Let Sleeping Rogues Lie, by Sabrina Jeffries

I have read and reviewed three romance novels this month. The first one was straight-up ridiculous. The second was irritatingly flimsy. I don't want to sound like Goldilocks, so I'll just say the third—Sabrina Jeffries's Let Sleeping Rogues Lie—is unquestionably the best of the bunch.

Let Sleeping Rogues Lie is the fourth book in Jeffries's 'The School for Heiresses' series, all of which feature a connection to an usual girls' school in Regency England. In this installment, natural history teacher Madeline Prescott is determined to restore her father's reputation, but she needs Anthony Dalton's help to do it. Anthony—the newly-minted Viscount Norcourt—is just as determined to enroll his niece in Mrs. Harris's School for Young Ladies, but her admittance hinges on Madeline's support. Neither one is being completely honest about their pasts, but their mutual attraction is more than enough to overcome a few dark secrets.

There were a couple of really far-fetched plot elements in Let Sleeping Rogues Lie, and I winced every time the hero mentally referred to his genitalia as his “bad boy”, or mentioned Madeline's “honeypot”. (I'm okay with some flowery language, but... yeah, that's a bridge too far.) Happily, the rest of this novel is an excellent example of the romance genre: emotionally engaging, thoughtfully characterized, and featuring an inventive but plausible plot. Like all of the 'School for Heiresses' books, Let Sleeping Rogues Lie is a great choice for whiling away a rainy spring afternoon.