Customer Reviews

The Last Rogue (Harlequin Historical)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Raleigh is not surprised when he wakes up one morning with a hangover - but he is very surprised when he discovers that he has spent the night with an unattractive virgin in his bed, and now he must marry her since he has compromised her! Raleigh does the honorable thing and marries Jane Trowbridge, the sister-in-law of one of his friends, and takes her with him to his parents' home, and then to the estate he inherited from his late great-uncle. Raleigh is disappointed, however, that he, the match maker of all his friends, is now saddled with a wife who does not love him, nor does he love.

Jane Trowbridge, the compromised virgin with an inferiority complex the size of Wales, never thought that she would marry someone like Raleigh. In fact, she wondered if she'd ever marry at all. And now that she was married, she couldn't have married a more unsuitable fellow, in her opinion. Not only was Raleigh from a wealthy family, but he was obsessed with fashion, food, and pleasure - things that Jane found frivilous at best. How could this unlikely pair even grow to LIKE one another, much less fall in love?

Okay, I will be quite honest and say that I do not like this book at all. I won't go so far as to say I hate it, because hate is too strong of an emotion, but I was pretty apathetic while reading this book. Raleigh is a bit "fluffy" for my tastes, and I doubt that he has more than one serious bone in his entire body, but I felt very sorry for him to be forced to marry someone like Jane. Jane is absolutely unlikeable. I really tried to see where she was coming from, to have sympathy for her, to understand her motivations, but frankly I have come to the conclusion that Jane is just the most nasty, sour, temperamental, irritable, cruel, unkind shrew known to mankind. From the start of her marriage, she never tried to make things work with Raleigh, although he was doing his best to be kind and considerate of her. I felt so incredibly sorry for Raleigh, to be tied to such an unpleasable woman. Several times, I wish I could just reach out and slap Jane a few times. There is no excuse, no matter how big your inferiority complex is, to treat someone in such a way.

I was incredibly concerned for Raleigh's sanity, therefore, when he fell in love with Jane's personality. I do not know what there was in her personality to fall in love with, unless he had a serious desire for emotional harm to come to him. Jane was very rarely kind to him - she was kind to everyone else, it seemed, but her own husband - and I never could understand what he would ever see in her. And quite frankly, both characters had me annoyed with their sniffs and squeaks (Jane) and hums (Raleigh). If Jane sniffed so much, I would think she was coming down with the flu, and if Raleigh hummed constantly around me, I would be more than a little annoyed with him. This book was just bad, and nothing could really salvage it after Jane's high-handedness came into full view. Don't waste your money with this one - there are plenty of better regency novels out there!

This was of one of my favorites from Simmons. At first I was a little worried when I saw the bad reviews. But I really liked Raleigh, and found him entertaining. And I really like his personality mixed with "plain" Jane's...Opposites attract! To me it was charming. I'd recommend it.

This is a great book if you enjoy characters with real motivations, and frames of references that have been built from their own backgrounds and experiences. This author is truly amazing, as she has not pandered to the shallow, low quality and high selling plots that feature stereotyped personalities secretly hankering after one another in cookie cutter fashion.

Who wants an author to tell them everyone is beautiful, dashing, intelligent, witty, or whatnot. As in real life, I want to discover these things myself as I read. Of course, I recognize that many readers need the fairy tale plots - and so if you are one of those, this book is not for you. I enjoyed this book a lot and will be looking for more of this author's work.

Two people, who are total opposites, find themselves in a compromising situation and are forced to marry. Determined to make the best of it Raleigh tries to maintain his humor and positive attitude. He finds plain, humorless, dowdy, Jane a monumental challenge. She suffers from low self esteem and believes her, gorgeous, always impeccably groomed, hunk of a husband can never love or want her.....

This is the only Deborah Simmons I've ever read. I will definitely get her other works. If you love a sweet romance, get this book.

