Review: A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean

This is my second read of this book, and it is kind of wild to me how different this experience was. I am going to layout the reasons this was different, but I cannot obviously exactly pinpoint why this book was a three-star experience for me the first read-through and then bumped up to five stars eight months later. I do genuinely think if today was my first reading of the book, I would have read it in one fell swoop, and it would have been five stars right away.

This was the first historical romance book I ever read (I think it was at least the first I had read in many, many years) so I was still becoming used to the way this genre physically reads. I read it in the frame of mind of unpacking the alpha hero, so I was hyper-focused on any aggression shown by the Bourne and was paying less attention to the emotional progress of the story. Also, this is the first book in a series, but I do think that reading the last book in MacLean's previous series really adds to the experience of this book.

Helpfully I had recently started writing in books as I read them when I read this book for the first time, so there were points of the story where I would be so into what was going on, really invested in the characters, and wanting to turn the page, and then I would read a note past Bayley left and see that she very much was not having that experience. There were a few instances where I was annoyed by in my first reading that were complete non-issues for me this read through. All the little things built up throughout my first read made me not end up fully accepting the emotional progression of the story, and not fully believe the end.

On my first read, I didn't understand why she would forgive him, even though on the second read of this book, I was deeply connected to the emotions of Bourne and Penny. This story is very focused on the ways in which Penny's needs and Bourne's desires are inherently opposed; this book does conflicting interests incredibly well. I really thought it was excellently and elegantly done this go around.

I especially think I might not have given Penny's emotions the full weight I should have in the first reading. She clearly craved adventure and excitement in a way I don't think I fully connected with her bluff at the end of the book and her desire to be embedded into Bourne's whole life. This read I really found this fascinating, especially when contrasted with the effects of MacLean's previous book on her life.

Overall I really really enjoyed my second reading of this book. I am so excited to continue my Sarah MacLean reading spree, though I do have to take a brief break so I can read the book for my book club tomorrow.

2021 review, my first read. I gave it three stars: A Rogue by Any Other Name follows Penelope, the daughter of a Marquess whose broken engagement eight years prior has caused her to remain unmarried and marred by scandal. Early in the book, the Marquess of Bourne, who was Penny's childhood friend before he was swindled out of his fortune, coerces Penny into a marriage of convenience. Penny longs for a love match as well as for her younger sisters to be able to marry for their own happiness, and Bourne longs to reclaim the land taken from him and ruin the man who took it.

I follow a few TikTok accounts that I love, and the people on those pages talk occasionally about historical romance novels, so I have been inspired to do an experiment with a few (I think 9) historical romances to get a feel for the genre and see if it is for me. I am assuming yes because I do like old-timey books, and I do like romance books.

I really enjoyed some aspects of this book; it was incredibly easy to read, for one. I flew through this book! This book was pretty funny, and the plot moved quite quickly. I did find the beginning a bit too quick for my liking; I would have preferred a chapter or two more adjusting to the world before we hit the main thrust of the plot. But overall, the pace did make the book a very fast read.

I really liked the way the heroine's character was built throughout the book, and the way MacLean balanced her selflessness with her desire to live an adventurous life. I also liked that her selflessness was not thoughtless; Penny clearly put a lot of thought into taking care of others and did it while being sad about what she had to give up. This was excellent for gender commentary as well.

Speaking of gender, I also liked the way MacLean wrote about gender (for the most part). A lot of what I underlined in this book were the moments of commentary about this, especially about the ways Penny had choice and autonomy taken from her.

I didn't end up loving the end of this book. I thought it was quite quick, and I was disappointed in how the central emotional conflict was handled both in the final discussion about it and in the actions taken by our heroine. I don't think Penny behaved badly; I just don't think there was enough foreshadowing to this action, I don't think it made much sense, and I found it unsatisfying.

I also just generally found a lot of the conflict between Penny and Bourne to not always be followable. I am sure some of that was intentional, the characters don't know exactly where they stand with each other, so the reader is also putting that together with them. But there were specific instances where I would flip back to see if I had missed something because they would be acting like things were going well when the tone had just been one of tension or hostility. It had some emotional whiplash that I wasn't a huge fan of.

This book also didn't really sweep me away into it. Reviews are obviously subjective, but this feels particularly subjective. I just didn't find the emotional story all that compelling towards the end of the book. I just didn't fully love the couple together (because I didn't fully love the hero, he was an aggressive that I am not into), and there were multiple times that I knew if I was having a better time, the book would have made me cry. I love it when books make me cry.

This book is Hades and Persephone-inspired, and that was mostly fun! I did really like the setting of the gaming hell, it was interesting, and I always had fun while I was reading the scenes set there. The description was always a really good time to read about.

I was very interested in the direction the second book seems to be going in, so I will probably continue the series at some point. It is about Penny's sister Pippa and seems genuinely like my kind of book.

I am looking forward to continuing my historical romance experiment, I do hope I become absolutely enamored with some of my upcoming books, but if I just end up liking them alright, that will still have taught me something about what I like to read. I could certainly see picking up an occasional historical romance, even if it is not my genre. However, I am still hoping to fall in love with it, of course!

Goodreads and the StoryGraph!