The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean

I have a weakness for Regency Romance.  I don't know why.  Sarah MacLean is one of the authors that rarely disappoints. Sometimes they're very dramatic and sometimes they're very humorous.  The Rogue Not Taken straddles both.

The heroine, Sophie, is the youngest and "least interesting" of a set of siblings that are one generation and only ten years ennobled.  Their father was a coal mine owner.  While her sisters seem to relish causing scandal and mayhem, Sophie tries to stay out of the limelight as much as possible.  Unfortunately she also loves her sister very much and when she catches her husband in flagrante delicto with a woman, not said sister, she reacts badly and shoves the bastard into a fishpond.  Of course, doing this to a duke in full view of all of the guests at a party is frowned upon so she decides to just go home, smuggling her way onto the coach of the Marquess of Eversley, nicknamed King.  The problem with that is King's coach isn't going to Mayfair, it's headed out of the city altogether.

Mischief and mayhem ensue.  The two fall in love (of course), but there is the typical "I can't marry you because of childhood trauma and I want to leave no children behind" bs from King.  Sophie, on the other hand, doesn't want to trap King into marriage as her oldest sister did with her fishpond-bound groom.  

I liked the pacing of the book.  The falling in love happened over a week or two.  Thankfully we didn't get the love at first sight thing.  Honestly, it was more like loathing at first sight.  Close quarters created the opportunity for them to get to know each other and realize there was more to each other than they originally thought.

There was a wedding.  And I can honestly say that if I got married that way, I'd run my husband over with my carriage and be a wealthy widow instantaneously.  Thankfully for the story, Sophie is more forgiving than I.  To be honest, I'm giving this a YMMV review.  I didn't love it, nor did I hate it.  The hero was a shithead most of the time that I wanted to clobber.  There were times when he was nice, but when he was cruel, he was really cruel.  Sophie mostly stood up for herself, which I really enjoyed.  She wasn't perfect either, and did some phenomenally stupid things.  I think I'll put this review as I may read it again.  I may not.  I'm not sure.