UGH...Man, a book has to be REALLY bad for me to give it 1 star....I was so bored by this that I actually stopped reading it and shelved it when I was only 10 pages away from the ending. First we have Jane. She was SO RUDE.. I swear if she sniffed or squeaked one more time, I was ready to pitch this book out the window! Then there was Raleigh who was constantly described as emitting a low hum and caring more about his attire than all else. Oh yeah, he sounds like the man of my dreams. The "plot" revolves around a bit of a mystery which is just too stupid to even contemplate. For me, the only mystery of this book is how in the heck these two people fell in love!! I especially felt bad for Raleigh when all Jane did was B**ch and moan at him all day long....How this was published.. I have no idea....there are too many books and too little time to waste it on this mess. In my humble opinion....I say skip it.

Having read and reread the book several times I have to take exception to the many bad and hateful reviews I've read about this little book. It's one of the better regencies I've read. I don't know why some have marked poor Jane as disagreeable. It's true she is prickly but it's a defense mechanism. Being marked as 'plain' is something a woman in that time would've equated with death since marriage to a suitable and rich male was thought of as a suitable occupation. Anything else and she was a pariah. Besides I really sympathized with her. And Raleigh was a hoot! He was a refreshing change to the so called heroes of past novels who've often been cruel and sadistic. I won't mention names but some have forced themselves on poor innocent girls and then the girls fall helplessly in love with the man who makes Charles Manson look like a boy scout! Raleigh was kind and extremely patient with poor Jane. He saw what was beneath the plain and bitter exterior and never once did he insult or try to hurt her in anyway. He deserved a medal for that. In this day and age most men won't even look at a woman unless she's blonde and out to there. I suspect it was like that then. Only money and power were prerequisites to marrying well. To anyone who happens upon this little gem, pick it up and give it a chance. You'll laugh, maybe cry, and perhaps it won't be your favorite but it sure stands a chance of being your 'pick me up on a bad day'. Much better than The Devil Earl that's for sure!!!

I guess I should not put my two cents in as everyone seems to dislike this book, but this was my first Simmons book. I really liked Raleigh and truly wish there were more easy going, happy men like him around to cheer me up with his antics, make the doldrums go away and help me to feel better about myself in general by looking beneath the front presented to the world. Yes, Jane was a shrew, but she had her reasons. She was so over shadowed all her life by the "Goddess" sister that everyone raved about she thought she was not good enough for anyone and that Raleigh was just making sport of her. I liked the way her drew her out little by little getting to the root of her deep feelings. I did get tired of her squeaks, should haved used different wording once in awhile. I did not mind Raleigh's "Hmmmm" as I do this myself. All in all I liked the book and it did have a rather erotic love scene finally when they did get together.

I just finished this book and was shocked to come on Amazon and see all these bad reviews! I personally loved the book and found it much more in dept than most of the Harlequin Historicals put out now. I love how the storyline was written-the hero accidentally "compromises" the heroine by falling asleep dead drunk in the bed she also happened to be in-they are married right away and the rest of the story is how they develop after the wedding.

People seem to have a problem with the heroine Jane, saying she was a shrew-but it is evident from the story that there is a reason that she behaves and dresses the way she does. Jane is written as a "tortured heroine", and I loved reading about someone like her rather than some "goddess beautiful" heroine. While Jane may act a shrew, it's a defense mechanism, and she always feels bad after she behaves that way. And may I add that the hero also "acts" the part of the vain playboy dandy for his own reasons as well. Raleigh is well fleshed out (in more ways than one!) and adds loads to the storyline. His valet, Antoine, is a riot as well.

There's comedy, mystery and great sexual chemistry throughout and I highly recommend this romance if you're looking for a unusual historical romance with "flawed" Hero/heroines who redeem themselves through love.

5 stars!

The only thing I really didn't like about this book is that Jane had a very nasty attitude towards Raleigh.. I'm tired of reading romance novels where the lady in the story is so nasty to the man she's going to end up married to.. Other than that it is book was great. I especially loved Dev. he was so care-free and funny. He had me laughing so hard until I was crying. Great! I love a book that can make me laugh...

I am not sure why anyone would like this book let alone love it. Sure, sometimes it gets old reading regencies about perfect looking people but I think readers are wrong to equate surly and nasty with being interesting because the lady is not beautiful. In fact, for me, Jane's very unattractiveness was compounded by her really bad behavior. There was no way anyone would be attracted to Jane as she is so unkind and nasty. I felt sorry for Raleigh.