A Rogue of One's Own

I really enjoyed the first book of this series, [b:Bringing Down the Duke 43521785 Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women, #1) Evie Dunmore https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554743971l/43521785.SX50.jpg 67688634]. This one follows in its footsteps, although I've rated it a little lower because I wasn't quite in the same headspace to appreciate it as much as I did with the first book. It was enjoyable and engaging enough, however.The book tries to tackle many different societal issues from late Victorian England, especially the ones that are somewhat relevant until today. Of course, issues relating to women's rights take center stage in the book, although there are also some others that seem to just pop up as cameos, such as some brief thoughts about British colonialism in India with Tristan's valet, Avi. This follows the trend that I enjoyed in the first book, that we are being taught something about society at the time and that there's a bigger issue at stake in the plot besides just the central romance. But I kinda wished that the scope of this book was a little more focused. Instead of raising a plethora of issues only slightly, I would probably enjoy it more if they really went all in on the main issue at hand, the Married Women's Property Act, and maybe with some side servings of some other related topics.The central conflict of the book, which happened around the last 30% of the book, was a little disappointing. I had expected it to, once again, revolve around Lucie's deeply entrenched principles and support for her cause around married women's rights, but it didn't - I was a little let down when she even expressed disappointment when Tristan first told her that he had a reluctance to marry. I had wanted the conflict to revolve more around Lucie's reluctance to marry. The secondary conflict I had wanted sort of happens near the end, it all felt very slapped on and rushed. I think we spend more time seeing steamy scenes instead of having that conflict really soak in before it gets resolved in a couple of chapters.

I was really looking forward to this book but have decided to give it a miss after reading this extremely thorough and well-written review.

The reviewer highlights the same reason that I give most HRs where the hero/heroine was exploring in either Africa or Asia a miss. There is hardly any complex, critical outlook on colonialism. I've heard people make the argument that such anti-colonialist views would be anachronistic for that time period, but I find it hard to believe that there was absolutely no one in England who questioned colonialism, but perhaps even more importantly, let's not pretend that the authors of HR don't pick and choose which period conventions they want to use in their books. There are far more dukes and feisty heroines in romancelandia than there were in that era.