Customer Reviews

Let Sleeping Rogues Lie (School for Heiresses)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have to admit, I haven't read any of the previous installments in this series -- the premise of this particular series isn't really my cup of tea. But I thought I'd give "Let Sleeping Rogues Lie" a chance. After all, I have enjoyed other novels that Sabrina Jeffries has written, and really given how popular the feisty heroine type currently is, I rather thought the notion of having the hero, who happens to be a rake, give the pupils of the Mrs. Harris School For Young Ladies lessons on how to detect a rake, as a plot device, was a rather good one. Unfortunately, "Let Sleeping Rogues Lie" didn't really live up to expectations.

In order to gain custody of his niece, confirmed bachelor and rake, Anthony Dalton, Viscount Norcourt, needs to convince the courts that he is a changed man. And the first step in his campaign is to get his niece enrolled in Mrs. Harris School For Young Ladies. Unfortunately, Mrs. Harris, the school principal, is leery about helping the unrepentant rake, that is until one of the teachers, the school's practical science teacher, Madeline Prescott, comes up with a scheme: have Norcourt give the senior girls lessons on how to detect a rake and avoid him, while Madeline and Mrs. Harris observe him to see if the man is sincere about trying to change his ways and become more circumspect. The Viscount is annoyed but desperate for the ladies' help, and so he agrees to the scheme, but soon finds himself fascinated by Madeline. The lady claims to be immune to his charms -- can Norcourt tempt the lady into a dalliance?

When I say that the book didn't live up to expectations, I don't mean that the book was badly written. To the contrary; it was just that there was a lot of interesting material available in "Let Sleeping Rogues Lie," unfortunately this material wasn't used enough. For example, both Norcourt and Madeline are provided with some rather rich, angst ridden back grounds, but all this gets lost in favour of the "will-they-won't-they" sexual tension that takes over much of the book. And then there was the whole motif about Norcourt's "beast"-like sexual appetite, which inspired a whole lot of eye-rolling rather than titillation. Another thing that irked was that while both Madeline and Norcourt seemed like nice, likable characters, the novel seemed to emphasize the negative parts of their characters rather than their positive. For example Madeline's reluctance to tell Norcourt the truth about why she needed his help in spite of the fact that they shared a common enemy made little sense; likewise Norcourt's tendency to jump to conclusions about Madeline. These, however, are just some of the negatives; where the book really shone was when Mrs. Harris' girls came into the picture, and the last few chapters where Sabrina Jeffries tied everything up satisfactorily. All in all this was an averagely pleasantly read -- if you're a fan, or someone looking for a relaxing pleasant read, "let Sleeping Rogues Lie" will definitely do. But if you're looking for something more substantial, than you might want to pick up something else.

sabrina jeffries has been on my auto-buy list for years now and although i still anticipate her future releases, i feel as though this book is one of her weakest offerings.

ms. madeline prescott is a physician's daughter with a love for nature and mathmatics. after one of her father's patients dies under mysterious circumstances, she and her father are forced to flee from the scandal. she ultimately becomes a teacher at a girls school, all the while hiding her past from her boss while also determined to meet the man who can obsolve her father of guilt.

anthony dalton is a second-son suddenly thrust into the role of viscount after his brother and sister-in-law are killed. he is engaged in a bitter battle for custody of his young niece with the abusive aunt and uncle who raised him. he's desperate to get his niece enrolled into the school as he feels it will help his case against his relatives. unfortunately, he's known as a rake bent on debauchery, and therefore, needs all the help he can get.

madeline, realizing anthony can help her in her quest to prove her father's innocence, bargains with him. after they come to terms, she makes a desperate plea to the headmistress to allow his niece entry. despite (or perhaps because of) his reputation, he is ultimately hired to teach the girls how to recognize a rogue. if he proves successful, his niece will be admitted to the school.

and here is where the story first goes wrong. a known rake getting a job in a girls school is unbelievable. this guy wasn't a play rogue, he was known for screwing around and getting high and drunk. no way he should get a job at a girls school during this time period, even if it is only temporary.

