Title: A Rulebook for Restless Rogues
Series: Lucky Lovers of London: Book Two
Author: Jess Everlee
Publisher: Carina Press
Length: 324 Pages
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
At a Glance: Kindness reigns in A Rulebook for Restless Rogues. It’s a sweet addition to the Lucky Lovers of London series.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: London, 1885
David Forester and Noah Clarke have been best friends since boarding school. All grown up now, clever, eccentric Noah is Savile Row’s most promising young tailor, while former socialite David runs an underground queer club, The Curious Fox.
Nothing makes David happier than to keep the incense lit, the pianist playing and all his people comfortable, happy and safe until they stumble out into the dawn. But when the unscrupulous baron who owns the Fox moves to close it, David’s world comes crashing down.
Noah’s never feared a little high-stakes gambling, but as he risks his own career in hopes of helping David, he realizes two things:
One: David has not been honest about how he ended up at The Curious Fox in the first place.
Two: Noah’s feelings for David have become far more than friendly.
What future lies beyond those first furtive kisses? Noah and David can hardly wait to find out…if they can untangle David from his web of deception without losing everything Noah has worked for.
Review: In 1885, the gross indecency act criminalized sexual acts between two men. Legal action could be instigated by a mere accusation, sending a man to trial and on to prison to serve two years’ hard labor, if not worse, incarcerated with society’s most dangerous cutthroats. This is where the high-stakes element of Jess Everlee’s A Rulebook for Restless Rogues comes into play. David Forester’s gentlemen’s club, The Curious Fox, is a haven for men seeking the company of like-minded men, and David will do anything to protect his sanctuary, even if it means sacrificing himself to do it.
Noah Clarke (aka Miss Penelope Primrose when dressed in drag) is David’s longtime best friend and frequenter of the club. Everlee introduced them in book one of the series, The Gentleman’s Book of Vices, and it immediately became obvious there was a story to tell. Miss Penelope, who David loves as much as he loves Noah, is much more rogue than innocent, cheeky and charming, and not averse to cheating at cards while David covers for her with her angry marks. Unfolding in a series of flashbacks, their relationship is detailed in vignettes of their time as teenage schoolmates, as they began to explore each other sexually, without naming their feelings, and then drifted apart. Their story is not a simple friends-to-lovers romance, though. There is separation, denial, pining, fear, and a threat from David’s past to throw obstacles in the path of their love story.
The agent provocateur in the story is David’s former lover, who also owns The Curious Fox. This man is titled, clearly above David’s social station, manipulative, cold, cruel and calculating, a criminal by every definition of the word, who took advantage of David at his must vulnerable. Lord Belleville is positioned as an instrument of dramatic tension more so than a complex character, however, fading into the background as the story leads to a climax that I loved for the potential of a character who might feature as the lead in a future book.
It’s clear to everyone but David and Noah that they’re soulmates. Or, rather, it’s clear to them too, but they go to great lengths to avoid confronting the truth for fear of the risks involved. The roadblock to their happy ending is lowered when they are finally honest with each other, helped along with the kindness of an unexpected ally, giving way to a sweet celebration and consummation of their bond with friends and found family, which is a primary ingredient in the series.
A Rulebook for Restless Rogues is a sweet addition to the Lucky Lovers of London series. Fortune favors the brave, as the saying goes, and there was no lack of courage in David and Noah finally claiming each other and their happiness.
You can buy A Rulebook for Restless Rogues here: