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Title: Dashing and Dangerous: More Rakes and Rogues by Mary Balogh, Edith Layton, Melinda McRae, Anita Mills, Mary Jo Putney ISBN: 0-451-40531-5 Publisher: New Amer Library Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)
Rating: 3
Summary: As anthologies go, okay. Three good novellas, two poor.
Comment: This anthology has three of my favourite Regency writers as contributors, so it should be good, I thought. However, I quickly discovered that two of the novellas inside had also appeared in a later anthology, Captured Hearts. So if you've read that, then you've already read the Layton and Balogh contributions to this anthology.
And, as it happens, by far the weakest and least enjoyable story in this is the Layton one, Buried Treasure. Layton departs from her usual Regency genre (why then is she included in a *Rakes* and Rogues anthology?) to produce a rather tedious story about a not-very-likeable pirate and the somewhat boring woman who falls in love with him and whom he intends to seduce and desert. I didn't enjoy this the first time, and didn't bother reading it the second.
I enjoyed Melinda McRae's Sweet Revenge more than I expected. David, Lord Denby returns home after a long absence, knowing that his childhood sweetheart, Chloe, is now widowed. He and Chloe had been secretly engaged years earlier, but then he'd gone off to fight in the Napoleonic wars and had been rumoured killed in action. Griefstricken, Chloe had married his cousin Jonathan. Not long after, David had returned home safely, and he'd seen Chloe's action as betrayal. He hadn't seen her since. Now, however, she was widowed and he's out for revenge. He will make her fall in love with him again and, if possible, seduce her - and then desert her. But will his resolve hold when his own feelings may not be as full of hate as he thinks?
Mary Jo Putney's The Devil's Spawn is not her best work by far. The plot's a well-worn one: Dominic, Lord Chandler, asks his sweetheart's father for permission to pay his addresses. The father rejects him and goes further: lets Roxanne believe that Dominic has been bought off. This same plot was used in a novella in the Captured Hearts anthology. Years later, Dominic returns, with an elaborate plan to kidnap Roxanne and marry her - he has no idea of what she believes about him. It's the really ridiculous nature of this plan, which involves pretending to be a Polynesian savage, which destroys the crediblity of the story. Added to that, there is another cliched revelation in the novella, and an abrupt and unconvincing change in characterisation.
Anita Mills' A Good Woman, set in Texas as opposed to Regency England, is also surprisingly enjoyable. Jack Morgan, former bank robber, is being released after eight years in prison. His only wish is to find the money he buried before being arrested, but a woman with two children and clearly in desperate circumstances catches his attention and he helps her out by paying for a night's accommodation and food for her. The next day they're on the same stagecoach to Huntsville. Beth tries to ignore the drunken, untidy man, while Jack is tired and irritated by the children. However, neither can prevent their decent natures wanting to help the other, and when they arrive in Huntsville Jack sacrifices the remainder of his cash to stop Beth's home being repossessed. Then, when Beth sees the way the sheriff is harassing Jack, she offers him a home. Can the lonely, tired widow reform the cynical ex-con who claims not to have a heart?
And the best in the collection is Mary Balogh's Precious Rogue, which I'd read before. Patricia Mangan is a poor relation, treated as little better than a maid by her aunt. Joshua Buchanan is a guest at a house-party, and the favoured suitor of Patricia's cousin. However, Buchanan - as Patricia discovers when she sees him enjoying the attentions of a married lady guest - is a rake, and he's actually only leading her cousin and aunt on. He has no intention of proposing. However, the rake and the little shadow find themselves having sparky conversations... and the rake finds himself increasingly concerned for the fate of his little bird, as he calls Patricia. And soon he cannot even carry on his usual games with discreet women, because all he can think about is Patricia...
The best novellas in this anthology, as is always the case with anthologies, needed to be longer. The other two would have been best omitted. This gets three stars for Precious Rogue; on average, the rest of the anthology merits two.
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Title: Blossoms by Mary Balogh, Karen Harper, Patricia Oliver, Patricia Rice, Margaret Evans Porter, Salvatore Raimondo ISBN: 0451182499 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 April, 1995 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Christmas Belle (Signet Regency Romance) by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0451179544 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 November, 1994 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: A Christmas Promise by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0451173600 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 December, 1992 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: Slightly Dangerous (BALOGH, MARY) by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0385338112 Publisher: Delacorte Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Christmas Beau (Signet Regency Romance) by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0451171020 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 December, 1991 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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