The Virgin and the Rogue

The Rogue Files

By: Sophie Jordan

Narrated by: Carolyn Morris

Continuing her best-selling Rogue Files series, Sophie Jordan brews up a scintillating romance about a timid wallflower who discovers a love potion and ends up falling for a dashing rogue.

A love potion....

Charlotte Langley has always been the prudent middle sister, so her family is not surprised when she makes the safe choice and agrees to wed her childhood sweetheart. But when she finds herself under the weather and drinks a "healing" tonic, the potion provokes the most maddening desire...for someone other than her betrothed.

With the power....

Kingston's rakehell ways are going to destroy him, and he's vowed to change. His stepbrother's remote estate is just the place for a reformed rogue to hide. The last thing he wants is to be surrounded by society, but when he gets stuck alone with a wallflower who is already betrothed...and she astonishes him with a fiery kiss, he forgets all about hiding.

To alter two destinies.

Although Charlotte appears meek, Kingston soon discovers there's a vixen inside yearning to break free. Unable to forget their illicit moment of passion, Kingston vows to relive the encounter, but Charlotte has sworn it will never happen again - no matter how earth-shattering it was. But will a devilish rogue tempt her to risk everything for a chance at true love?

©2020 Sophie Jordan (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Ridiculous! … and I adored it

“Make the ache go away!”
Oh, the preposterous, outlandish, contrived silliness of this book!
An aphrodisiac tonic that transformed bland, bookish Charlotte into a lust filled trollop?! Fiddlesticks!

Charlotte: ”You’re incorrigible!”
Kingston: “and yet you’re still standing there, encouraging me.”
Embrace the cheese! This will allow you to jump right in alongside the couple and enjoy the early, tonic assisted hankypanky. Then, enjoy the romance and the darling relationship of the three Langley sisters. Considering rogue Kingston called her a milksop and dismissed her for so long, I could have used a bit more groveling at the end, but the grand gesture had my heart squeezing plenty,

Two side notes:
Ms. Morris was a fine narrator, full of emotion and comedic timing. However, a book with rogue in the title should have a male narrator, at least for Kingston’s dirty talk.

It may say it in the cover art, but Audible’s left a bunch a books out of the Rogue Files series.
This is the middle book featuring the three Langley Sisters.
The Duke’s Stolen Bride - featuring Marion Langley (and labeled as Rogue Files book 5)
The Virgin and the Rogue - this book, featuring Charlotte Langley (not listed under the Rogue Files series)
The Duke Effect - featuring Nora Langley (also not listed under the Rogue Files series)

Predictable and Satisfying

If you want a classic rich girl, poor boy romance this is it. It's not a deep, complex story at all.

Good but not as good as Book 1

I did love Nora's aphrodisiac potion and what it did to her sister. Story was okay but not as good as Book one.

Skip this one

I kept listening to see if it got better. It doesn’t. The book is dull and the narrator makes everyone sound old.

Difficult to finish

Characters not well developed, female protagonist was a pain in the a$$, there was no initial relationship development between the male and female lead as to why the man would pursue someone that constantly rebuffs him and is betrothed to another. I don’t know why some romance writers take the angst between characters throughout the whole story and think any kind of romantic sexual relationship is possible.

Confusing

The story was all over the place. The characters were superficial and their behavior predictable. However the sisters were funny and clearly adored each other so I became somewhat invested in their futures and kept listening. The narration made it nearly impossible to stick with the audio book. The narrator sounded inexperienced and failed to provide a nuanced performance by not expressing appropriate emotion. The leading man sounded like a much older sickly gentleman rather than a rogue. Unfortunately I can’t recommend this book but the author has potential so I may try another book by Ms. Jordan.