How to Tame a Wild Rogue

Long continues her hot streak with the spicy sixth Palace of Rogues Regency romance (after You Were Made to Be Mine). Lady Daphne Worth, daughter of an indebted viscount, takes a job as a live-in companion to an older woman to improve her family’s finances. Then her employer’s husband makes unwanted advances, leading Daphne to flee through her chamber window using her bed sheet as a rope. It’s not quite long enough, however, and she would be left dangling as the “storm of the decade” approaches if not for privateer Lorcan St. Leger coming to her rescue. The pair shelter from the flood at the Grand Palace on the Thames boarding house, pretending to be married to obtain a room. Lorcan grew up in the St. Giles slums while Daphne was raised in an impoverished aristocratic family under immense pressure to marry wealthy, but as the pair maintain their romantic charade, they come to recognize each other as fellow survivors. Their steamy budding love is imperiled, however, by the suspicions of the boarding house proprietress’s husband, Capt. Tristan Hardy, who made his career catching smugglers. Heightened emotions, palpable passion, and just the right amount of suspense keep the pages flying. Readers won’t want to put this down. Agent: Steve Axelrod, Axelrod Agency. (July)