Love is a Rogue (Wallflowers vs. Rogues #1)

By: Lenora Bell

Blurb:

They call her Beastly Beatrice.

Wallflower Lady Beatrice Bentley longs to remain in the wilds of Cornwall to complete her etymological dictionary. Too bad her brother’s Gothic mansion is under renovation. How can she work with an annoyingly arrogant and too-handsome rogue swinging a hammer nearby?

Rogue. Scoundrel. Call him anything you like as long as you pay him.

Navy man Stamford Wright is leaving England soon, and renovating Thornhill House is just a job. It’s not about the duke’s bookish sister or her fiery copper hair. Or the etymology lessons the prim-yet-alluring lady insists on giving him. Or the forbidden things he’d love to teach her.

They say never mix business with pleasure. But when Beatrice and Ford aren’t arguing, they’re kissing.

Sometimes, temptation proves too strong to resist…even if the cost is a heart.

Review:

For some reason, I was hesitant to read Love is a Rogue once I’d checked it out from the library. It’s got a premise I like. I think my concern was that Beatrice would end up being too passive. I don’t need my heroines to be strong and stubborn, but I don’t like them to be doormats. I don’t like it when an alpha hero comes in and steamrolls over her. Thankfully, none of that happened, and once I got into the story, I had fun.

Beatrice doesn’t want to get married. She wants to live in the country and work on her dictionary. Sadly, a perfect manly specimen is remodeling her brother’s house and makes it impossible for her. This whole part of the story is over pretty fast, and they’ve quickly moved to London, where the fun begins.

Wright is a Navy carpenter that has no desire to spend his life taking orders from the gentry. His father has worked as a duke’s carpenter (cause apparently that’s a thing), and Wright has no desire to do that. Unfortunately for him, the woman of his dreams keeps watching him build, and he can’t stop himself from trying to impress her.

Their relationship is cute with lots of verbal foreplay. It was fun to read them together. The weakest part of Love is a Rogue, for me, was the ending. I thought that her mother needed a really good telling off, and so did his grandfather. Instead, they went the route of forgiving everyone for being superficial, arrogant, disgusting assholes. I’m not forgiving. Of either of them, though the grandfather is a bigger ass.

The way the book referenced other characters, I think there’s probably another series that this is a spin-off of, but it didn’t impact my ability to understand the story. I don’t usually read regency romances where there isn’t a form of nobility involved, so that was nice. All of that being said, I still have this feeling like I don’t want to continue with the series. Ultimately, it will depend on the story that follows, and if I enjoy any other novels by Bell.

3/5