Love Is A Rogue
Wallflowers vs. Rogues
by
Lenora Bell
Love is a Rogue A Wallflowers Vs. Rogues Series by Lenora Bell is such an amazing read, truly one of the best. I absolutely loved Beatrice, who is bookish and very dedicated to words, so much so that she's writing her own dictionary that she hopes to publish one day. When we first meet her she is at her brother's estate in Cornwall and spends her days in the library researching her dictionary but she is interrupted by a carpenter, Stamford Wright, whom she coins Wright. It's the noise he produces but also his bulging biceps that also draws her attention. Although she tried to fight the urge she can't help but find herself drawn to him and most especially wondering what his kisses would be like.
Wright is a sea captain in the Royal Navy and plans to return to the ocean after he's done with his work on the estate. But it is while he's in London that Beatrice approaches him with a job that well he can't refuse. She has inherited a bookshop from her estranged and eccentric aunt but she wants to renovate it into a clubhouse for her bluestocking lady friends to meet and share intellectual pursuits.
Beatrice's mother wants her to make her London Season and be the top of the ball and capture herself an aristocratic man but her mother is so overly pushy and makes her wear the gaudiest clothes imaginable and all Beatrice wants to do is be a spinster and live out her days at Cornwall, that is until her bookshop and a particular man. Through a series of events, Beatrice and Wright begin to fall in love but there is the issue of class, Beatrice is the sister of a Duke, and Wright is a common sailor. Will Beatrice and Wright be able to have the love that is so deeply brewing between them? or will Beatrice return to Cornwall and Wright to the high seas?
Bell's writing is just phenomenal, she creates realistic and captivating characters that make you want to cheer them on. Her lyrical descriptions of the time are great and it's so historically accurate yet she tests the boundaries and brings women to the forefront and helps them become the women they are meant to be. The only reason I give this 4 stars was due to Beatrice's brother and sister-in-law pushing her away from Wright, not giving her free reign to chose her own life. I felt that scene was out of place. Otherwise, the book is just amazingly and well written!
