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A Rogue By Any Other Name
A Rogue By Any Other Name
A Rogue By Any Other Name
Audiobook13 hours

A Rogue By Any Other Name

Written by Sarah MacLean

Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean has taken the world of historical romance fiction by storm! With A Rogue by Any Other Name, she once again boldly breaks new ground.

The first book in her remarkably fresh and original Fallen Angels series—featuring four dark Regency Era heroes who will steal the hearts of their heroines and the readers alike—A Rogue will captivate fans of Julia Quinn and Suzanne Enoch while bringing new romance readers eagerly into the fold. The scintillating story of a disgraced Marquess reduced to running a London gambling hall who hopes to restore his good fortune by marrying a very proper lady who’s secretly drawn to sin, A Rogue by Any Other Name is sexy and wicked fun.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateFeb 28, 2012
ISBN9780062104625
A Rogue By Any Other Name
Author

Sarah MacLean

A life-long romance reader, Sarah MacLean wrote her first romance novel on a dare, and never looked back. She is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of romances translated into more than twenty languages, a romance columnist, and the co-host of the weekly romance novel podcast, Fated Mates. A graduate of Smith College and Harvard University, she lives in New York City.

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Reviews for A Rogue By Any Other Name

Rating: 3.840264699810964 out of 5 stars
4/5

529 ratings50 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    After Lisa kleyas & Julia Quinn I was looking for author that I could enjoy. This was the first book I picked up and I am glad I did. I can't wait to read more of Sarah Maclean's books. I finished reading the book in less than 2 days. Over all, If you are a fan of Lisa and Julia - you will enjoying Sarah's work..
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was fabulous! I liked Penelope and Michael/Bourne and was so hoping that Michael would fall in love with Penelope And he did! I was so glad!

