Review: Love Is a Rogue

Love Is a Rogue by Lenora Bell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

He was the most maddening of men. 

Lady Beatrice Bentley only wants to spend her time isolated and writing her etymology dictionary but the carpenter renovating her brother's mansion keeps interrupting her with noise and his manly physique. Stamford Wright is normally a ships carpenter for the Royal Navy but is stepping in to help his father. He can't help but tease and tweak the Duke's sister's nose as she acts like a princess locked in a tower. When Beatrice promises to give her mother one more season to try and marry her off, she's off to London and ready to leave the carpenter who gives her such confusing feelings. However, Ford has discovered the Duke's land agent is embezzling and has to get in contact with the Bentley family again. There he gets press ganged by a group of lady non-knitters and hopelessly entangled with Beatrice. 

The attention she was lavishing on the books made him feel restless and...jealous? 

Beatrice was a character that definitely was supposed to connect with booklovers, our introduction has her constantly spouting lines about how much she loves words and books. Beatrice has Palsy, which caused the right side of her face to droop, a doctor recommended when she was younger that she read the dictionary out loud to exercise those facial muscles. Hence, her love of words, because she thought if she couldn't be pretty (she overheard her mother and father bemoaning her looks) she at least could be smart. In this regard, her character felt a bit overdone, after awhile it felt like an A.I. had written the passages after sourcing tons of “booklover” lines and references. 

Ford would do everything in his power to help her win this battle. Although he was probably going to regret it. 

Ford had cute moments with his teasing but for the first half of the book he definitely came off as a young twenty-five year old; there was something too light and silly about his posturing as a scoundrel. He's sensitive to the fact that Beatrice is a Duke's sister and he is way below her class level because his mother was disowned by her father for marrying below her station. When Beatrice inherits a bookstore and it turns out that the grandfather that disowned his mother and him wants the property, he declares he's Beatrice's carpenter to renovate and joins in the battle to keep the property from his grandfather's clutches. It's a bit coincidental but easy enough to go along with to keep Beatrice and Ford together.  

What was it about this prim, bookish lady that ripped his resolve to shreds like a gale tearing at a canvas sail? 

The beginning held promise with Ford teasing and Beatrice shyly responding but I never felt their emotions and relationship gain any depth in the middle. It started to feel like these two were just spouting lines at each other instead of interacting or playing off one another. Beatrice eventually proposes that they become limited time lovers, she still wants to be a spinster and he's still going to be off sailing. I'm not sure I would call this move forced but it felt like a mechanism to simply add some sex scenes, instead of a development to or in their relationship. Their attraction just never developed any depth for me and I missed that emotion that pulls me into a couple's story. 

She wanted to be close to him and she felt no shame about it. 

Beatrice belonged to a group called Mayfair Ladies Knitting League, where no knitting is actually done but the members work and support each other towards their goals and achievements, it's why she wants to keep the bookstore, to turn it into a clubhouse. Two of her close friends, Isobel and Viola, are members and highlighted in the story, obviously to entice for future books in the series. There are a couple quick scenes with the ladies together but I would have liked more interactions that delved into their relationships. There's a very small side plot about a hidden meaning in the letter Beatrice's aunt left her but I honestly felt it was pointless and only added to the starting to feel overly long feeling the second half of the book started to get. The ending felt hackneyed and a bit hokey with everyone getting gathered together and suddenly decades of villainy is stopped because of “love” and Beatrice and Ford get to be together a bit too easily. This was light on the depth but booklovers will certainly see themselves in Beatrice and enjoy those sweet moments. 

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