also, madeline is so single-minded in her desire to help her father, she doesn't care that she's jeopardizing anthony's chances of getting his niece enrolled. this wouldn't be all bad except for the fact that she knows the niece is probably being abused on some level by the aunt and uncle. there are numerous times throughout the story when the heroine behaves selfishly, even as she discovers more horrible things about anthony's past which one would think would lead her to behave less rashly. she makes all kinds of desperate decisions that put plans in jeopardy.

another weak point is how anthony time and again looks for ways to justify madeline's selfishness. even though he barely knows her, even though she's basically blackmailing him into helping her, knowing that helping her might hurt his chances to gain custody of his niece, he's extremely forgiving of her behavior. she doesn't necessarily lie to him so much as allow him to formulate his own horribly inaccurate assumptions without correcting him. as a result of her subtle manipulations, all kinds of misunderstandings ensue. even when he ultimately confronts her, he ends up putting most of the blame upon himself. although it makes sense considering his childhood abuse, it felt like the hero was being taken advantage of in a bad way. the heroine doesn't really do anything to empower him other than to offer her body for the slaking of his 'beastly desires'.

in other words, this relationship never feels healthy or healing. i don't feel as though the hero has become all that much stronger by the end. sure, there are some token instances where the hero gets a chance to step from behind the "scared and abused little boy" he was, but those moments proved to be emotionally unsatisfying.

on the plus side, jeffries still knows how to render an intimate moment. the love-making scenes walked a fine line between hot and explicit but never felt pornographic. the couple did have great sexual chemistry and their mutual love for mathmatics gave the relationship more depth.

however, the story suffers mightily due to main characters i found difficult to emotionally invest in and a plotline lacking romance.

i'd recommend this one for those readers who like really hot love scenes and sexual tension and don't mind if the characters aren't all that likable or memorable.

I'll freely admit it, there are times when I realize that I've been reading too much of the same thing, and my brain starts to curdle. Characters become flat, plots listless, and one story fades into another without hardly a break in between. Most of the time this happens with books that fall into the genre of historical romance.

If I'm really lucky, the author has managed to make her characters interesting, or the plot have some new twists, or has actually done some research into the time and place. Most of the time, the books are pretty forgettable, and only very rarely does the novel end up on what I call my 'keeper' shelves.

One of the more recent authors to have been reaching that keeper shelf has been Sabrina Jeffries. Her novels have managed to get beyond the 'smut in fancy dress' level, and she does include little tidbits of daily life and history in her novels set in the late Georgian, or Regency, period of English history, usually about 1820 or so. Continuing her 'School for Heiresses' series, Let Sleeping Rogues Lie is no exception to this trend.

Madeline Prescott has a problem on her hands. She has come to Mrs. Harris' School for Young Ladies to support herself and her father after one of his medical cases resulted in a death. Now she is struggling to clear his name, without too much success when Anthony Dalton, Lord Norcourt, enters her life. He too has a few problems on his hands, and has come to the exclusive school to seek the approval of the courts to become his niece's guardian. If he can arrange Tessa to become a student there, his reputation will lose some of its tarnished allure. Almost immediately he finds himself tempted by Madeline, and starts a rather heated chase to get her into his bed.

But Madeline is anything but a naive teacher, and she knows exactly what he is after. And better still, he can arrange for her to meet with a scientist to help her father rebuild his life. In response to his need to get Tessa into the school, she wants him to teach some of her pupils of the dangers of men such as he, and to help her with her own researches into the results of inhaling nitrous oxide.

Yes indeed, that substance known today as 'laughing gas.' It seems that in the early nineteenth century, parties among members of society were arranged to inhale the gas, and soon they became known for rather scandalous goings on. Even Anthony, with his reputation, is horrified by Madeline's request. So begins this tale of mutual seduction, with a generous mix of lust, family secrets and scarred pasts. Will they ever get to the point where they're not trying to decieve each other and learn to love and trust?

