Once Upon a Reckless Rogue: Regency Historical Romance

by Cassandra Samuels

286 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 23, 2026

About the author

Cassandra Samuel's mother always said she should have been born in the 1800s. However, she was born in the 1970s instead. But she was not discouraged by all the corduroy and dodgy hair do's. She decided if she couldn't live in the Regency period she would write about it instead.

Cassandra cut her romance reading teeth on Jane Austen when she read Pride and Prejudice in high school. It was the beginning of a love affair with the Georgian and Regency eras that continues today. She has wanted to be a romance writer since she was a teen and was encouraged to study a diploma in journalism, but fiction writing was where her heart belonged.

She is the eldest of three children and grew up living on the outskirts of of the Royal National Park which gave her a love and appreciation for the Australian bush. Cassandra lives with her fabulously supportive husband and three wonderful children on the NSW South Coast along with a three-legged staffy cross, a cheeky terrier and a cat called Angus. Cassandra enjoys music, the theatre, reading, and watching romantic comedies.

She is also a proud member of Romance Writers Australia.

Reviews

[ashleey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Dragonblade Publishing once again for another splendid Historical Romance. *All thoughts are my own*

“Captain Thomas Markham was a reeking, rancid mess.”

I was truly hooked from the first line. We immediately get immersed into the aftermath of Thomas being held captive by the French during a last minute mission. On the verge of dying, he is saved by his own personal Angel, Elena Diaz. Elena is also being held hostage with the sole job of keeping Thomas alive so the French can extract information from him.

What I loved about this was the relationship between Elena and Thomas. With the language barrier between them and the cultural differences I wasn’t expecting their relationship to work. They really needed to work on their relationship while simultaneously trying to escape their circumstances.

Cassandra Samuels really made me feel like I was with the characters. The descriptions of the little cities in Spain and then again in England were phenomenally done. Her writing was actually my favorite part of this. Even through their romance you could feel not only their love but how scared they were during their trek.

If you are a fan of Spy Romances, SHE saves HIM, and flawed characters then please pick this up. Even without reading the prior books, I didn’t feel like I was missing any of the plot. Thomas and Elena’s story was beautifully done.

[sara࿎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was kinda bad, i’m afraid. the writing and storytelling needs a lot of work, it felt like everything was being spoon fed to the reader instead of letting us notice and figure out some simple details ourselves. I felt that the main couple fell in love way too quickly, it was so insta-lovey. I thought the guy, Thomas, was a walking red flag. There are a few instances in the early chapters where i was genuinely concerned for Elena and the fact that she was going to fall in love with him, like there was a scene where he felt entitled to “take a peek” while she was bathing because she had already seen HIM naked for MEDICAL REASONS!! i just didn’t like him, he got better as the story went on but i was still alarmed by this scenario. the language used was also weirdly simple, though i assumed it was because the two characters were actually speaking to each other in spanish so maybe that was supposed to give it more of a translated dialogue feel? but it was happening with other side characters too so i don’t really know. All in all, i didn’t really like it, but i think maybe some new readers would?

Thank you to Dragonblade publishing and to Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC.

[Mary Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Elena's father was a doctor and she has been bought up on the healing arts. She is forced by some French soldiers/bandits to look after a soldier/spy Thomas and keep him alive after they have tortured him. They are holed up in the local castle. A place Elena played in her childhood with her brother. She is able to get him away and secret him another part of the castle and then look after him. Eventually they leave and make their way to Cadiz. Elena is passionate and hot headed. I thought a bit of a stereotype for a Spanish woman and some of the things that happen seemed incidents just to reiterate her medicine skills.

I'm probably being a mite unfair with my score as it looks like the end of a series and so lots of ends need to be wrapped up with folk I hadn't met.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

[Celeste · Rating 2 out of 5]

thank you to netgalley for the free arc of this book. however i fear it was quite bad. historical romance isn’t really my genre to begin with, but this just felt like… idk quite bad.