Untitled Evie Dunmore 1

Who knew I could love a historical romance novel?! I’m not sure if it’s the genre or simply Evie Dunmore and her characters. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter. Lucie and Ballentine are the best! Their story line was the perfect mix of fire 🔥 and ice 🧊. How smoldering!!! My heart is too full this very moment to properly review.

BRINGING DOWN THE DUKE was one of my favorite books from last year, and hands down the best historical romance I've ever read. As you can imagine, Evie Dunmore's second novel was high on my anticipated reads of 2020. After reading it, however, I wasn't entirely sure how to feel about it. There were some things I really liked, and some that I didn't. I loved reading about the suffragist movement (Dunmore truly nails this aspect of a "feminist historical romance"), and the hero and heroine also had great chemistry. But I'm not a huge fan of the "virginal maiden falls for the womanizer" trope, which this book inherently falls into. I will say, Dunmore doesn't spend too much time focusing on this aspect, so I did appreciate that, but the hero proved mostly unlikeable until the end (at least in my opinion). Nonetheless, as far as historical romances go, this was still a fun and interesting read, if only for the history of the suffragettes. I know Dunmore is capable of writing some serious magic, so I will definitely continue reading all her future books, even if this one wasn't a particular favorite. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free book in exchange for an honest review!

3/5 Book one with Sebastian and Annabelle was an ultime crush for me. And if my first impression of Lucy in this first book was not really good, book two didn't make me love her sadly. In contrast, I quickly grew fond of Tristan. He definitely has the biggest heart under this image of womaniser he got. However, the feminist and historic part of the story was again wonderful. It would certainly have been another crush if I had like the character of Lucy.

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.