I adored this book so much! 4.5 stars!

✨Tale as old as time✨

This has to be my favorite historical Beauty and the Beast retelling so far! It was a loose reimagining which I really enjoyed, as some books along the same lines get a little too angsty for me. Love is a Rogue however was light and bookish and incredibly charming: Mrs. Kettle serving tea, Mr. Coggins brandishing a candlestick, Beastly Beatrice in love with obscure definitions, and library towers with single roses and sliding ladders. In true historical romance fashion, my favorite addition was its penchant for dirty books and filthy words.

I’m in love with both Beatrice and Ford as well as their love. I love their love okay! I admit it! I’m such a lush. They’re just so fricken fluffy and cute and I just want to dunk them in my coffee. The combination of bookshops and brawny shoulders and old words and trellises and romance novels is seriously intoxicating. This book is all of my favorite things proving why they’re my favorite things. It’s pretty cursive and old parchment and fairy lights in branchy trees and too-close waltzes danced in secret. A mood board of lovely things. But I think what really made it a great book was that it was also sexy and silly and full of surprises.

The sex scenes were light and fluffy too, but still substantial for the couple and story. Also by the time we got to the desk scene I forgot we were promised a desk scene so I was obviously overjoyed. Desk scenes are really just ~built~ different aren’t they. How many times am I going to write desk scene? As many as I very well please because ✨desk scenes✨ that’s why. Ravished by the wood methinks.

The conflict at the end was swift and we were rewarded with—what’s the answer class? That’s right—a desk scene (and others) so I say it was a win for all involved. I liked Beatrice’s final revelation about herself and I really liked how Ford was able to have one of his own. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the whole bookshop renovation was not listed on the back but it was such a fun part of the story!! All bookshops should be bawdy. I also really just love hot, sweaty men breaking (and then fixing) stuff.

I can’t wait for the next books in the series. With so many wallflowers added to the ranks, I think we’re going to be treated to a properly long series of happily ever afters and hunky love muffins. The acknowledgment section said this book was a love song to readers and it truly was.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Hmm… 3/5, review to come!

I never really got into this book. I think because the attraction was from the beginning and that isn’t really my favorite trope. I like the slow simmer, especially when it is between two characters who have to over come obstacles to be together. So not really a criticism of the book itself, more just a preference on my part.

New series but we see characters from Bell's previous series. The heroine of this story is the younger sister of our hero in One Fine Duke. I love Bell's regency romances and this one didn't disappoint. She even added some elements of a fairy-tale retelling of Beauty & the Beast, which I liked as well.

Okay so I don’t feel this is completely 4 stars since the first 75% of the book I was completely annoyed by Beatrice. Her behavior and thoughts just didn’t add up with the bluestocking title. But then the last 25% happened and I was rooting for her so much. I loved the last part.

Ford however, daaaaammmmnnn talk about swooooooonworthy mmc’s! I want myself a Ford. Give me a Ford please. Thank you.

DNF. I read about half of the book then ended up skimming through the rest. The pacing is a bit off for me. I don’t feel the tension building between the characters. Every time they kissed (from where I read up to) I was like “oop, so now they’re kissing.” Also, I like a bit more drama in my books, and this is lightweight drama.

I enjoyed this, but not as much as other books I’ve read by this author. Fun, but not a standout.

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.