The Roguish Baron

Diamonds in the Rough, Book 9

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Pub Date 24 May 2022 | Archive Date 17 May 2022

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Description

He had to risk losing her so he would realize how much he loved her…

Jack Lancaster, Baron Hawthorne, hasn’t been home in four years. He’s been too busy running from his emotions. So when he finally does return and discovers his childhood friend, Sophia Fenmore, has gotten engaged, he’s not only shocked, but determined to change her mind and make her his.

Sophia has always known Jack was out of her league. But she valued his friendship, until he broke her heart. Now he's back, as eager to charm her as she is to thwart him.For as much as she’d like to believe Jack has changed, she cannot risk taking a chance on a rogue. Unless of course, he proves himself worthy.

He had to risk losing her so he would realize how much he loved her…

Jack Lancaster, Baron Hawthorne, hasn’t been home in four years. He’s been too busy running from his emotions. So when he finally...


Available Editions

ISBN 9798201448660
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Average rating from 84 members


Featured Reviews

I loved reading this one. The characters were great. Their chemistry was super Hot🔥.
The plot and storyline were great too. This story has action, drama, suspense, sex and romance.

Read it for yourself.

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I received this book as an ARC from Net Galley. These are my opinions.
I enjoyed Jack and Sophia's story. There were a lot of misunderstandings and surprises along the way. It is a quick enjoyable read.

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Sophia was a foundling that was raised by the vicar’s family. Jack was an Earl’s son. They grew up together. She’s been in love with him. Jack’s father threatened to disinherit Jack if he were to marry Sophia. He flees to London to make his own money and gets a reputation as a rake. When he comes home to help his sisters find husbands, Sophia is engaged to marry. Jack realizes he is in love with her. He has to plot to marry her. It turns out that Sophia is not a foundling but the daughter of a marquess. The marquess makes stipulations for Jack to marry Sophia. Jack must reform for a year and beg forgiveness. Sophia will have a season. I love Sophie Barnes’ stories and can’t wait for her next book.

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Another great read by Sophie Barnes!! Loved Jack and Sophia, they have great chemistry and dialogue! A great read!

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Anything Sophie Barnes writes is usually on my virtual bookshelf; she never fails to create characters you want to root for or smack! This is book 9 in the Diamonds in the Rough Series and while it is far shorter than a classic novel, it's a sweet quick read that hits all the right notes.

Jack, Baron Hawthorne, and Sophia, a youngster the local vicar took in as an orphan meet as children and hit it off splendidly. Too splendidly if Jack's father has anything to say about it. So, he offers Jack an ultimatum, head to London and leave Sophia behind or his inheritance would be taken away. Jack not believing his feelings to be that strong for Sophia takes off.

The story picks up four years later when Jack makes it back in town to find that Sophia is betrothed to her foster brother, a man that Jack cannot stand. Her agreement only comes to see if she can spur Jack into declaring himself, something that seems a little too risky for me.

What follows is a very quick story where they become acquainted again, especially in barn they took refuge in to escape a storm...

It was an excellent story, as Sophie Barnes usually writes! I would have liked to see it longer to enjoy the fleshing out of characters and angsty tension though. Either way, a great quick read for an evening of romance.

My opinions are my own and freely given.

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Here we have the rare baron hero! Sophie Barnes’s The Roguish Baron was a sweet, short read, and I adored the childhood-friends-to-lovers set-up. Sophia and Jack always had a close connection as children, but, four years before the start of the novel, he left their country village and went to London to put space between the two of them. His father—an Earl—had told him that he could never marry Sophia and, if he did, he would forfeit his inheritance. He didn't feel that he was in love with Sophia at this point, but he was offended by his father's attempt to intervene and his threats. Now, Jack has returned to their country village for the first time and Sophia has recently become engaged to her foster brother, Edward. Jack immediately takes a dislike to this turn of events and it causes him to realize that he has long been in love with Sophia. They find their way together (including getting caught in a storm together and having to take shelter in an empty shepherd’s cottage—love this trope!) and find their HEA against the odds (which include a surprise inheritance for Sophia).
The Roguish Baron was truly tropetastic and had a lot of elements that I love in historicals. I definitely recommend it, especially if you like baron heroes, childhood-friends-to-lovers, and the best friends’ older brother trope.

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He ran off to London...

to be a full time rake.. While Sophia pined for him. Jack was a first rate jerk and it took a lot for me to warm up to him. In the four years since he ran away, Sophia became engaged to Edward. There's another interwoven couple here as well. I do think Sophia should have made Jack work for it more, but it is novella length and moves at a good pace.

Recommend.
4.5

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This is the sweetest of love triangles!

Aww, I just love Sophia and her reasons for agreeing to marry Edward. It was fun to watch Jack struggle with his feelings for her, especially since Edward's his best friend. The scene where he finally opens up was absolute perfection, and because of who he opened up to, I think I can honestly say I've never read anything like it before!

It took me a while to warm up to Jack, mostly because of his state of denial. The secret revealed at the end wasn't a complete surprise, but the complication it created for Jack and Sophia's relationship seemed a bit much. Still, it didn't take up too much time so I can overlook its little interruption.

