What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fall of Rogue Gerrard
From New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens comes the RITA ® Award-winning tale that shows how one night can change everything…forever.
From ""It Happened One Night"
Robert “Rogue” Gerrard’s reputation paints him as one of the town’s most notorious rakes. But once, long ago, he fell in love…and he’s never forgotten the scintillating emotion he, then too young, turned his back on.
One stormy night, he finds himself stranded at an inn—with his childhood sweetheart, Lydia Makepeace, who has no business being there alone.
Lydia, meanwhile, is horrified to discover the one man in England guaranteed to protect her—standing between her and the scandalous letter she must, simply must, retrieve.
173 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 30, 2008
93 people are currently reading
550 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Laurens
207 books5,593 followersStephanie Laurens was born in Sri Lanka, which was at the time the British colony of Ceylon. When she was 5, her family moved to Melbourne, Australia, where she was raised. After continuing through school and earning a Ph.D. in Biochemistry in Australia, Stephanie and her husband moved to Great Britain, taking one of the last true overland journeys from Katmandu to London.
Once in London, Stephanie and her husband both began work as research scientists in Kent. They lived in an area surrounded by history. Their own cottage was built in the 16th century, while next door were the protected ruins of an early Roman villa, and nearby was a 14th century castle.
After four years in England, Stephanie and her husband returned to Australia, where she continued to work in cancer research, eventually heading her own research laboratory. One evening Stephanie realized that she did not have any more of her favorite romance novels to read. After years of thinking about writing her own novel, during nights and weekends for the next several months, she began crafting her own story. That manuscript, Tangled Reins, was the first of her books to be published. After achieving a level of success with her novels, Stephanie "retired" from scientific research and became a full-time novelist. Her novels are primarily historical romances set in the Regency time period.
Stephanie and her husband live on peaceful acreage on the outskirts of Melbourne. If she isn't writing, she's reading, and if she's not reading, she's tending her garden.
Once in London, Stephanie and her husband both began work as research scientists in Kent. They lived in an area surrounded by history. Their own cottage was built in the 16th century, while next door were the protected ruins of an early Roman villa, and nearby was a 14th century castle.
After four years in England, Stephanie and her husband returned to Australia, where she continued to work in cancer research, eventually heading her own research laboratory. One evening Stephanie realized that she did not have any more of her favorite romance novels to read. After years of thinking about writing her own novel, during nights and weekends for the next several months, she began crafting her own story. That manuscript, Tangled Reins, was the first of her books to be published. After achieving a level of success with her novels, Stephanie "retired" from scientific research and became a full-time novelist. Her novels are primarily historical romances set in the Regency time period.
Stephanie and her husband live on peaceful acreage on the outskirts of Melbourne. If she isn't writing, she's reading, and if she's not reading, she's tending her garden.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
December 11, 2021
Why is Stephanie Laurens SO GOOD. Her alpha rake heroes are everything.
December 5, 2021
This was so adorable. Second chance childhood friends to lovers romance. Hero has to protect heroine because she's going to get herself into trouble.
March 13, 2016
This is a short and sweet novella, with no unnecessary drama or unreasonably stubborn characters. I enjoyed both the hero and heroine, and would be up for reading Lydia's sister Tabitha's book if she gets one.
January 5, 2022
enjoyed this short, steamy novella about a woman desperate to get a letter from a powerful man's house and her past lover who helped her so she would be spared from dire trouble.
February 11, 2015
This felt like a similar read to another novella of the author's, Scandalous Lord Dere. They both feature a hero and heroine who were childhood friends that have been secretly or latently in love with each other for the past estranged decade. In both stories the hero showed this by running off, panicked, into the world to gain experience, sophistication and a scandalous reputation. Meanwhile the heroine locks herself up in sexual stasis despite having previously proven herself to be sexually curious and uncaring of the dictates of society where female sexual freedom is concerned (so to be clear, it's the hero she's pining and stagnating for).
Maybe at some earlier point in my reading of romances I would've still been OK with encountering this double standard, but I'm long past that point, and this just felt like the tip of a never-ending iceberg of identical stories with identically boring stereotypes dictating why the characters do whatever they do.
Maybe at some earlier point in my reading of romances I would've still been OK with encountering this double standard, but I'm long past that point, and this just felt like the tip of a never-ending iceberg of identical stories with identically boring stereotypes dictating why the characters do whatever they do.
December 29, 2021
This is a fun, fast paced second chance romance between a spinster and a rogue. When they are both stranded at an inn and run into each other they work together to find a letter the heroine is looking for as well as explore the simmering passion between them. The writing is engaging, the story is sensual with a great level of steam for a novella and the romance is charming!
August 5, 2019
Y'all, The Fall of Rouge Gerrard, let me tell you-
💌
This is my first favorite novella. I've read this multiple times.
💌
Which is kinda funny ba'cuz Stephanie Laurens is an author that I've never really jumped and jived with. She was only really on my radar when I first started reading romance and I didn't love the couple of other books I sampled of hers.