    I read this book on April 27-28, 2022, from 41% in the Kindle edition and from the beginning in the audio on Scrib.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    1st book in the series. Wonderfully naughty but with a great backstory/plot (unlike 50 shades crap). Actually written well. Enjoyed this & the other 3 books in the series that cover each of the Fallen Angel's owners and their own stories.... teasingly tempting!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Michael, lost everything when he was sixteen in a card game, by his neighbor, and he was left with nothing. So now many years later he vows vengeance against the man that ruined his life. He is determined to let no man or woman get in his way, including his childhood friend Penelope. When he hears that his land is now a part of her dowry, he must come up with a plan to secure her marrying him as soon as possible. So he compromises her, which in turn forces her to marry him or face a horrid scandal on herself and her family. Penelope is thrilled at first when she see's Michael for the first time in many years, but he has changed a lot. He is no longer the boy she would run and play with, and write letters to. When she has no choice but to marry him, she wonders what kind of marriage they will have. She aches for passion and love and more than anything she desires Michael to be the one to give it to her. But when she finds out his thirst for revenge, she realizes his resolve and wonders if her love for him might be enough.A Rogue By Any Other Name is the first in the most newest series by Sarah MacLean. I have to say that I ever since I first read this author....she utterly captivated me instantly with her sharp wit and wonderful written stories that just pulled at my heartstrings. I can honestly say she is at the top of my favorite authors to read and I can't believe that it has taken me so long to get this one read....I truly must be an idiot LOL . Because this books was full of everything that satisfies every romantic notion that made me fall in love with romance novels in the first place. The story has a strong plot with a hero that I fell in lust and love with from the beginning. He is total Alpha and bad boy Rake type. Definitely the irresistable type that I just can't help but love from the first page. Penelope seems in the beginning like there is so much more she wants but feels caged by restrictions by her family and society. But when she marries Michael, we see the true fire beneath the mask, and I started to really like her. She fights for what she really wants and for the love she has for Michael (and I just LOVED her for that) I just love two strong characters that might not seem good for each other...but in the end are just perfect for each other. There is also such a sexual tension between these two from the beginning, and boy did this story sizzle and spark. A page turner this one....and story that will make you believe in second chances and a love that never dies!!!! A Romance Marvel that will make you pop in delight!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Michael, the Marquess of Bourne, lost it all when he was 21. A gambling addict since his parents died as a teenager, he risked all of his ancestral homes and fortune on a single hand of Black Jack. And just like that, he lost it all. Since then, Michael has sworn to get revenge on the man he believes stole his legacy from him and is determined to regain his family lands by any means necessary. Even if that means hurting people along with way.Enter Lady Penelope Marbury, Michael's childhood neighbor and sweetheart. The two used to be best friends until Michael disappeared after his parents' deaths. After a disastrous broken engagement to the Duke of Leighton (hero of Maclean's Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart) and 4 lackluster proposals since then, Penelope is practically on the shelf. No longer a prize, her father adds the recently acquired Falconcrest, Michael's childhood home, to her dowry to sweeten the pot. Determined to get his home back, Michael kidnaps her and basically forces her to marry him. Michael is a prick. From the start, he is way too harsh, too dark and too brooding. I understand he's lost everyone and revenge has been his one goal for nearly a decade, but my goodness it was like he didn't have a single redeeming quality! Whenever he was nice to Penelope, it was for his own benefit. I just didn't feel like what happened to him warranted him being so mean toward her. And it wasn't just Penelope. He was a jerk to everyone, which made me wonder how he even came to have friends like Cross, Temple, and Chase in the first place.To put things in perspective, Temple who is also the Duke of Lamont had been falsely accused of murdering his father's soon-to-be wife and had been outcast for nearly the same amount of time and even he was not as much of jerk as Michael was. What's worse is, I feel like Michael never took any responsibility for his actions. Unlike what happened to Temple (which was completely out of his control), Michael's choices directly orchestrated his downfall. And yet he kept accusing Langford of pushing him to gamble more rather than accepting the fact that he himself chose to keep going. Langford hadn't been holding a gun to his head so Michael could have stopped at any point. But he chose not to. It's hard to feel sorry for him when he doesn't even own up to his own actions.I felt sorry for Penelope. After witnessing the Duke of Leighton's love for his wife, she dreamed of a love match of her own. Instead she would up with a jerk like Michael. What saves this book from being a complete failure is the fact that I actually liked Penelope. She was strong and wanted to steer her own life for once. And it was she who finally took down Langford. Michael just simply didn't deserve her unfortunately.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Lighthearted read. Bit weak in some places, stronger in others. I enjoyed the letter snippets at the start of the chapters - I felt that really gave a good insight into the characters. The revenge plot was a little ridiculous but it is what it is and overall the story was enjoyable. I enjoyed the banter between Phillipa and Penelope and even Olivia and wished there had of been more of that but perhaps in the next book.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I didn´t liked the narration.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Just couldn’t bring myself to really enjoy this book as much as i wanted to— i thibk it was just a little too drawn out for me, and a bit too repetitive.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Enjoyable! Excellent narrating. This is the thrd book I have listen to by this author. Very pleased.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book was a disappointment for me. I found it to be far too long and very repetitive. They literally have the same argument a dozen times. The writing was good but the plot was just lacking for me. How the set up for the next book was written in the ending though has me reaching for the next book in the series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Delightful, fluffy historical romance. I'm in the mood for it, and Sarah MacLean delivers. This one is Bourne and Penelope.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    2nd read- After waiting eagerly for each new book in her Bareknuckle Bastards series they're now complete. And I wanted more. =D I had already read this series, and certain aspects had stuck with me since then, but I had given books 1, 2, & 4, all 4 stars each, so I decided to revisit them. I don't entirely love this hero, but I like how they're drawn to each other, and I think they end up better people together, which I do love.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this. This is my second book by this author and I've liked both, though they are longer than some other romances and I don't always think they need to be. I was a bit bored at the beginning of this but really liked the ending, which is the main reason I'm giving this 3.5 stars. In the beginning, Michael treats Penny really poorly. I was glad we got the dual perspectives because you do understand why he is acting that way, though I do think it could have been explored a bit more, but I don't think he did nearly enough groveling at the end. I would have appreciated a scene where he takes more explicit responsibility for his earlier action. I have the second book in this series, which I think a lot of people really like. I'm definitely going to pick it up soon, though I'm back in the bad habit of starting a bunch of new series all at the same time so I'm going to have to prioritize a bit if I want to actually finish any of these series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sometimes I'm in need of a light, fun, romantic novel and this one was perfect. It had its flaws, but nevertheless, I enjoyed the characters, the story, and the romance, and I'll likely be picking up the sequel soon.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    At twenty-one the young Marquess of Bourne makes a disastrous decision to gamble his estate, Falconwell, on a game of cards to Viscount Langford, the man who was his guardian. He’s left with nothing. Ten years later, he’s recouped all the money through his own business ventures. He and his three partners own a private gambling club where rich young bucks of the ton lose their fortunes, just as he once did himself. He needs only one thing to make his life complete: Revenge. He wants his old lands back, and he wants to ruin the man who ruined him.

    Penelope and Michael grew up together. They, along with Thomas (son of Viscount Langford), were once the best of friends. Penelope’s father recently won Falconwell from Langford and added it to Penelope’s dowry in hopes it will enable her to finally win a husband.

    Yes, the story is predictibly clichéd and Michael Bourne is a superficial, self absorbed ass. I got tired of hearing about his revenge and her insecurities and unrequited love. Nevertheless, I have the other three books in the series and plan to read them soon. Apparently each of the remaining books features one of the partners in The Fallen Angel gambling club. The epilogue of this one starts Cross' story and I liked how it began. Plus, I occasionally still like to read clichéd regency romances that I loved when I was younger.

    WTR 1356
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've heard lots of people talking about the Sarah MacLean romance stories, in particular The Rules of Scoundrels series, and it's all been good. When I got the opportunity to read A Rogue By Any Other Name, I jumped on it. And the hype was right. It is a great romping fun romance.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I can hardly believe how quickly I devoured this book! What a truly emotional roller coaster the OTP went through, and I spent much of the book not quite crying, but with an ache in my chest that surprised me. Every conversation was fraught with painful revelations waiting to be stirred up. I wanted the hero to put aside his need for revenge as much as the heroine wanted him to because they clearly belonged together. He needed to let go. I loved her spirit of adventure hiding underneath all the proper behaviour and self-sacrifice. I am definitely looking forward to the next books in this series.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Sweet, but Michael was such a jerk that I wanted Penelope to ditch him. His discovery of love's true power was not enough to lead to my forgiveness for his many sins. I liked Penelope, and her letters to Michael quite a bit, and Tommy was sweet. It was enough to get this to average. For the first 100 pages I was thinking a 2 star would be a gift, but it did very much improve.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    His desire for revenge has sustained him for nearly a decade, now Bourne sees the possibility of regaining his estate and destroying his enemy. What Michael doesn't count on is having to marry his childhood friend to gain the dowry of his former estate, nor does he plan to fall in love.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A Rogue by Any Other Name
    4 Stars

    Michael Lawler, Marquess of Bourne, lost everything - his land, his money and his reputation - in a single game of cards. Swearing vengeance, Bourne waits eight years for the opportunity to ruin the man who destroyed his life. Dealing with the social consequences of a broken engagement, Penelope Marbury is resigned to life as a spinster until Bourne charges back into her life and offers her the adventure of a lifetime. But can Bourne move past his obsession with revenge to give Penelope and himself the love that they both desperately need…

    Series Note: This is book #1 in the spin-off to MacLean’s Love By Numbers series, the first of which, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, is one of the best historical romances in recent memory. While it is not 100% necessary to read the original series, Penelope and Michael’s story is loosely related to the 3rd book Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart.

    There is much to enjoy in this book - solid writing and pacing, engaging dialogue, a lovable heroine and an intriguing revenge plot. Unfortunately, the hero’s cold cruelty undermines the romance for much of the story.

    While the villain is certainly despicable and Michael’s desire for vengeance is quite understandable, his ruthless calculation and callous action toward Penelope make it exceedingly difficult to like him. That said, he does ultimately redeem himself and the HEA at the end is satisfying.

    In contrast, Penelope's strength of will and determination to live life to the fullest make her an exceptional heroine. Despite her love for Michael, she is under no illusions as to his faults and confronts him with his asinine behavior at every turn. Seeing his confusion and bewilderment at the “Amazon” his wife becomes is highly entertaining as are the spicy scenes between the two.

    Another highlight of the book is the camaraderie between the eponymous scoundrels of the series, Bourne, Cross, Chase and Temple. Their honest friendship is rare to see in historical romance (being more the purview of military romantic suspense) and their banter as well as the occasional fisticuffs are fun to read.

    The epilogue introduces to next couple in these series and I am eager to read Pippa and Cross’s story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First off.. I LOVED the letters between the hero/heroine at the beginning of the chapters. This book is the first in "The Rules of Scoundrels" series. Michael and Penelope were a good couple, and I was glad to read her story after what happened in the other one. (Eleven Scandals to start to win a duke's Heart). I did find that Michael seemed to take a bit too long for me to come around.. but their time and conversations together made up for that. I also love the secondary characters, Phillipa and Cross! Can't wait to read their stories.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved the premise of four men, on the outs with their families, joining forces and going into business together, having a gaming establishment in London. Each one contributes with a skill of his own, as an accountant, a manager, a security, and the owner.

    I disliked the hero almost as much as I liked the heroine. As for the plot, I was torn in two as well. I liked it in theory, but not in execution. The pace of the story was okay, although it did meander from time to time.

