cover image Once a Rebel: Rogues Redeemed, Book 2

Once a Rebel: Rogues Redeemed, Book 2

Mary Jo Putney. Zebra, $7.99 mass market (368p) ISBN 978-1-4201-4094-1

Putney continues her Regency-era Rogues Redeemed series (begun in Once a Soldier) with a page-turner tale of childhood friends reunited during the War of 1812. Lord Audley, Gordon to his friends, is hired by the British family of a widow, Callista Brooke, to find her and bring her home from Washington, D.C., the city at the center of the unrest. When he finds her, he realizes that the widow is his neighbor and friend from childhood, who had believed him dead. Gordon had tried to save Callie from an unwanted marriage to an older Jamaican planter by eloping with her to Scotland, but before they could wed, her father had him convicted of false crimes. As Gordon and Callie journey from Washington to Baltimore to retrieve her stepchildren, their friendship deepens and their desire grows, but they face imminent danger. As these two appealing characters discover how friendship can change into romance, Putney completes their story with plenty of detail and cameos from historical figures. (Sept.)