Customer Reviews

Rogues Proposal

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After reading many favourable reviews on this book, I rushed off and bought it almost straight away. Well, I was in for a disappointment. The first half of the story moved at a very slow pace. I was bored to tears despite the mystery, which is transparent and uninteresting by the way, obligingly thrown in by the author. Paragraphs after paragraphs of lengthy exposition just went on and on. And the sex! Well, don't get me wrong. I love plenty of steamy and well written love scenes in a romance, but 10 plus pages of boring, lengthy and repititive love scenes! Give me a break. The second half was slightly better, with a little more drama between the hero and heroine, but that couldn't save the whole story from being a boring and mediocre read.
If you are new to Steph. Laurens, perhaps you'll find this book not bad at all. But having gone through the whole series of the Cynster clones, I find that the overused formula in these books just doen't work for me anymore.

I really enjoyed this one. I was worried about starting this one because I couldn't even finish the third book, "Scandal's Bride". But Demon was just right! Flick was the best heroine so far in this series. I liked the fact that she still had the innocent nature after being with Demon the first time. So often the virgin turns 180 and becomes this unrealistic sex nymph. I thought the whole Dillon and the Syndicate thing was rather pedantic. If it was such a big deal I thought that there should have been more pressure from those around them. But really it was just the General's dissapointment that spurred them. I don't hold that against the book though. There was just the right amount of sexual suspense, just the right amount of sex, just the right amount of resistance from the hero, and just the right amount of innocence from the heroine to make this an excellent story! Great read!

Book 4 in the Cynster series - or Book 5 if, like me, you count The Promise in a Kiss as Book 1 - features Vane's younger brother Harry, known as Demon. After seeing three of his fellow Bar Cynster members happily chained in marriage, Harry knows that he'll be next if the women in his family have anything to do with it. So he decamps to his stud at Newmarket, a place where he's very sure he won't encounter any marriageable women.

A new jockey at his stables catches his attention - the jockey's bottom, in particular. It's not a man's rear. And he's right: the jockey is actually Felicity Parteger, the ward of his nearest neighbour. She's investigating a race-fixing scandal - the obligatory Laurens A-plot and this time, thankfully, one which doesn't take over the story. The last time Harry - Demon (I really think these nicknames are silly!) - saw Felicity, she was in pigtails and still obviously a teenager. Now, she's 20 to his 31, and she's beautiful. Not only is she beautiful, but he's attracted to her.

To my relief, this story proceeds a little differently to the four earlier books. Harry actually *fights* his attraction to Felicity - Flick, as he calls her - and he doesn't propose until almost half-way through the book. Very sensibly, Flick turns him down. She's been in love with Harry all her life, but she knows that he doesn't love her. He proposes for reasons to do with propriety and also, as she knows, because he finds her attractive. But she will only marry for love.

How their courtship develops, against the backdrop of the A-plot and, eventually, the London season and the rest of Harry's family, is generally well-told. This time, Laurens develops the romance steadily and well, instead of marrying her characters off in the first half of the book and thus taking away any romantic suspense. This is *definitely* an improvement on the earlier books, and I really felt as if I was reading a love story.

I also liked Flick a lot. She's an independent young woman with a mind of her own, and she's determined not to be pushed around by Demon. She has a sense of humour and intelligence coupled with innocence, but she won't let Demon use his greater experience and age to get the better of her. One of Laurens' better heroines so far.

But there's still the unanswered question of how Laurens' heroines manage to escape pregnancy while they're blithely and happily having sex with their men before marriage.

Laurens' choice of nickname for her hero here led to a lot of distracting repetitions, too: "Demon leashed his demons..." and similar phrases occur throughout. And she *really* needs to look up 'disinterest' in a dictionary. It does *not* mean 'lack of interest'; it refers to a state of non-involvement or objectivity.

This is the 4th book in the Bar Cynster series. This is Demon(Harry)'s story. Demon is the younger brother of Vane, book #2.

Demon has, like all the other Cynster's vowed that he will never marry. He has fled to his country estate where he soon finds himself spellbound by a fiesty chit of a girl named Flick aka Felicity. Now he has know Flick for years but has always thought of her as a young girl who he could tease. Now he finds a young woman with a beauty that steals his breath. He also finds trouble is brewing. Flick's older brother is in trouble and its ups to Demon and Flick to get him out of it.

Flick is a tomboy. She can ride like no one else and knows horses better that Demon does. She realizes that she needs Demon's help but she doesn't have to like it. But underneath the tomboy ways is a young woman who's heart goes all a flutter when Demon walks in the room. She is madly attracted to him but is knows that he will never see her as anything more than a friend. She wants his love but is afraid she will never have it.

I enjoyed this book but found it to be a bit different than the others in the series. There was passion and love but I just didn't get into these two characters they way I have in previous books. I would still recommend this book but I have to say that out of the series so far its not one of my favorites.

Like Lauren's other books this is worth reading. All her male characters are so sexy. The female characters pale in comparison but just thinking of her sexy hunks makes the reading worth it.

She just keeps them coming and they get better and better each time. This novel, the fourth in the Bar Cynster series is another keeper. Stephanie Laurens is so steamy in her writing. Her love scenes are so explicit and captivating. In this novel, I really enjoyed Flicks youth and innocence. I loved how she was so energetic. She was so young that she believed with all her heart in what she felt. She didn't have the skepticism that the women in the other novels had. She was certain about her relationship, and unyeilding in what she wanted from Demon. She was the initiator in the "mystery" solving in this novel going to Demon for help. He went for her and she just sort of took it as her due. She figured her dream was coming true. He was falling for her and she was going to bask in the glory of what he could teach her. She also was appreciative of his help. I really enjoyed reading this novel. I think that the story line was captivating. The mystery part of the novel kept my attention and wasn't so boring or drawn out that I would have found myself skimming through those parts (I have done that with other novels). I also felt that her love scenes weren't so long that it took the fun out of them, but that they were so descriptive and lush that you could hardly put it down. Some of them were a chapter long, but you hardly noticed because it was so well written and enthralling. This novel should definitely be a part of any romance readers collection.

I bought Ms. Laurens novel, A Rogue's Proposal by mistake. When I flipped it over and read the back cover I thought "Oh no not another romantic mystery". Seeing as how I had already bought the book I decided to read on. The story of Demon and Felicity was slow to begin with. I was getting sort of sick of the whole race fixing mystery and was ready to count this book off as another romantic flop when the story line got interesting. After Felicity managed to thwart Demon's first proposal of marriage (which was offered because Demon believed that Felicity had been compromised by staying overnight unchaperoned in a cottage with him), Demon realized that he actually did want Felicity for a wife and his feelings were some what hurt that she had managed to wiggle out of his proposal. From then on the story develops as Demons tries to capture a wife and Felicity tries to decipher true love.

All in all, Demon's and Felicity's story was good. I gave the book three stars because I am of the opinion that the race fixing sydicate took up too much of the book and the loves scenes were a bit long (that might be a plus for some). As this is my first Stephanie Laurens book, I plan on reading more, including the rest of the Bar Cynster series.

I thought oh no not another Cynster running away straight into his fate. I was beginning to think, are all the rest going to be the same. But Laurens pulls it off. She does seem to match her couples well and gives you enough romance, mystery, passion, and laughs to keep you reading. I won't say this is one I will keep to reread, but I glad I didn't miss this one of the series.

I'm a big fan of Stephanie Laurens and her Bar Cynster series of regency romances, but this is a difficult book for me to review. On the one hand, this book has my favorite hero of the series, Demon, and it has some of the best love scenes. The relationship between Demon and Flick constantly sizzles and when it bursts into flame - watch out! I particularly liked the time they spent in London during the Season where Demon is simultaneously trying to court her and protect her reputation from being seen with him. On the other hand, the heroine can be one of the most annoying ninnies you'll ever find. She's one of those plucky young ladies who repeatedly proves her independence by deliberately rushing headlong into situations that even a three-year old could tell were dangerous. After she has been saved by Demon from certain rape after being warned against chasing the bad guys all by herself, she actually says, "There's nothing you can say or do that will convince me I don't have as much right as you to go hying after villains." Oh? How about the fact that you are too stupid to breathe? It's a mystery to me why romance novelists can't write about heroines who need rescuing because their in peril through no fault of their own. If you can ignore this silliness, you will otherwise find it a very pleasant read.

That's what Felicity (Flick)is. She's young but doesn't let anyone push her around. She wasn't stupid or dimwitted. She was very knowledgeable. Stephanie has a great talent for love scenes and making her characters seem real. You just truely fall in love with them. Demon was of course nobody's fool. What Cynster is? Don't miss this book in the Cynster series you will not be disappointed.