Wicked Designs

League of Rogues, Book 1

By: Lauren Smith

Narrated by: Heather Wilds

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

For too long Miss Emily Parr has been subject to the whims of her indebted uncle and the lecherous advances of his repulsive business partner. Her plan to be done with dominating men forever is simple: find herself a kind husband who will leave her to her books. It seems an easy enough plan, until she is unexpectedly abducted by an incorrigible duke who hides a wounded spirit behind flashing green eyes. Godric St. Laurent, Duke of Essex, spends countless nights at the club with his four best friends and relishes the rakish reputation society has branded him with.

He has no plans to marry anytime soon - if ever. But when he kidnaps an embezzler's niece, the difficult debutante's blend of sweetness and sharp tongue makes him desperate for the one thing he swears he never wanted: love. Yet as they surrender to passion, danger lurks in Godric's shadowed past, waiting for him to drop his guard - and to rob him of the woman he can't live without.

©2014 Lauren Smith (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Smith's fast-paced historical keeps [listeners] on their toes as they're taken hostage by a whirlwind of characters and an unforgettable romance." ( RT Book Reviews)

Loveable League of Gentlemen

I loved the main characters and their witty banter. I’m looking forward to listening to the whole series. Good narrator

Don’t get her

Saw reviews where people are going off about misogynistic behavior. Maybe you shouldn’t read romance novels. She however set out to win his heart in hopes of an offer.. gets it then when he is offering badly but says he loves her she is like big nope and nope to friends I’d rather find a stranger? Is she a freggin idiot? So much better to hope some mysterious guy will just step in and your uncle of course won’t give you to an a hole. Oh and of course so she can keep control of her fortune.. That she has no access too. Because the stranger husband would get that control. Like a say no logic to that . She could negotiate her freggin freedom with one of those guys. Stupid is as stupid does

Awesome narrator

I loved the writing. Funny story. A bit of a reverse harem but overall a fun listen

Awesome !!!

What an amazing book. This author is new to me and a keeper.
I love this book very much. The characters are funny and strong. This particular read is a little different for me of all the other books I have read. This one the heroine is so strong and doesn't give up on what she wants in her life from the beginning where she wanted freedom until she fight for the man she loved. This is a must read I am on Book 2 and I can't wait. Happy reading

Great Story

I Love it! Great story, fun characters, strong heroine, what's not to love?
It's a great start to the series! On to the next one!
I love a good, enemy to lovers, story!
The Narrator does a wonderful job!

FABULOUS!!

One of my all time favorites !!! Storyline, characters, narrations were all the best ever!!!! Storyline was so entertaining & creative, highly recommend this book. Thank you …want more like this one!