Their HEA was sublime, and I adored how it also included a very well-deserved HEA for another couple. I especially appreciated how the lines were blurred between friends and family, showing that family really is made by the heart and not by the DNA. It's a terrific book that I highly recommend. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

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So good... I read it twice! I do read my favs twice, but never in quick succession. Well, this one was the exception. Sophie Barnes has given us another love to love story. Our heroine is Sophia, who was abandoned on the doorstep of a church. She a great person, but... in those days, there's no way she would be accepted as a bride by folks of rank right? Our hero though, grows up with her and is into her. His dad, of course, is not happy and threatens him. Jack runs away and now... he's back. And... she's engaged. And... he's... done for. Don't miss this one!

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Will he realize too late what he had been missing all these years…

In some way, this novella is a second chance as Jack left his family seat and never came back from four years, never once answering Sophia’s letters. Beijing her heart a bit more with each passing day. Worse, she feels like he is no more the boy turned man she fell in love with. Now he is a rake, a rogue, a scoundrel.
Why she determined to put the past behind and make do with the only offer she will ever receive. Jack believed he made the right thing when he left, it would give time for Sophia to get over her infatuation. But soon he realizes he lied to himself.
A cute tale of forbidden lovers finding a way toward the other.
4.5 stars

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 Kisses

I have been granted an advance copy by the author, here is my true and unbiased opinion.

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Jack Lancastercomes homes to find his best friend engaged to his childhood friend. Distraught doesn't name his condition. He must figuer out how to fix it. Sophia Fenmore, does what she needs to do to survive. Which is to get married.
A surprise at the end beings a kink to everyone's plan. I enjoyed this book enough purchase it. Its also a continuation of a series which I didnt quite remember until they listed the other couples that were involved.

I recieved a free copy so that I might tell you what I honestly think. Hope you enjoyed my review. Now go enjoy the book

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This was a real treat! I had assumed that the Diamonds In The Rough series ended after book 8, so yeah! Bonus! Also, Sophie Barnes is one of my favourite novella writers. She can hook you in quick and she delivers a great romance in a tiny package! Who doesn’t love a bitesize treat!?!

Sophia is a foundling that was taken in by the village vicar and his family. As a child her and her adoptive brother become close with the local gentry children, Baron Hawathorn and his two sisters… but childhood friendships don’t easily adapt to adult roles. Sophia finds herself in love with Baron Hawathorn, even though their positions make this a impossibility.

In order to avoid Sophia and her feelings, Hawthorne leaves his family estate and has started away for many years. Now that his sisters need to find husbands, he has been summoned home to assist in hosting a house party for potential husbands and is shocked to find Sophia is just recently engaged!

The heart always wants what it can’t have the most! Hawthorne is kicked into gear and needs to see if there is still hope for Sophia and him, before she marry another!

I was quickly swept away into the family dynamics of both Sophia and Hawthorn’s families and the dichotomy of a woman’s need to marry for security, compared to mans ability to create his own financial security.

I was surprised by some interesting twists that I didn’t see coming and exceedingly pleased by the final HEA.

Overall this was a great addition to the Diamonds In The Rough series, even if I had a had time placing Hawthorne previously within the series. I enjoyed the cameo appearance of the series favourites as well.

The Dishonoured Viscount by Sophie Barnes is scheduled to release 24th, 2022.

#TheRoguishBaron #SophieBarnes #NetGalley #pinkcowlandreads

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I really like Jack and Sophia together. She would have had a nice life with Edward but who wants nice. Exciting and loved is better. The Roguish Baron is a short story, I was able to read it in just a few hours.

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“Impossible female” …. “Impudent rogue”
“Because his body desperately needed, more than ever before, the one person he knew he should not want”
I really liked this book it was the ninth in the Diamonds in the Rogue series but you can easily read it without any hint of what happened in the previous ones !!! But honestly if they’re anything like this one I have to recommend you to read them !!!
A friends to stranger to enemies to lovers , a forced proximity and evident tension and attraction, some banter as well as a plot to make them end up together … the combination was really good and entertaining!!! I only wished it’d lasted more !!! It was spicy !! Sufficiently so but not excessively and I liked this. And the main characters were good ones to read about !! I honestly liked the fact that their story wasn’t the only one at the center of the book and that there was some sort of subplot following family members whose life became as complicated as theirs !!!! They all end up intertwined somehow and it’s refreshing to read !!!
“I’ve not been a child for some years now, Jack. People grow up and as they do, they change”
“I’ve missed you … And I’ve every intention of making you mine”

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I was fortunate to receive an ARC of The Roguish Baron, written by the fabulous Sophie Barnes from Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Jack Lancaster, Baron Hawthorne, has been away from home for four years, as a result of a threat by his father of disinheriting him if he were to pursue the likes of Sophia Fenmore who is an adopted child of the local vicar and his wife. Sophia has loved Jack since she was a young lady, but he never reciprocated her feelings. With no other option, she agrees to marry Edward, the vicar's son, who himself is in love with someone he believes he is not worthy of. What ensues is a story of revelations and untold truths. This is a quick great read and moves along very smoothly. Lovely story!

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