A Rogue Of One's Own by Evie Dunmore - REVIEW

A Rogue of One’s Own (A League of Extraordinary Women #2) by Evie Dunmore

Publication Date: September 1st, 2020

Publisher: Berkley

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

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Synopsis:

A lady must have money and an army of her own if she is to win a revolution—but first, she must pit her wits against the wiles of an irresistible rogue bent on wrecking her plans…and her heart.

Lady Lucie is fuming. She and her band of Oxford suffragists have finally scraped together enough capital to control one of London’s major publishing houses, with one purpose: to use it in a coup against Parliament. But who could have predicted that the one person standing between her and success is her old nemesis, Lord Ballentine? Or that he would be willing to hand over the reins for an outrageous price—a night in her bed.

Lucie tempts Tristan like no other woman, burning him up with her fierceness and determination every time they clash. But as their battle of wills and words fans the flames of long-smouldering devotion, the silver-tongued seducer runs the risk of becoming caught in his own snare.

As Lucie tries to out-manoeuvre Tristan in the boardroom and the bedchamber, she soon discovers there’s truth in what the poets say: all is fair in love and war…

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Thoughts:

Once again, another insightful step back in time courtesy of our favourite group of suffragettes. Dunmore continues to prove to be a force to be reckoned with in terms of balancing romance, history, politics, social turmoil and is clearly Queen of suffragette literature. Her ability to expertly weave a narrative that is steeped in research but reads so naturally is amazing.

I have had such a wonderful time reading the first two books in this series and am eager for the next one each time I finish the one before. This time in history fascinates me. These characters are endearing and tough and vulnerable and willing to lay it all on the line. The romance is fun, charming, frustrating, satisfying, and fresh. And A Rogue of One’s Own keeps this trend going… and then some.

One of my favourite aspects of this installment is the maturity in Lucie. I mean, all of Dunmore’s characters are mature but Lucie, so far as we can tell, is the oldest of this group of women and she is entirely self-assured. That is until a man enters her life and turns things on its head. But even that doesn’t deter her from her ultimate goal: to gain votes for women. Sure it throws a bit of a wrench in her plans, and who can deny such a clear attraction, but Lucie has things to do. I do love the conflict that Dunmore gave Lucie and Tristan. It added some solid tension and barriers in all manner from socially to emotionally to physically.

While I loved Lucie as a character though, I had a bit of trouble with Tristan. From the moment we met him in Bringing Down the Duke, he struck me as a bit of a fop and a womanizer. While Dunmore says that he is the type of man who is attractive in looks and attitude but doesn’t know it, I kind of have to disagree. I think that he uses these tools to his advantage constantly. Sure he can be self-deprecating at times but his character took a LONG time to start to win me over. I don’t think the romance in this book would have been successful without the back story between Lucie and Tristan though. This relationship was still a dynamic I haven’t seen much of, which I liked.

Now, all that being said, my favourite parts about this book had almost nothing to do with the romance. I was in this for the plans that Lucie had. I wanted to hear more about the politics, more about the publishing house, more about the time period. Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres though so I don’t find this as much of a surprise when a romance starts to skew less out of the ‘romance’ and more to the historical side of things.

This is more ‘historical romance with a dash of saucy escapades’.

As with Bringing Down the Duke, A Rogue of One’s Own sprinkles bits of foreshadowing for future story lines and what will be going on with the group soon enough and it seems like more risks are on the horizon for everyone and I can’t wait to see where it takes us next.