Good book, but terrible (anti)heroes

**SPOILER ALERTS!** All over the place, so watch yourself.

I’m going to do my best here to break down my emotional response to this book. I will say it’s very well written, the narration is superb, and it’s an engaging story. The romantic bits are fan-yourself worthy, but I cannot get on board with the men who make up the league or any male characters except for the butler. Godrick and this League are terribly misogynistic, self-serving, and spoiled brats. I am unable to jump for joy for Emily’s future which will most likely be filled with being locked in her room for having a brain, tiptoeing around Godrick’s temper, and protecting herself from his affairs.
I can typically ignore misogynistic behavior in period pieces because you must think of the era it takes place. I’ve read a lot of historical romance where the author tries to give the male hero a more modern mindset with some internal reflection and dialogue; however, I've never read a period piece where the "heroes" are essentially the adult versions of the He-Man-Woman-Haters club.
First, Godrick, the…um…hero (?), is a spoiled man child. He and his buddies kidnap a recently orphaned, naive woman without regard to her reputation, health or well being, all to blackmail her uncle. It’s a terrible plan to begin with. For one, they do no research on how their uncle feels about his niece nor how he’s spending her inheritance. From the beginning, we know that the blackmail isn’t going to work. If it wasn’t for Blankenship (I hope I’m spelling that correctly), her uncle wouldn’t have cared at all. He probably would have asked Godrick if her in his possession, and obvious ruination, satisfied his debts.
Godrick is essentially the younger version of Blankenship. If Emily hadn’t “decided” to marry him, he would’ve ended up just like Blankenship making her and any family she had left miserable and destitute. I do not trust Godrick’s affections and his utter denial of facts while in rage is super annoying. He’s the definition of an abusive spouse.
When Emily refuses to marry Godrick out of duty, he throws a tantrum and has her locked in a room. He’s used to getting what he wants to the point that every time Emily has a disagreement with him he either locks her away or literally ties her to him. Godrick never changes in his behavior towards Emily until she almost dies near the end; ironically at Blankenship’s house.
Now, I see the twist with Blankenship’s death: by killing him for near-murdering Emily, Godrick rids himself of his desire to own her and finally sees her as a human being. But it’s too late in the book for this revelation! I feel like there should’ve been way more insight and action that led to this other than a near death experience and immediate revenge. Terrible.
It's obvious this league has little to no respect for women within their class or outside of it. Their definition of wives and mistresses is reminiscent of horses; hell, they treat horses better. Emily points that out in the end but they essentially ignore or berate her for anything and everything she says. They completely disregard her physical health and well being by drugging her, heaving her over their shoulder(s) at any moment of inconvenience, literally tie her to Godrick, taking liberties with her person (Godrick touches her without her permission constantly while the other men leer and tease her), mocking her sadness and ultimate ruination, and undermine everything she says. By locking her in Godrick’s room for his mistresses, they’ve already decided her “usefulness” to which every man refers in deference to Emily. They place no value on her higher than that of Godrick’s mistresses and expect her to behave as such. She’s a pawn and, unfortunately, very naive. Godrick’s ex-mistress really nails it on the head. Hell, I want a book with HER in it!
Then there’s this trust they expect. Without asking anything about her, they condemn her when a new part of her life or mind come up. They’re always shocked and call her a liar when they find out something new or discover she hid things from them…her captors!
This would be a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome except Emily never had a chance to make it in either situation. Regardless, Emily is a victim and never earns real strength.
She told Gordrick no for marrying him and he locked her in her room until he was ready to talk to her again like a dog.
She told Blankenship she wouldn’t marry him and he threatened her with a lifetime of violent rape.
Whether it's pleasure or pain, a gilded cage is still a cage.
To wrap this up, the book is well written and narrated beautifully. I give the story 3 stars because of all the character flaws and lack of development. I think the story could’ve been cut up in places and filled in others where the characters could start to learn from their egos. Maybe not the league or Emily’s uncle, but Godrick. He still has a lot of lessons to learn and, because he got what he wanted, I doubt he’ll learn them. I won’t be continuing the series, but I’m glad I listened to this book.

Narrator needs pronunciation lessons

I mostly enjoyed the book. The narrator is adept at doing voices and accents. However, British people don’t pronounce certain words the same way as Americans. Privacy is pronounced more like privvacy with a short “I” sound. There are many more examples, like waistcoat and room etc. Even as annoyed by the pronunciation, I will still buy the next book in the series. BTW, Samhain isn’t pronounced Sam-Hain, it’s pronounced Sow-Win 🙄

His Dark Character

Elements of this story are very romantic. I longed for the characters to fall in love. I loved the first time that she kissed him, and how he introduced her to the world of intimacy.

However, a dark theme emerged when we learned that he had been wounded by past traumatic events. This life altering trauma bled into his treatment and reponses to her. His words and actions felt abusive at times. Friends and employees expressed concern for her. They asked if she was ok and confronted him about his behavior. This reiterated that she was being treated horribly and wasn’t always safe around him.

I loved when the woman stood up for herself. But he kept being mean to her: not listening to her, pushing her into experiences that she really wasn’t asking for. This made me feel sick inside. Like I was reading about a disfunctional couple.

Good…but

Way too long! This book should have lasted 6 hrs tops. Nonetheless, the characters were all wonderful and I still want to read stories of all the rogues.