Rating: 
Summary: A great sequel to An Arranged Marriage and Unwilling Bride
Review: If you've been reading Jo Beverley's Rogues series, which began with An Arranged Marriage and continued with Lucien's story in An Unwilling Bride, you'll want to get your hands on this book IMMEDIATELY. Leander Knollis, Earl of Charrington, didn't appear in the two earlier books, but he was certainly mentioned as a Rogue absent at war. In this book, set a few months after Lucien and Beth's marriage, Leander comes home and, thanks to the war having brought him to a realisation of his own mortality, decides that he really needs to marry and start his own family. However, a few weeks in London shows him only too clearly that he can't choose a bride from the available young women there. For one thing, none of them interest him. For another, they keep falling in love with him! While he can feel nothing more than lukewarm liking for any of them. Not that he understands why this is the case; as he says to Beth Arden, he's not particularly handsome. And, in fact, standing next to the very handsome Lucien, he's nothing much to look at. Though Beth admits - and this is a very clever device, Jo, using the lens of Beth's thoughts to show us what's attractive about Leander - that there is something compelling about him. And Beth also tells us that what is most likely to appeal to women is the impression Leander seems to give of being alone and emotionally in pain. Which he is - except that he doesn't recognise it. Leander's problem is that his upbringing has led him to see romantic love as destructive and not worth the emotional investment. Added to this, he doesn't see himself as capable of falling in love. So, he tells his friends, he wants to marry someone suitable, someone he can like, but who won't fall in love with him. Who better, Beth thinks, than the Weeping Widow? Judith Rossiter, widowed a little over a year since and with two children, who is well known to have been so in love with her husband that she's still grief-stricken. She still wears unrelieved black. So Leander proposes to Judith, secure in the knowledge that she's not going to fall in love with him. Judith, we learn, ceased to love her husband not long after they were married. The only reason she still wears black is that she can't afford anything else! She's very puzzled by this proposal from a nobleman five years younger than her, and at first thinks he's mad. But events lead her to accept his proposal - and now all she has to do is prevent him from finding out that she does actually have strong feelings for him after all... What stops me giving this book five stars, as I gave some of the other Rogue books, is that while I enjoyed it very much I felt that something was missing. The romance was very, very understated; while there are some lovely scenes in this book, such as some of the kissing scenes, I didn't actually feel that I *saw* Judith and Leander fall in love with each other. I almost felt that Leander wasn't so much falling in love with Judith as he was with the idea of a family. So that wasn't quite as fulfilling as the first two books in the series, or The Devil's Heiress. However, one thing I loved about this book was the chance to get a glimpse - well, more than a glimpse - of my favourite heroes and their partners. The book begins with Beth and Lucien at Hartwell, just six weeks after the end of AUB; we see that the promise of a very happy marriage which we were left with in AUB is definitely coming true. And Lucien and Beth play major roles in the first part of the book. Then, towards the end of the book, we get lots of Nicholas and Eleanor (and Arabel), proving that the happy ending of An Arranged Marriage was a lasting one. I do love encountering characters from earlier books later in the series! Definitely one to add to your Jo Beverley collection!
Rating:
Summary: Really enjoyed it
Review: It's not exciting or adventurous like I usually like - but you actually got to see the hero & heroine spend time together & fall in love. It was more than than usual lust-turns-to-love thing. As usual, JB does an outstanding job a storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Really enjoyed it
Review: It's not exciting or adventurous like I usually like - but you actually got to see the hero & heroine spend time together & fall in love. It was more than than usual lust-turns-to-love thing. As usual, JB does an outstanding job a storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Cute but not sexy
Review: Leander Knollis needs a wife. The catch--she can't be inclined to fall in love with him, which rules out just about every woman he meets. Friends suggest the Weeping Widow, whom everyone knows loved her dear departed spouse most desperately, and does to this day. Judith Rossiter needs money; since her deceased poet left them nothing but volumes of his works, she and her two children are a step away from the poorhouse. A man proposing to her while she is visiting her husband's grave sounds a little too far-fetched to be true, but she doesn't have much of a choice. Why does Leander need to marry? Could it have something to do with a series of seemingly unconnected accidents? And if so, who is the villain? As is typical of the author, the storyline and dialogues are light and intelligent rather than trite or hackneyed. It definitely is not a bad read, although I would not label it a page-turner or a must have. I gave this book four stars because of the lack of passion between the two characters; they seldom "get together", and although sexual tension can often compensate for the lack, this story doesn't have much of that either. Jo Beverly readers will also be happy to see some previously introduced members of the Company of Rogues. However, for my money, Devilish is her best book so far. More intense, and definitely more sensual.
