2014 book 320

Mary Jo Putney's Sometimes a Rogue
I really liked this at the start--it's actually the 5th in a series and I went and looked up the others and they were all on sale for Kindle and I allllllmost bought them ALL. However, I didn't, and I'm glad I refrained, because this book bogged down quite a bit in the middle and managed to become kind of flat--weird, because there was a LOT going on. The story centers on a young woman, whose twin sister--a duchess--is both going into labor AND about to be kidnapped. So she pretends to be her sister, and is kidnapped herself. Luckily, her brother-in-law's friend who happens to be a Bow Street Runner also just happens to come to visit at that exact moment, and soon is in hot pursuit. All of that resolves pretty quickly, at which point an earldom, a bunch of relatives, impoverished tenants, and an illegitimate child are all thrown into the mix--and we're still only halfway through the book. It's all kind of silly and too much. Which is a shame--the characters are likable, funny, and highly competent people. Unfortunately, a lot of the dialogue is stilted and there's a lot of over-explaining, not to mention an over-use of exclamation points in the second half of the book (I admit to over-using them myself, but in a book, they're a little much). Things do pick back up toward the end (though the reveal of the kidnappers is ENTIRELY ridiculous), but in general, this one was a bit of a slog. B/B-.