This is the first book I've read by author, Valerie Sherwood. 'To Love a Rogue' is strictly for fans wanting to complete their reading of the author's works, but not a great example of why she was a bestselling storyteller from the late 1970s through the 1980s.

Sherwood would go on to write one more historical romance, making the jump to hardback. Instead, it gives the impression of a writer running out of steam after a steady decade of success. In her prime, Sherwood was an enjoyable romance writer, with intricate plots, memorable characters, and vivid detail wedded to fashion. Lorraine herself undergoes a sea change as a heroine, from naive and prone to misunderstanding, to shrewd and savvy empire builder. One moment they're nosing around each other the next, they're in love. Meanwhile, the love affair between Lorraine London and Raile Cameron seems to have lost a crucial step in its development in an earlier draft of the novel.

The novel moves from Rhode Island to various points in the Caribbean to Virginia, and even to the Yucatan, bizarrely and briefly, intersecting with Bacon's Rebellion. Passion and innocence melded against each other are drawn to the brink.Īnd the price of what you wish is often the same as what you want.Sherwood's penultimate book is, regrettably, a stumble, an oddly uncompelling book that contains pale echoes of her previous, better works: a high-spirited young woman from a good family forced into being a bondservant (see 'This Loving Torment' and 'Born to Love') becomes involved with a dashing seafarer (see 'Love' and 'Song' series), while being pursued by an obsessed, vengeful sadist (again, the 'Love' series). He would carve a path through hell to her, but Sarah will be his. But for his every step forward, she takes two back.Īs secrets and betrayals rage, Maximus is done waiting for the dice of fate to roll in his favour. Burns to see her melt at his fevered touch, his heated kisses. He yearns to be the one to chase her fears away. Maximus has put countless hearts to fear, but the sight of it in a pair of green eyes pure as virgin jades changes something vital in him. But where her mind tells her he is far more dangerous a bet, her heart whispers another. And the only path that leads out is through the arms of a Rogue.

Scars from her past have yet to fade when mist of dark lies and darker deception begin to gather around Sarah’s one chance to a new life. The lion wants to play.”įear is all Sarah Rosenwal has ever known, and Maximus Castlemaine is everything she fears.

Learning to Love a Rogue by Sierra Jaid