The Maiden's Court: Book Review: To Wed a Rebel by Sophie Dash

Friday, June 17, 2016

Book Review: To Wed a Rebel by Sophie Dash

To Wed a Rebel by Sophie Dash

ARC, e-book

Carina Press

May 23, 2016

★★★★☆

Heat Rating:

Genre: Historical Romance

Source: Requested through Netgalley for Review

** This review was previously posted at Romantic Historical Reviews**

“It was done, they were bound, all was finished…”

A fighter, a drinker and a notorious seducer, Isaac Roscoe was the last man that innocent Ruth Osbourne would ever consider as a husband – but that was before Roscoe ruined her prospects and reputation!

Now destitute and disinherited Ruth is faced with an impossible choice, a life on the streets or exchanging vows with the man who put her there. Yet, knowing that marriage was Roscoe’s last wish, Ruth knew her revenge would be best served by saddling him with a reluctant wife.

Determined to punish Isaac for his actions Ruth will stop at nothing to destroy him, body and spirit. Until it becomes clear that nothing she can do will hurt her disloyal husband more than he can hurt himself…

Ruth has what any young woman would want: to be engaged to one of the most eligible bachelors, but he is boring, and droll, and not at all her type. However, she is happy to have her future secure and maybe everything will work out. Someone else has other plans for her though, and they don’t involve marrying her intended, and that is where Isaac comes in. Isaac has been hired to ruin Ruth so that she is no long fit to marry in society and he’s good at his job, but the surprise result of his plan gone awry is that Isaac and Ruth wind up wed and have to now navigate their mutual outward hatred for their circumstances.

I love reading stories where there is not an instant romance, but the two have to really work for it. That is the case here in To Wed a Rebel and man are there obstacles! Ruth had her life all mapped out and would be soon marrying one of the richest bachelors available, but she doesn’t really like him. She is practical and is just trying to fulfill her mother’s request for her to never be a burden to her family – so in her heart she is settling. Isaac Roscoe is a rogue (and I kept thinking of him in that way through the whole book, to the point where I thought a better title would have been To Wed a Rogue because I didn’t find him much of a rebel). In an effort to avoid family obligations he has made a job of taking contracts to ruin women to get them out of various marriage arrangements; dirty and deceitful work, but he rather enjoys it and typically finds no qualms in doing it. But his contract to ruin Ruth bothers him in a way that the others have not; he finds her charming and sweet, and an all-around nice person. So when his mission ends in a success (sort of) he’s sorry it had to work out this way…until the unexpected result is his forced marriage to Ruth. The two battle it out throughout the novel as they try to wrangle their feelings about what happened early in their relationship with new feelings that grow as they get to know each other. Their relationship develops slowly, which made sense given their background, but at times their blindness to each other’s intentions was frustrating beyond measure!

Beyond the events of the early part of the novel which revolve around the ruination of Ruth, there is plenty of action here. There is a plot to save a friend, having to navigate Isaac’s family, as well as the all-around trouble Isaac tends to find himself in through his beyond the law activities. All of these events and adventures serve to help Ruth and Isaac get over their animosity toward each other and come together.

There are just a couple sex scenes in this novel and while they are not graphic you are definitely present in the room for them. It was well used by the author for the development of the characters relationship and even set up yet another roadblock down the road in their love/hate relationship. I thought it was very well done.

Overall, this novel worked for me. Even though there are so many problems between the two of them you are still rooting for them at the end. I look forward to reading other books by Sophie Dash.

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