💌
This story is the sudden meeting of childhood friends turned almost sweethearts. An innocent is on a mission that takes her into a lions den of
iniquity with a philanthropist hidden in a Rouge's clothing. (And I find that sentence very clever because he is a rogue but his name is also Rogue.)
💌
Now that I think of it, The Wedding Planner is another novella from Laurens that I like. And I saw on Goodreads that @sarahmaclean loves Devil from Devil's Bride "with an intensity that terrifies her husband." And Sarah hasn't led me wrong yet so maybe it's time I give Stephanie Laurens a second chance.
💌
Alrighty, they've kissed, I wanted to name my dog Rogue but my husband said no, and I've told you about it!
💌
💌
This is my first favorite novella. I've read this multiple times.
💌
Which is kinda funny ba'cuz Stephanie Laurens is an author that I've never really jumped and jived with. She was only really on my radar when I first started reading romance and I didn't love the couple of other books I sampled of hers.
💌
This story is the sudden meeting of childhood friends turned almost sweethearts. An innocent is on a mission that takes her into a lions den of
iniquity with a philanthropist hidden in a Rouge's clothing. (And I find that sentence very clever because he is a rogue but his name is also Rogue.)
💌
Now that I think of it, The Wedding Planner is another novella from Laurens that I like. And I saw on Goodreads that @sarahmaclean loves Devil from Devil's Bride "with an intensity that terrifies her husband." And Sarah hasn't led me wrong yet so maybe it's time I give Stephanie Laurens a second chance.
💌
Alrighty, they've kissed, I wanted to name my dog Rogue but my husband said no, and I've told you about it!
💌
September 5, 2021
My rating: 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars -- mostly because the story was just too short to have enough character development.
This novella is well-written, because Stephanie Laurens is a talented writer. I usually prefer full-length novels, since they allow more room for character development, but I decided to give this one a try anyway.
I was not surprised to find that I really wanted more backstory on both Rogue and Lydia. The story begins 10 years after he runs from their first kiss, so much of their history is just glossed over. It is mentioned in their thoughts, but only quickly -- and her feelings when he ran are never covered.
I liked both Rogue and Lydia, but thought her behavior was pretty unlikely for the time period. I get that she wanted to protect her sister, and I won't give spoilers -- but I just didn't think she would have taken the kind of risks that she did.
I also wished that the story had included an epilogue, perhaps a few months or even years after they got married. It just ended a bit too abruptly for me.
My rating system is below.
1 star -- Hated it, or did not finish. I usually only give this rating if some of the content is truly objectionable to me, like if one of the main characters does something really awful, and gets away with it.
2 stars -- Didn't like it. This rating usually means that I thought the writing wasn't very good, the editing was terrible, I didn't like the characters, or it had other major flaws.
3 stars -- I liked it, but had some minor issues with it. This rating means that there were minor editing issues, the story needed more character development, it was just too unrealistic, or had some other fairly minor issue. The majority of books I read get this rating – I do not consider it a bad rating.
4 stars -- I liked it a lot. This is a high rating for me, and I rarely give a higher one.
5 stars -- I loved it, and will probably read it again. Very few books are good enough to get this rating from me. The ones that do are usually classics.
This novella is well-written, because Stephanie Laurens is a talented writer. I usually prefer full-length novels, since they allow more room for character development, but I decided to give this one a try anyway.
I was not surprised to find that I really wanted more backstory on both Rogue and Lydia. The story begins 10 years after he runs from their first kiss, so much of their history is just glossed over. It is mentioned in their thoughts, but only quickly -- and her feelings when he ran are never covered.
I liked both Rogue and Lydia, but thought her behavior was pretty unlikely for the time period. I get that she wanted to protect her sister, and I won't give spoilers -- but I just didn't think she would have taken the kind of risks that she did.
I also wished that the story had included an epilogue, perhaps a few months or even years after they got married. It just ended a bit too abruptly for me.
My rating system is below.
1 star -- Hated it, or did not finish. I usually only give this rating if some of the content is truly objectionable to me, like if one of the main characters does something really awful, and gets away with it.
2 stars -- Didn't like it. This rating usually means that I thought the writing wasn't very good, the editing was terrible, I didn't like the characters, or it had other major flaws.
3 stars -- I liked it, but had some minor issues with it. This rating means that there were minor editing issues, the story needed more character development, it was just too unrealistic, or had some other fairly minor issue. The majority of books I read get this rating – I do not consider it a bad rating.
4 stars -- I liked it a lot. This is a high rating for me, and I rarely give a higher one.
5 stars -- I loved it, and will probably read it again. Very few books are good enough to get this rating from me. The ones that do are usually classics.
January 17, 2019
I am so glad that I borrowed this from my library’s OverDrive instead of buying it.
I found the characters boring, and they felt like they’d been recycled from any one of a million Regency romances, and the storyline was blah. The heroine was independent and feisty I suppose, but the Rogue Gerard? He definitely didn’t come across as a ladies man to me. Give me Devil Cynster or Royce Varisey any day.