I was rather surprised by this one. Despite the rather dull opening, and the usual machinations of haughty-nobleman-meets-clever-woman, by the midpoint of the story, I was finding myself curious to see how this one turned out. What is unusual is that Jeffries includes some actual historical figures, including Sir Humphrey Davy, who was the chemist who found the process of extracting nitrous oxide and wrote a massive volume on his findings. Along the way, we find a bit about the item known at the time as 'French Letters,' which decency forfends me from naming from their more commonly known term, and about what society at the time deemed moral behaviour.

Some readers might be shocked at the rather frank, and fairly modern, attitude towards sex in this one. The more intimate scenes are fairly steamy, but also very tastefully done. Jeffries doesn't let her prose get too purple, in a welcome break from some of the more outrageous historical romances out there, and neither does she allow the hero and heroine turn into sugary, syrupy nitwits either. Instead, they remain rather likeable and very human.

As with the other novels in this series, Jeffries opens each chapter with a letter from the headmistress, Mrs. Harris, and her mysterious benefactor, known only as 'Michael', who seems to have an amazing grasp of the doings of high society. These letters form a larger arc in the overall series, and I wonder if there will be any more of the story revealed. It's an interesting sidebar.

As historical romances go, this is better than most, and is a worthy entry in the series. The sensual scenes keep away from the more improbable shenanigans, and actually are interesting to read without being too offensive. What I did like was that there were real consequences to the characters' actions here, and they had personalities from what they had gone through in the past. The plot gets resolved in a fairly realistic way, without any hyperbole attached, and comes to a believable end.

Along with the story, there is an author?s note at the end about some of the details of the novel along with a few tidbits about the historical aspects. An excerpt from her next School novel is included, Once a Rake, Always a Rake.

Four stars overall. Recommended.

I thought this was an excellent addition to the School for Heiresses series. I will agree with a few of the other reviewers that have mentioned that a lot of negative traits about the hero and heroine were brought to the forefront. However, from my perspective this only added to their humanity in making them more real. All of us have some weaknesses or certain "logical to us" thoughts that we tend to let rule us a bit more than they should at times. I felt like that is what we saw a great deal of with both Madeline and Anthony. Being a somewhat scientific (bordering on nerdy/geek) person myself, I found the perspective and approach of both Madeline and Anthony completely realistic and enjoyable and honestly a bit refreshing considering we don't often come across characters such as these in your "typical" romance novel.

I thought the intimate scenes were incredibly hot and the tension that was built right from the opening scenes was done nicely. It kept the story moving along at an enjoyable pace and each encounter between the characters seemed to raise that sexual tension a notch or two every time.

There were some comments regarding how Anthony and Madeline at times were each deceiving the other to the point of selfishness and yet were willing to accept the other's reasoning for some of their less than admiral behavior. For me...that is life. Both Anthony and Madeline were facing some very difficult (to put it mildly) events in their lives that required they focus selfishly on their own goals. When you first meet someone...no matter how attracted you are to them, you are not going to put their needs ahead of yours if you are facing a very dire situation. These characters both started out desperately needing a solution to their problems and in each other they saw a means to end (again, they know nothing of each other at the onset, just that the other can potentially help with their respective situations...in essence they both are viewing that the other is getting just as much out of this "selfish" situation as they are). Now, as they begin to know each other better you begin to see both Anthony and Madeline struggle with some of their "selfish" choices and rethink what they are doing. That was part of the beauty of this book, IMO.

In any event, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and zipped right through it, finding it very difficult to put down.

I'll admit right up front that I did not finish this book. I'm a huge SJ fan, and think she does a wonderful job creating memorable characters ... which was actually the problem for me here. The prologue heartbreakingly shows the hero as an abused, scared little boy -- and that's the only way I could see him during the rest of the story. Also it was impossible for me to believe that the psychological and sexual scars that Anthony carries would just disappear once he finds the love of a good woman, which is pretty much the only way to get a happily-ever-after in this genre. This book took on too serious an issue for a straight-up romance.

I am shocked that this book has been so highly rated here.

The character development was almost non-existent, the romance happened far too quickly, as did the sex scenes, the relationship between the hero and the heroine seemed forced and I so hate confrontations involving multiple players. And the hero's "deep, dark secret" was just to strange.

