A Rogue of My Own Book

Mary Balogh does it again! "Then Comes Seduction" is a perfect read if you like bad-boy-redeemed-by-good-girl stories. There's more to it than that, of course, but I figure if this is your type of book...that's enough to get you interested.

On his 25th birthday, Jasper makes his most infamous bet. He will seduce the virtuous society virgin of his buddies' choice. They select none other than Katherine, cousin to his brother-in-rakehellness, Constantine. All proceeds according to plan, until the final moment when Jasper draws back and delivers a set-down guaranteed to make her despise him...and it works.

It's three years later and Katherine has certainly, um...mostly, all right occasionally managed to forget about the gorgeous villain who managed to do the right thing...likely for once in his life! But soon a strange set of circumstances and coincidences bring Jasper back into her life...to stay. Now Katherine is going to join in a very private wager with Jasper. The results of which will determine their future together.

Balogh's romances are steamy and yet still touching somehow. Her ability to depict the unconscious changes in thought and character of her heroes and heroines is unsurpassed. There's no sudden moment...where actions change and from one day to the next life is different. Instead, her characters come to recognize the changes have already taken place over time and circumstance. For me, this is a reading pleasure in and of itself. The only epiphanies for her characters are when they come to realize what the reader's already figured out...they do love each other and that love will last.

I enjoyed "First Comes Marriage" so much, I was just hoping for an equal read. But Mary Balogh gave me more than that with "Then Comes Seduction". Now I just have to wait another month to get the next book in this series, "At Last Comes Love", Margaret's story. A whole month!