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

Synopsis (via Goodreads): 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-smoldering devotion, the silver-tongued seducer runs the risk of becoming caught in his own snare.

As Lucie tries to out-maneuver 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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I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

A Rogue of One's Own was exquisite! Evie Dunmore made a Historical Romance reader out of me with Bringing Down the Duke, and now I feel super invested in the lives of women who lived long ago. I definitely would have been a suffragist, but I don't know how Lucie kept her wits about her in a world where men felt like they owned the women in their lives. I really loved how Dunmore touched on realistic aspects from the time period (Poets like Oscar Wilde, suffragists like Millicent Fawcett, and what it was like for women and girls in general), and made them relevant to the here and now.

Women still struggle to be seen as equals in the eyes of men, and it's thanks to people like Lucie that we have a right to vote at all. Can you imagine marrying a man only to give up your own identity in the process? Everything you own - - everything that you've claimed for yourself - - suddenly becomes the property of your husband. That includes the woman entering the marriage. She essentially loses the rights to her very self. What's crazy is that all of this was commonplace not that long ago, and I think we take the sacrifices of those women lightly today, if we think about them at all.

It's clear Dunmore has done her research, even if she admits to embellishing a little bit with the dates. I thought A Rogue of One's Own was wonderfully written and beautifully captured the era the author was trying to depict. I enjoyed looking up the unfamiliar words and phrases to see how they translated, and it gave me an appreciation for a language that has been lost to time. Proper words we no longer use today; flashes of lifestyles no longer lived.

Lucie is astonishingly calm in the face of adversity, and I'm not sure I would have had the same amount of patience and tolerance. She was constantly belittled for her beliefs and attacked for her attempts to help better the lives of women. She had a few close friends, and the other suffragists were allies, but the rest of the world saw her as less. A spinster, boyish, the Tedbury Termagant. She shouldered it all with her held held high, and then she put her pen to paper. She's a nonstop machine that doesn't realize there's more to life until Tristan reappears to cause a little mischief. She's too busy and too stubborn for men, and I loved her all the more for it. We see her vulnerabilities, the cracks in her armor, but it just made her more realistic and likable.

Tristan is complicated and downright delightful. Yes, he's a rake. Yes, he gets away with more than most because of his station. Yes, he's a devious bastard. However, he's also fundamentally good. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, and he constantly puts others before himself. I disliked that the main conflict was withheld information, but he had very good reasons. Although, being upfront and honest with Lucie would have saved them both a lot of heartache, and likely kept what happened from happening, but I thought the author handled it well. Tristan was trying to protect someone he loved, and I can't really fault him for that.

Evie Dunmore is an incredible writer, so if you haven't read Bringing Down the Duke, I highly recommend starting with it and continuing with A Rogue of One's Own. You don't need to read them in order, but you'll have a better experience if you do, since a lot of the characters from the first book are also in this one. Even if you don't normally read Historical Fiction, read her books anyways! They are full of heart and delicious heat, so get ready for tender moments and sexy seduction. This author knows how to write a romance, that's for sure! (★★★★⋆ )