Review: Tempted by a Rogue by Lauren Smith

DISCLAIMER #1: This story is part of a collection of stories from a number of best selling authors. I have decided instead of reviewing them all at once which may be confusing to some of my readers, I am dedicating eight days to these amazing authors and their stories. 

From Goodreads.com:  Gemma never planned on falling in love with her childhood sweetheart’s best friend, Jasper, when he returns home, but she can’t resist the naval officer’s brooding charm.

Gemma plans to marry James, her childhood sweetheart. With every letter written between them while he's been off at sea, their love has grown. Now they will be reunited with his return to England. But the man whose words she'd fallen in love with isn’t James...

Jasper, a gentleman rogue of the first order, is trapped. Talked into a scheme by his friend, he pretended to be James for eleven years while writing to Gemma. He’s promised James he’d break it off. But when he returns home, his secret will come out – and he’ll lose the one woman he can’t live without. 

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

    The first thing that I feel I should mention (as I know it is not everyone's cup of tea), there is a scene of a sexual nature that occurs between the two main characters out of wedlock (and where someone may happen upon them at any time). Other than that, I enjoyed this novel. 

    While I feel that a lot of the angst of this story could have been avoided early on by Jasper simply telling Gemma the truth, I don't feel the story would have been as good. I can also understand completely why he was hesitant to tell her at first, and I found the fact that Gemma was already developing feelings for Jasper without knowing it was he behind the letters made their romance all the sweeter. It was also fairly easy to hate James once you realized what a no good tosser he was to begin with. 
  
   Even though this too was a quick read, this story was filled with several laugh out loud moments. Especially when they concerned one formidable old lady and her weapon on choice - her parasol. 

I would definitely read more by this author! 

DISCLAIMER #2: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own. 

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 Tempted by a Rogue is available as part of the Once Upon a True Love's Kiss collection from Amazon.com