The Princess and the Rogue by Kate Bateman follows the romantic story of Seb and Ana/Anna. Ana is undercover just as Seb and I find that utterly delightful! This book didn't quite incinerate my brain but I did like it and would recommend.

I started reading the book, but was not drawn in & decided not to continue reading. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book, but it unfortunately just didn't work for me to continue with it.

Princess Anastasia Denisova, mourning the death of her brother Dmitri, was considering leaving Paris to search the battlefields of Belgium for his body until an unwelcome and unexpected visitor from her past intruded her home and threatened her. Escaping only because her companion Elizaveta smashed a vase over his head, the two women fled to London, where the princess discarded her title and went into hiding as Anna Brown. After selling off her jewelry, Anya secured a position as a lady’s companion, never expecting that her true identity would be discovered, but a journey into the English countryside proved to be her undoing.

Sebastien Wolff, Earl of Mowbray, does his level best to keep his two worlds separate, though being the owner of a gambling hell does help in solving cases as a Bow Street investigator. Realizing too late that he had promised to accompany his great aunt and her companion to their country estate, he rushes to catch up to them, and comes upon the carriage in time to stop the women from being kidnapped. While his great aunt chooses to continue on to the estate, Sebastien is charged with protecting Anya until the reason for the assault could be uncovered.

I loved Anya’s courage and determination to rebuild her life after the tragic death of her brother and the threats from Count Vasilov. She is a strong and spirited woman, and I appreciated her loyalty and kindness to those in her circle. Sebastien is a noble man, clever and courageous, and I enjoyed the inevitable HEA between the two.

I love Anastasia type retellings, but this one was just kind of disappointing for me. Since this Anya was hiding herself, I felt like I missed her finding out who she was. The most boring part of this was when she was hiding being a princess, which was at least 75% of the book. The climax with the villain was boring but her being out as the princess was the most interesting.

Princess Anastasia Denisova has fled to London and posing as the plain ‘Anna Brown.’ Favor was in her fortune when she secured a job as a companion to a the dowager duchess. She has been living for nearly two years as the dowager’s companion after running from a forced marriage to a man she learns is suspected of treason.

In addition to her work for the dowager, ‘Anna’ lives near a brothel. She befriends the Madame and girls. She works to teach the girls to read and write in hopes they will be able to make a better life.

Sebastian is an Earl and a Bow Street agent. He has enjoyed living the single life. His friends have been dropping hard hints that he needs to fall in love. To their unknowing credit, Sebastian does feel he is missing something in his life, which doesn’t make sense being the wealthy man that he is.

This leads Sebastian to a brothel. The brothel where Anastasia is tutoring the girls. He is instantly attracted to her, mistaking her for one of the working girls. They have an intense and heated conversation where Anastasia tries to correct Sebastian’s assumption. She is able to escape into the brothel, leaving Sebastian craving the intriguing working girl he bantered with.

Anastasia is facing difficulty outrunning her past, and the dowager whisks her off to the countryside. Except that doesn’t work out as planned and turns into a rescue. To keep his promise to his aunt, he must keep this wanted woman safe. Sebastian installs her in his own apartments above the gaming hall he owns with his friends.

Anna doesn’t reveal the truth about her identity. She provides veiled truths to Sebastian. The pair slowly develop a friendship of a sort, but Sebastian is suspicious and knows Anna is not telling him everything.

Over time and some schemes, the truth comes out. Sebastian is shocked and puts his duty to protect her above their relationship. They hatch a plan to catch the individual who committed treason and is after Anna.

The book has a strong pace with some twists. There was bickering banter, intrigue, passion, and good hearts. I thoroughly enjoyed this read!

I really enjoyed Seb and Anyas story!!! It was so good!! I loved how tension filled their relationship was and their chemistry!!! It was so good and their banter and dialogue was great. This is definitely my favorite of three books in this series and Anya was my favorite heroine. She’s so smart and so clever all while being SO STRONG and not letting anything get to her!!! I really appreciated that. It was cute seeing how confused sebastian was about falling for her but once these two figured out, the ending was so cute and had me swooning and smiling! This was definitely a winner from Kate Bateman and I really love this series!

Do you absolutely adore reading a good historical romance, ones full of detailed descriptions of the homes, the clothing and the people? Then this book is one you should definitely not miss. I loved every moment of reading this book, but I do have to say my favorite part was seeing the young women like Anna finally let loose and be their bold, smart and oh so sassy selves. The characters are what really made this story shine for me and Bateman does a great job and bringing them to life. I highly recommend this book to all readers.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: Yes, a touch

Should I read in order?
You could. There’s a bit of page time with the prior heroes and heroines in the series, but I do think this one works fine as a stand alone.

Basic plot
Princess Anya has lost her family and brother and now has people attempting to control her life in Russia. Facing kidnapping and death, she escapes to London. Eighteen months later, she finds the threats have followed her to England’s shores. Sebastien can not only use her help in his investigation, but protect her as well.

Give this a try if you want:
-1816 time period (most of this story takes place in London)
-Ex-Soldier hero who is now a bow street runner and Russian princess heroine
-A bit of a body guard trope feel – Sebastien keeps Anya at the Tricorn – his gambling club he founded with his 2 friends Benjamin and Alex (the prior heroes in the series)
-Mid steam – there are 2 full length (amazing!) scenes and some kisses
-Plenty of danger and intrigue as Anya fights for her safety and independence in London
-Gives feels of an Anastasia Romanov retelling

My thoughts:
There was a lot I really enjoyed about this story! My daughter went through a phase where she watched Princess Anastasia cartoons non stop and I always loved them. This book had a lot of fun historical tidbits including lots of Russian traditions and superstitions, and little things like how the first pelicans came to England (I never knew!)

Anya is a survivor and this book really is her story. A lot of it is from her perspective and her character feels much deeper than Sebastien’s. She’s been sheltered so much of her life, then she was thrown into turmoil where survival was her only concern. Now she’s at a point where she wants to explore a bit of what life has to offer, and Sebastien can show her that.

Sebastien has permanent hearing loss on one side from a cannon blast at Waterloo from when he was in the Rifles, but it’s not a major plot point (mentioned a few times). He’s really cynical about life and love. Their relationship has a touch of enemies to lovers feel, though I’m not sure I would label it that. They just have a lot of back and forth banter and feeling each other out. They are both strong characters so it’s them finding their balance with each other.

What made me struggle with this book was I thought the start was extremely slow. They do have to set up quite a bit with her heritage and background, coming from another country and the danger she faced. But...it was 11% before they even meet and then they only have a very short interaction together (that was nice 😉 ) and then it was 20% more before they are together again. I don’t think this will bother most people, but I do tend to get antsy if the main characters aren’t together much in the beginning. Once they are together it gets better, but I feel like they also spend a lot of time circling each other and having internal thoughts about each other and not actually interacting. That combined with the various danger factors left me wanting more THEM time.

But when they are together it’s amazing. These scenes were some of the hottest I’ve read in awhile and I really, REALLY loved them. One thing I really loved was in a scene where they were drinking Russian vodka and she starts to get tipsy, he pauses them from going any further. I'm not against drunk sex at all, but I don't love it for the first time together.

I really enjoyed this and thought it was a refreshing story within the historical romance genre. Anya is an undercover Russian princess who flees to England to escape an unwanted marriage to a bad guy who thinks she has proof of him being a traitor to Russia. If we were to marry him she wouldn't be able to testify against him. Sebastien is a war hero and newly appointed Earl of Mowbray who doesn't believe in love because of his parents' tumultuous marriage. Watching his two best friends fall in love still hasn't convinced him that love is worth it until he meets an intriguing stranger in a brothel. It seemed to be lust a first sight for Seb and they had an instant connection but I enjoyed the build-up of their relationship. They were two interesting characters and their romance was so beautiful.

Interesting and great story.

I liked the flow and the characters. There was a great amount of conflict and interest to keep page turning.

Attractive title and cover.

Recommend.

This book was amazing!! I love Kate Bateman's Historical Romance Books! She is an amazing storyteller. I feel like I step back in time whenever I read any of her books.

A mildly entertaining romance but unfortunately the two main characters Anya and Sebastian had very little on page chemistry and the overall story was fairly generic.

Historical romance with hidden identity and secret princesses and spies and more, oh my! This was a fun story with great characters and a good plot to keep things moving. Recommend!

I don't know why I haven't reviewed this book previously and unfortunately it has already been long enough that I have forgotten most of the plot.
What does stick out to me was an amazing chemistry between the characters. The idea of a princess falling in love with a commoner in a historical novel was something that I have never seen before but I enjoyed it immensely.

Romance, intrigue and more. A perfect feel good romance, with a healthy dose of intrigue thrown in. A perfectly good read for those times when you want nothing but snuggle under blankets with a cosy read.

This one was so much fun to read I loved both the Princess, Ana, and the male lead, Sebastian. Her story from start to finish was entertaining fresh and just a little bit different from all of the other historical romances. I also liked that he was very much against marriage, but he also knew the one trait to look for; a woman that annoyed him and one he wanted to strangle. I thought that was funny. Their adventure was entertaining, the conflict was good with having someone from her past not willing to let her go and trying to hunt her down. I also liked the surprise with her brother. Overall, I enjoyed the plot and just really liked the story.

This was the super fun and sexy Anastasia take I didn't know I needed, but oh my gosh did I need it! Kate Bateman is officially on my insta-buy list.

I loved this book and romance reading fans, by far, it's my favorite of the series. It has all the ingredients I love in a historical romance:
First love? Check. Mistaken identity? Yep. Virgin trope? Of course. And yes, I realize many historical romances have the virgin trope as women were supposed to be virgins until marriage, but this one is done so fabulously. Bonus, the story touches on issues of immigration and refugees, providing a more nuanced backdrop to our story.
In a nutshell, Princess Anastasia Denisova is hiding from her past and a traitorous man attempting to force her into marriage. With no protection at court, as her brother has perished at war, she fakes her own death and steals away to London. Along with her maid and closest friend, she passes as Anna Brown, offering reading lessons to the women at the brothel next door.
Earl of Mowbray, Sebastien Wolff, is not a believer of love. Nor romance. But when he mistakes Anna for one of the women working at the brothel, Seb is obsessed. He steals a kiss and despite his determination, she refuses him. Perhaps this refusal is what fuels his attraction? I like to believe it’s also due to her intelligence, her confidence, and her sassiness. Yes, she may seem to have more “modern” beliefs and disposition, but then again, she is a Princess. And prior to her hiding, she had access to education and wealth.
So how do our two birds fall in love? Seb is asked by his Aunt (who befriended Anna) to provide protection. As a Bow Street agent, he can keep her “safe” and she can aid him on his cases involving certain members of the Russian court. Of course, their close contact brings them, well, closer. And for me, the chemistry between Anna and Seb is perfection. Seb is a bit overbearing and aloof at first, but he is also respectful of Anna. Anna is no pushover, either. They seem to match each other in intelligence and as they spend more time together, trust and friendship ensues. Attach this to the physical attraction and their relationship sizzles. Sparkles? Regardless, their Happily Ever After is wonderful. It’s the small moments between Seb and Anna that leave me with the most goosebumps. Bateman sprinkles these moments throughout Seb and Anna’s romance, and I can’t read fast enough, or slow enough to savor.
I really hope there is more to this series. Hint hint?

Bateman delivers yet another wonderful work! The plot was gripping and I loved the little bits of history she puts into her works. (She's detailed enough that my husband and I spent some time looking up what exactly happened to make Anya flee Paris.) The heroine and hero are lovely and the addition of the thriller aspect of Sebastian protecting Anya just elevated this work even more. Nicely done!

I love Anastasia and this is like an Anastasia romance! The strong but soft hero and the tough heroine who people think is weak. The best plot! Romance is super steamy in this book.