However I was most peeved with the book itself. I couldn’t understand what was happening in the story because it felt like it was ending. The hero and heroine had gotten together, and Tab, the bluestocking sister, had told a few truths to the her sister - who by the way, had just been caught in a very compromising position - but I was sure that something would throw a spammer in the works because I was only about 43% through the book.
However, the book finished at 49% and the rest was excerpt from other Stephanie Laurens novels. What a crock.
2 stars 🌟
I found the characters boring, and they felt like they’d been recycled from any one of a million Regency romances, and the storyline was blah. The heroine was independent and feisty I suppose, but the Rogue Gerard? He definitely didn’t come across as a ladies man to me. Give me Devil Cynster or Royce Varisey any day.
However I was most peeved with the book itself. I couldn’t understand what was happening in the story because it felt like it was ending. The hero and heroine had gotten together, and Tab, the bluestocking sister, had told a few truths to the her sister - who by the way, had just been caught in a very compromising position - but I was sure that something would throw a spammer in the works because I was only about 43% through the book.
However, the book finished at 49% and the rest was excerpt from other Stephanie Laurens novels. What a crock.
2 stars 🌟
May 24, 2020
Love conquers all even the lovers.
A cute story with just love and it's problems as a plot. Excellent dialog, descriptions and backstory make this book entertaining and even fun. The characters mesh perfectly even with the antagonist of the story. Another good read for romance lovers.
A cute story with just love and it's problems as a plot. Excellent dialog, descriptions and backstory make this book entertaining and even fun. The characters mesh perfectly even with the antagonist of the story. Another good read for romance lovers.
May 5, 2022
A short novella with an enemies to lovers theme. Robert "Rogue" Gerrard has been in love with his childhood sweetheart, Lydia Makepeace, since they were teenagers, but his emotions freaked him out so he avoided her for 10 years. Rogue and Lydia find themselves in the same inn during a terrible storm, and he has to help her retrieve a letter that might ruin her sister.
November 23, 2020
Great book of childhood friends who have a stormy past and met again as adults.
This is a steamy book, but so good. I have re-read it a number of times.
Once you start it you will not be able to put it down.
This is a steamy book, but so good. I have re-read it a number of times.
Once you start it you will not be able to put it down.
December 17, 2021
This was so good and do fun I loved ro and I loved Lydia. This didn’t even feel like a novella everything was fleshed out. This was definitely a sign for me to read devils bride and her other books since I enjoyed this so much.
December 26, 2018
A collection of short romances to entice you to read this author.
May 7, 2019
I liked this book it was easy to read with a interesting plot.
February 19, 2020
I enjoyed reading.
June 24, 2020
Es una historia ligera , divertida e ingeniosa como suelen ser las de esta autora,se lee rápido y te deja una sonrisa.
December 8, 2021
3.5 stars. Really liked this but so disappointed it was only 100 pages (half of the book).
December 29, 2021
2.0 normalmente me gustan las novelas cortas pero a esta le hizo faltó algo, no había quimica entre los protagonistas
February 10, 2023
Love all of Stephanie Lauren’s books.
June 30, 2023
Part of the 'It Happened One Night' anthology
September 29, 2025
Loved it, I can’t resist SL’s rogue turned gentleman H’s. She writes them so well.
September 5, 2012
An okay romance novella. I didn't particularly care too much for the circumstances of why the hero ran off, but told myself to wind down from romance-angst and just go with the flow. Once I did that, I enjoyed much of the story....until Rogue tried proposing marriage to Lydia. Ugh, I hate the "NO I WON'T MARRY YOU BECAUSE YOU DON'T LOVE ME" hysteria. Just makes me want to bitchslap the heroines.
February 26, 2012
I wasn't expecting Shakespeare so I enjoyed this little short romance...a bit more sex then some of hers especially with the length. Their past was where the romance developed and so we had to imagine that. Short and sweet and only about an hour to read. .99 cents is a good price for this one on Kindle. Its good to take a reality break and enjoy a bit of romance and Victorian age.
August 12, 2015
A very short novella, only 5 chapters.
'Rogue Gerrard' fell in love with a childhood friend when he was only 22 (and she was only 16) this terrified him, and he set off to live the life of a rake. A chance encounter with said friend sets in motion their reapproachment.
'Rogue Gerrard' fell in love with a childhood friend when he was only 22 (and she was only 16) this terrified him, and he set off to live the life of a rake. A chance encounter with said friend sets in motion their reapproachment.
May 26, 2015
On Kindle but not read
Read
September 20, 20149780062122759
May 17, 2013
I give this cute, fluffy romance 2 1/2 stars but rounded up.
January 31, 2014
3+
Also part of book: It Happened One Night
Also part of book: It Happened One Night
October 12, 2015
As usual with Stephanie's books very well written. Lots of romance and heat set in Historical England. With this author's books, the slower you read and the more you concentrate, the better they are.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews