I absolutely loved The Irish Rogue by Emma Jensen and couldn’t put it down the first time I read it. Now, while I realize most of you know that I adore secret identity plotlines (hey, it’s not like I’m keeping that a, um, secret, you know!), what most don’t realize is just how difficult to please I am with that precise plotline.
Not many stories make me as happy as this book does, over and over again, because of how well the secret identity theme is used. The reason is both simple and complicated. Quite frankly, most good romance writers can do a decent job with secret identities due to the extremely romantic nature of the concept, but few take the time to actually understand the subtleties involved. Instead, the natural tendency is to go heavy on the melodramatic elements built into a relationship that has one character leading a double life. That can be fun, but after one has read as many of these or rather tried to read as many as I have, it’s also old news – not exactly boring, but definitely not something to get me all excited just because it’s in there.
Not so with this book. The more I read it, the happier I am. Talk about a fresh approach. Wow. Yeah, I know, I should really explain why I feel that way, but that’s difficult without spoiling things in a major way.
Oh, and the romance wasn’t bad either. ;-p