Rogue in My Arms by Celeste Bradley

Rogue in my Arms is the second book in the Runaway Brides trilogy and picks up right where the first book, Devil in my Arms, left off – with the ongoing search for Melody’s mother. This time, it’s Sir Colin Lambert who has come to the conclusion that Melody must be his child, the product of a tumultuous affair between Colin and Miss Chantal Marchant, a flighty, eccentric stage actress, several years earlier. Colin had been quite enamored of the woman, but one evening when he'd gone to see her, she ended their affair with what was clearly – though not to Colin – an overly dramatic, tragic excuse for why they could no longer be together. He was devastated, but reluctantly let her get away. However, now that there was the chance that Melody was their daughter, he was determined to track her down and marry her.

As Colin is about to set off on his search, he meets Miss Prudence Filby, a common, lowborn seamstress who also wants to find Chantal Marchant because the untrustworthy actress owes her money for some costumes that Prudence had sewn for her. Since they were both after the same thing, and knowing he’d need help caring for Melody, Colin hires Miss Filby to come along as a temporary nanny. She, her eleven year old brother Evan, Colin and Melody set out to find Miss Marchant, and the events that take place along their journey kept me smiling and laughing and even fanning myself.

The bottom line – This was such a happy read. I enjoyed this story even more than I did the first book, and part of the reason for that is because we got to revisit the previous characters who had all come to love Melody and were hoping that Miss Marchant would turn out to be Melody’s mother. They needed this to be, because if Melody was indeed Colin’s daughter, then she would be a part of their lives, always. And the alternative, Melody ending up with another family, or in an orphanage, meant they’d never get to see her again, and that wasn’t something any of them wanted to even think about.

I finished this book very thankful that I had the third and final installment to this trilogy sitting right beside me, because I too had fallen completely in love with Melody, Little Milady, and wanted to – no, needed to – find out what was to become of her and the crazy, loveable cast of characters in the Runaway Brides series.

But more than anything, I wanted to get to know Jack.