I read a few Johanna Lindsey's stolen from my mother around the age of 11 or 12 (most significantly Prisoner of My Desire and Savage Thunder, omg), and they certainly made an impression on my young psyche. If I would have read Gentle Rogue at that same time, I think I would have loved it way more than I did reading it today.

That said, it was immensely readable and fun looking at it through the context of the time and place it came from. I loved Georgie the most and for a book from 1990 she is a damn delight. She's not afraid of sex, doesn't feel ashamed about wanting sex once she figures out that she isn't actually nauseous (so silly), and she's not afraid to stand up to her brothers and James Mallory when she can.

I didn't like that James didn't tell Georgie that he recognized her right away nor did I like that he made her do things no cabin boy would have ever been asked to do, so that took away some of his charm, not to mention that he's probably a slave owner. Yikes. I did love the banter between James and Georgie, especially once the jig was up.

As having never read any of the other Malory books, I was meh about all the other characters, and I felt the last third of the book was way too long and not enough about James and Georgie's relationship, which felt mostly settled besides them refusing to realize they loved each other.