Review For READY SET ROGUE by Manda Collins-3*

Title: Ready Set Rogue

Series: Studies In Scandal #1

Author: Manda Collins

Genre: Regency Romance

Rating: * * *

Publishers: St Martin's Paperbacks

(Jan 3, 2017)

Paperback: 320 pages

ISBN: 978-1250109866

FTC Disclosure: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

WHO WILL WRITE THE BOOK OF LOVE?

When scholarly Miss Ivy Wareham receives word that she’s one of four young ladies who have inherited Lady Celeste Beauchamp’s estate with a magnificent private library, she packs her trunks straightaway. Unfortunately, Lady Celeste’s nephew, the rakish Quill Beauchamp, Marquess of Kerr, is determined to interrupt her studies one way or another...

Bequeathing Beauchamp House to four bluestockings―no matter how lovely they are to look at―is a travesty, and Quill simply won’t have it. But Lady Celeste’s death is not quite as straightforward as it first seemed…and if Quill hopes to solve the mystery behind her demise, he’ll need Ivy’s help. Along the way, he is surprised to learn that bookish Ivy stirs a passion and longing that he has never known. This rogue believes he’s finally met his match―but can Quill convince clever, skeptical Ivy that his love is no fiction?

Studies in Scandal
1. Ready Set Rogue (Jan 2017)
2. Duke with Benefits (Jun 2017)

REVIEW**************

First of all let me me say that this could have been a fabulous 5* book but little care seemed to have been invested in the editing. The timeline over what was the first week of happenings was often referred to as 24 hours ago or yesterday. Seriously, it was all over the place. Not just once but repeatedly in the early chapters of the book. Ivy's number of sisters varied frequently and a brother was thrown in once. Quill's cousin Serena  was referred to as his sister on at least one occasion. And the title of the book really did not fit Quill's character either. There was one mention of a dalliance with a married older woman when he was 21 but hardly enough to be referred to as a rogue during that time period. I think they were going for cutesy and they failed horribly.  Though after about chapter 15 it flowed much more smoothly. One other dislike was I didn't feel like the cover model was even close to the bespectacled, curvy Ivy. This has always been a peeve of mine but now that I read so many books on my Kindle it isn't until I do a review and actually see the cover that it hits me how poor a visualization the publishers do. 

Now for what I loved, and there was a lot, the timeline discrepancy just really annoyed me as this is from a big publishing house not the self publishing where these types of errors are forgiven if not forgotten. 

This was as much if not more a murder mystery than a romance. And I love a good mystery! Though I figured out who did it before we knew why, I loved it. I'm not a fan of insta-love much though I did like that once Quill realized Ivy was threatened that he also realized the depths of his feelings for her. As the bluestockings were the main characters in the book, there wasn't a lot of the missish behavior, in fact the ladies were quite outspoken and laugh out loud funny. I can't wait to read Daphne's story next as she was probably the most unfiltered of the bunch. Hope we get another good murder mystery as this series has so much potential.

Manda Collins spent her teen years wishing she'd been born a couple of centuries earlier, preferably in the English countryside. Time travel being what it is, she resigned herself to life with electricity and indoor plumbing, and read lots of books. An affinity for books led to a graduate degree in English, followed by another in Librarianship. By day, she works as an academic librarian at a small liberal arts college, where she teaches college students how to navigate the tangled world of academic research. A native of coastal Alabama, Manda lives in the house her mother grew up in with two cats, sometimes a dog, sometimes her sister, and more books than strictly necessary.