There is something swoon-inducing about your best friend's older brother, isn't there? The familiarity makes him attractively safe while the proximity lends an irresistible air of the forbidden. This dynamic is drawn out to satisfying conclusion in Valerie Bowman's THE RIGHT KIND OF ROGUE.

Meg Timmons, a woman after my own heart, has always loved her best friend's older brother. Hart is beautiful, masculine, beguiling -- and a maddeningly improper match. Not only is Hart well above her in social standing and the son of her father's worst enemy, a feud which luckily left the children relatively unscathed, he is also a rake of the highest circle.

Hart's tastes go toward fast horses and available actresses -- certainly not toward marriage, with its "fickle wives" and "economic arrangements." Shudder. Much too much there to remind him of his parents' own unhappy arrangement. And yet, he is not getting any younger. He'll be 30 soon, in fact, and needs to begin paying serious mind to his duties as future Earl -- like the small matters of finding a Countess and producing the next Earl post haste.

The set-up will be familiar to you -- bad boy reluctantly grows to admire plucky, and adorably plain, girl. He realizes he's been missing out on true love this whole time and settles down to be a family man. But Bowman brings a nice sensitivity and eye for detail to her telling. Adding a scandalous backstory and family feud keeps the primary action compelling without ever slipping into unbelievable territory.

Highly recommended reading THE RIGHT KIND OF ROGUE for those looking for a well- done escape into Regency London.

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