and does do good things for people, so he's got a good side to him as well. He kidnaps Raine and cares nothing for her feelings. They bicker a lot but get along alright when they're not.

Carlos is his good younger friend whom he grew up with in Portugal. They're like brothers but Carlos is not a good friend. He's let it be known to Philippe that he's interested in Raine. He's let Raine know several times that he wants her, has kissed her, and is having inappropriate thoughts about her, "He wanted to tug off that delicate ivory gown and reveal the slender beauty that was hidden beneath." 

Rosemary died in November 2019.

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