Jeffries has really been hit and miss for me. This one, however, was such a miss that this writer has earned a place on my "do not purchase" list.

I didn't love it like I do most SJ books, but I did like it. It was an interesting story. I think that the hero and heroine's "scientific" approach to life (it came out much more so in the heroine) made them a bit staid and rigid at times. This could have been overcome by developing personalities a little more for the characters and probably would have made the book a whole lot more enjoyable and heart-tugging. I think that was the cause of a certain lack of emotional depth in the book, but interesting and different nonetheless.

Sabrina Jeffries has been an auto buy for me since I first discovered her. I have read every one of her books, including those she wrote under the name Deborah Martin, and I have enjoyed them all. But I think I have to say I loved this book the most. There's no need to go into the plot. Others here have done that already. And though I agree that the premise of a girls school hiring a man to give "rake" lessons to the students is a bit beyond the realm of possibility I also must say that I read these books to be entertained so it was pretty easy to suspend my disbelief and just go with the plot. All her books tend to follow the same formula, including when the "consummation" takes place (page 240, give or take a few pages), but that really does not detract from the story line. And where some authors seem to try too hard to instill humor in their books I found myself laughing out loud at seveal points. (Milking a cow comes to mind; you'll just have to read the book to see what I mean.) So if you want to spend a few hours immersed in a good book, with a good plot, likable characters, HOT encounters and fun situations you can't go wrong with Sabrina Jeffries' latest.

Anthony Dalton, Lord Norcourt, is desperate to have his twelve-year-old niece Tessa accepted at the highly regarded Mrs. Harris' School for Young Ladies in London. Anthony is in a guardianship battle for the orphaned Tessa with his detested aunt and uncle from the country - the same aunt and uncle who abused him as a child. Anthony is a known partier and womanizer, which hurts his chances for success. But he has a higher rank than his uncle as well as a London residence and the best social connections, which work in his favor. If he can add a top-notch school to the advantages he can offer his niece, then he has a good chance of winning the fight. Mrs. Harris is not keen to help the dissolute Anthony become a guardian. But she is persuaded by her head teacher, Miss Madeline Prescott, to give him two weeks to prove his good character. During this time, he must give '(beware of) rakehell lessons' to the school's pupils and behave in a proper and discreet manner. But oh-so-tempting Madeline thwarts Anthony's best intentions, particularly when she insists he take her to one of his infamous - and decadent - nitrous oxide parties. Corrupting a teacher will certainly not reflect well on Anthony's character, yet Madeline intrigues him with her forthright opinions, artless allure, and secretive behavior. So he decides to play along --- all with the goal of seducing her, of course!

I usually like Sabrina Jeffries, but sadly this book was a disappointment. The narrative disconcertingly jumped between comedy and drama, and the characters and storyline were unappealing. The parts involving Madeline's father and his problems were convoluted and uninteresting, the rakehell lessons rather silly in the context of the rest of the story, and the nitrous oxide angle a bit annoying. Madeline's haphazard shedding of her innocence just did not sit right with me, and Anthony's sexual hang-up was overdone and sucked the life from the romance. I grew tired of the constant reference to Anthony's 'bad boy' and 'wickedness'. There was a distinct lack of softness to the love scenes - they seemed harsh and methodical; almost crude. I expect to feel some sense of elation or eroticism in a couple's coming together...instead I was turned off.

I absolutely loved LET SLEEPING ROGUES LIE. It was a fun read and kept me completely engrossed throughout the entire book. I was so into the book that I couldn't put it down and finished the entire book in one day.

The characters were witty and kept me smiling throughout most of the story and the intimate scenes were by far some of the hottest I've read recently. They were so hot that I found myself blushing quite furiously at certain points of the story.

There have been several comments about how some of the plots were either underplayed or overplayed, and how it was rather inconceivable that Madeline wouldn't just confess her purpose to Anthony, but I have to agree with the commenter that pointed out that this is all very much human nature. And it was those very "self preservation" characteristics that made the book so realistic to me.

Overall I loved the book, had a lot of fun reading it and would recommend it to all of my fellow readers.