Rating: 
Summary: Blah...
Review: The only interesting scene in the entire book was when Leander visited the Delaney's : They are sitting at the table and Nicholas is feeding his infant daughter, having a conversation with the ever-dull Leander.
Rating:
Summary: Love this series - Jo Beverley is a super writer!!
Review: This was a very romantic read - not quite as spicey as the bedroom scenes were rather weak and kind of awkward. However the two characters were very endearing and you really can see a wonderful relationship developing between them. Judith's children were adorable and Leander was quite taken by them. One of the very best parts of this series is that Beverely always keeps you updated on the characters that were introduced before. This is one of the reasons I love this series so much - a little like the Cynster novels of Stephanie Laurens. In Christmas Angel both Nicholas and Lucien are brought into the story in significant ways and it really solidifies the friendship of this company of rouges. I love this series!!
Rating: 
Summary: Merely An Okay Read
Review: Wonderful! Jo Beverley's Rogue series is a delight - stories that hold your attention and satisfy deeply. I have now finished the third book in the series and have enjoyed this one as much as the first two. Christmas Angel is a very different Christmas story for the season of goodwill is really only a frame to the whole picture and the action leads up to Christmas in only a very subliminal way. This is a gentler story than the first two Rogue books for Leander Knollis, Earl of Charrington, is presented to us as a much milder man in some ways but one whose passions run so deep beneath the surface that he is in danger of missing great happiness. Nicholas Delaney and Lucien de Vaux, the heros of the first two Rogue books, are seemingly much more passionate and volatile men. Leander is a man who believes self control is of high esteem and, much to his amazement, a woman who is largely fooling herself about her first marriage knocks all of his preconceived notions about love, marriage and partnership askew. Others have summed up the plot so I won't go into it. I would like to point out that, in this book, conversational interaction is very important and deserves thoughtful reading. The child characters of Bastian and Rosie are well drawn. I laughed out loud at Rosie's conversation with Hal Beaumont (a Rogue I sincerely hope will one day get his own book!!) when she wonders about the loss of his arm, wild animals and death. In a few brief paragraphs, Jo Beverley captures childish innocence and curiosity so well. Judith Rossiter, our heroine, for all her experience of 13 years of marriage and two children, is virginal and naive in a charming way. How delightful to watch her and Leander dance round each other, striving for something neither can identify! Nicholas Delaney and his wife Eleanor continue to be a linchpin in all of the Rogue stories and it is very satisfying to follow their progress and that of Lucien and his marchioness. I loved this - and look forward to starting the fourth book. Excellent and subtle, this one!
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent instalment in the Rogue Series
Review: Wonderful! Jo Beverley's Rogue series is a delight - stories that hold your attention and satisfy deeply. I have now finished the third book in the series and have enjoyed this one as much as the first two. Christmas Angel is a very different Christmas story for the season of goodwill is really only a frame to the whole picture and the action leads up to Christmas in only a very subliminal way. This is a gentler story than the first two Rogue books for Leander Knollis, Earl of Charrington, is presented to us as a much milder man in some ways but one whose passions run so deep beneath the surface that he is in danger of missing great happiness. Nicholas Delaney and Lucien de Vaux, the heros of the first two Rogue books, are seemingly much more passionate and volatile men. Leander is a man who believes self control is of high esteem and, much to his amazement, a woman who is largely fooling herself about her first marriage knocks all of his preconceived notions about love, marriage and partnership askew. Others have summed up the plot so I won't go into it. I would like to point out that, in this book, conversational interaction is very important and deserves thoughtful reading. The child characters of Bastian and Rosie are well drawn. I laughed out loud at Rosie's conversation with Hal Beaumont (a Rogue I sincerely hope will one day get his own book!!) when she wonders about the loss of his arm, wild animals and death. In a few brief paragraphs, Jo Beverley captures childish innocence and curiosity so well. Judith Rossiter, our heroine, for all her experience of 13 years of marriage and two children, is virginal and naive in a charming way. How delightful to watch her and Leander dance round each other, striving for something neither can identify! Nicholas Delaney and his wife Eleanor continue to be a linchpin in all of the Rogue stories and it is very satisfying to follow their progress and that of Lucien and his marchioness. I loved this - and look forward to starting the fourth book. Excellent and subtle, this one!
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