    This author is a hit or miss for me. this story started out great, middle way it took a wrong turn, but then it course corrected ... a bit. In the end, I have to admit that the parts I liked outweighed the parts I didn't.

    Melanie for b2b
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Received this in Book Riot's quarterly subscription. People who don't regularly read [YA, Sci-fi, Romance] sometimes tend to look down on that genre. I get that, because in my case it's true.

    When I was younger, I sneaked a peek at some books my mom deemed "too trashy" and ended up reading a ridiculous story centered around blond twins named "Danger" and "Dare" (I'm not kidding). Either Danger or Dare had gone missing, and it was up to her twin and a policeman with chiseled abs and zero professionalism to find her, while having lots of steamy trysts along the way.

    Another early sally into the world of romance novels introduced me to cringe-inducing euphemisms like "love canal".

    But this one mostly avoided both of those pitfalls (wildly unrealistic characters and uncomfortable sex-words). I still couldn't read more than a couple of chapters at a time, but in small doses it was pretty enjoyable.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Eh, it was okay.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved it! What a wonderful story (and I must get the next in the series immediately!!). The heroine is lovely and realistic and still hoping for the best. And flawed. In ways that she could see and try to improve and in ways that snuck up onto her. And her man. My oh my. You feel sorry for him. You hate him. You want to hold him. You certainly want to shag him :) And you want them to both figure it out.

    I had a couple of odd couple of moments when I waited on baited (slightly irritated) breath for some major plot twist and I was totally wrong. Delightfully so. Loved it. Two thumbs up. Enjoy!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book was very bipolar for me. Parts of the story were fun and intriguing, and I loved the characters; at other times, I hated both of them and things dragged.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Ten years ago, in 1821, the aristocratic Michael Bourne lost his entire inheritance in a card game. Ever since, he has desired nothing more than to reclaim his land and extract his revenge on the man who took it from him. But recently that land was sold to the daughter of Micheal's estranged childhood friend, Penelope, and her father is now offering it as part of her dowry. So, of course, Michael determines to marry her, even though she has been holding out for a man she truly loves.Yes, it's a romance novel. I... am not a romance novel reader. But I was sort of challenged to expand my horizons a little with this book, and never let it be said I backed down from a bookish challenge, or from a bit of literary horizon expanding. The verdict? It was okay. The heroine was decent, neither a soppy damsel in distress nor a 21st century woman in 19th century clothing. The sex scenes were actually a bit sexy, which I find is often not the case for me, and were mercifully free of "throbbing manhood"s or other embarrassing euphemisms. And there was even the vague semblance of a plot, what with all the stuff about the inheritance and the revenge. (OK, it was a very vague semblance, but that's still more than I expected.)There are some flaws, though. MacLean has this odd writing tic, where any time her characters get introspective or emotional she starts writing these choppy little one-sentence paragraphs and italicizing entire sentences for no particularly good reason. But that turned out to be less annoying than I though it would be; after a while, I mostly stopped noticing it. A slightly bigger issue is that Michael was rather more of a jerk than he should have been if I was supposed to be invested in him enough to care about breaking through the jerky exterior to the less-jerky man underneath. (Although at least there are decent reasons for Penelope to be that invested.) My main complaint, though, is that it drags a bit in the middle, where we're treated to a few too many repetitions of "Ooh, he cares about me after all! No, wait, he is just using me. Woe!" from her and "No, I must not get emotionally involved!" from him, before all the romantic tension resolves itself a bit too abruptly. But maybe that's just par for the course for this sort of thing. The romantic dialog also gets kind of over-the-top mushy at the end, but I imagine that's also to be expected.Anyway. It was overall an okay read, and not off-putting, as I feared it might be. I'm guessing that for fans of romance this is a good one, but it's still not really my sort of thing. There's a clear hook at the end for a sequel, featuring the sister of this book's heroine, but I'm going to stop here and call it a day on the romance reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sometimes a book comes along just exactly when you need it. The stars align, the Gods smile upon you, your heart is opened and a book flies in and takes root in your soul.

    It was the last week of tax season, I’d had a rough run of 2/3 star books that I only really gave 3 stars because I couldn’t rustle up much of ANY reaction to them. But they weren’t bad or offensive I just expected more out of them. I even chose them because they were classics and I thought they would be wonderful distractions from the crushing stress of tax deadline. Instead, I started to fret that I was in a book funk. I just couldn’t get engrossed in any book.

