Roslyn Chadwick is fleeing her cousin, who is determined to coerce her into marriage for the wealth she has inherited from her dearly departed grandfather. Her escape had been planned by her grandfather many months in advance of his death. The plan is for her to head to London, because that's the last place her cousin would search for her. Roslyn needs to find a husband if she is to be able to protect herself. She determines that she needs a 'safe' husband. Her grandfather had advised her to get married – fast. He told her she could find love later, though if love should come first to grab ahold of it with both hands. She discounted the last part of his advice. Surely rakes wouldn't make the best husbands, heart captured or no. Yet, when she reaches London there is only one man who captures her attention, who she can imagine being married to: Anthony Malory. He is a rake of long standing, but is he marriage material or is he only pursuing her to get her into bed?

Anthony Malory found himself enraptured by Roslyn from the first moment he spotted her, but refused to acknowledge he wanted her for more than a temporary bed companion. Not even jealousy tipped him off that life as he knew it was about to change forever. When it finally settles in that she is determined to marry, he maneuvers it so that he is her informer on her perspective husbands – and discredits them all. Yet, when her cousin catches up to her and she begins contemplating marriage to a farmer, he is pushed into making a proposition he never thought to: marriage! But will he be able to settle into married life, or will he continue on as though he were a bachelor?

Tender Rebel is the second in Johanna Lindsey's fabulous Malory series. Roslyn is a lady desperate to avoid her cousin's cruel clutches, even if it means marrying a near-stranger. Anthony is the unsuspecting rake who falls in love with her, though that had been an emotion he had spent his entire life avoiding. I love these characters! Indeed, I adore the entire Malory family, as well as their friends. They are so close, yet bicker and fight with each other continually, and they're secure in their love and like of one another. A more closely knit and sparring family I have never come across. There is sex in this tale, and it is described, in gentle rather than crude detail. Tender Rebel contains a little suspense in addition to Anthony's internal struggle and Roslyn's desperation, making for an excellent and magnetic read that you'll not be sorry you picked up!


Reviewed by: Elizabeth