    Literally, on a whim, I decided to try this one. I’d heard good things about Sarah MacLean and while I truly liked Nine Rules to Break, it wasn’t so awe-inspiring for me that I felt like this book was a sure bet. I read the cover and thought, “Well, I’ll try it.”

    I am so glad I did. I was immediately sucked into this book and these wonderful character.

    There are some tropes that I am just an absolute sucker for. We’ve already addressed my affection for writers. We’ve also addressed my affection for the Mulan trope. But one we haven’t touched upon yet: childhood best friends/sweethearts that are separated for some reason beyond their control.

    Nowhere in any of the summaries or synopses of this novel did I see anything that suggested that it was a novel about childhood best friends. In a way, I’m super glad I didn’t see any reference to that because the first set of letters between Michael and Penny kicked me in the gut. There’s immediately a sense of affection and, non-romantic, love between the two of them.

    The loose plot of this book is that after the death of his parents, Marquess of Bourne, Michael, loses his entire inheritance to his guardian in one game of cards at the age of 21. He’s cast out of society and, essentially, disappears off the face of the earth. Abandoning, though he doesn’t realize it at the time, his best friend and neighbour, Penelope Marbury daughter of the Marquess of Needham etc.

    Penelope continues to write to him. Letters that are slowly revealed over the course of the novel.

    Penelope, in the mean time, is betrothed to and then jilted by a Duke. A Duke that was perfectly amiable, but who was madly in love with someone a little less appropriate than Penelope. However, he tosses Penelope to the side and marries his love match. Penelope is far from heartbroken, and considering her good standing in society, she’s not precisely an outcast. However, she is not the catch she was once considered to be.

    So, her father attaches a newly won holding of land to her dowry. And what would you know? It’s the Marquess of Bourne’s former holdings/home. Michael, catching wind of this, and a fully changed man and manager of one of the most prestigious gaming hells in all of London, decides there’s only one solution to this problem: marrying Penelope whether she likes it or not.

    This is a novel that so very easily could’ve been yet another Once and Always with an abusive, ignorant, controlling man whom I could not understand the appeal of or the heroine’s forgiveness. However, because of the beautifully set-up past between the two of them, and the deftly handled glimpses of the feelings Michael has always had and never fully lost for Penny, you understand where the conflict comes from and why it continues.

    These aren’t two strangers who were randomly thrown together because of greed or lust. They’re two people with a very powerful, dynamic history who are meeting up again for the first time in almost a decade with so much that has changed between the two of them, and so much that hasn’t. And it just works.

    The whole novel works. Michael is an alpha hero I’ve hated in countless other incarnations, but he works here. He refuses to voice his feelings, or acknowledge them, but I never once doubted how much he still felt that love he had for Penelope as children and beyond. And Penelope, who tried so hard to reconcile the boy she knew with the stranger in front of her, and to find where the twain met.

    And if the moment when Michael finally calls Penelope “Sixpence” again doesn’t make you emit a noise only comparable to the noise Emma Thompson makes at the end of Sense & Sensibility, then I do not know what it would take to touch your soul.

    Read this novel. Now. Now not later.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Romance novels aren't usually my first choice for leisure reading, but I heard a recommendation for Maclean's Rules of Scoundrels series from a source which I have never yet found to be wrong about what books are worth one's time, so I decided to give the first one a go.This was mostly a delight. It is a straight-up romance, so there are some predicable tropes and a fair helping of (just shy of porno-) graphic sex. But the tropes are played out in mostly believable (and sometimes subverted) ways, the sex writing is smart, and (and this is a near-requirement for me to sit still for sex scenes that last for more than a sentence or so) the sex (the way of it, not just the fact of it) is important to characterization and plot. The story has some emotional depth; the heroine is (eventually) determined, independently minded, and unapologetic; the "rogue's" motivations arise believably from his history without existing only to make him a villianous, bad-boy romance hero; and there are a number of simply fun, fun scenes in which it's a joy to watch these characters get into scrapes, snipe at one another, and dole out comeuppances. The sentence-level writing is pretty clean, and the plotting reasonably tight. My only real complaint was the repetition of certain phrases and images almost verbatim, and while that was quite annoying, it didn't happen often enough to seriously diminish my opinion of the book. It's not got the complexity or dexterity of prose to approach the literary, but A Rogue by Any Other Name is the best kind of bubblegum read: fun, quick, and sometimes snappy. I imagine I'll be on to book two in the near future.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Got this book in my BookRiot Quarterly box. Romance is not my genre, but I gave it a go anyway. Didn't like it. Shallow and silly.