Rating: 4.5 stars
Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is out on June 3rd, 2026.
Genevieve "Ginny" Woodville travels alone and unchaperoned to London to confront the man known as "The Reaper", Gabriel Marchand, owner of one of the most exclusive gentlemen's clubs/gaming hells in the city. Her newly come of age younger brother, who also recently became the Earl of Highgrove after the death of a cousin, got drunk one evening and gambled away not just the entire newly acquired fortune, but also mired himself in debt. Since some of that money was going to provide dowries for the Woodville women, so they could secure good marriages, it's imperative that Ginny get the money back within the month.
Marchand offers to forgive her brother's debt of several thousand pounds to him if Ginny agrees to spend a whole night in his bed. Naturally, she refuses his offer and hopes to never have to see him again. As fate and the sort of coincidences that usually only happens in romance novels to throw our lovers together would have it, Marchand and Ginny are both staying at the Grand Palace of the Thames, where the rules of the proprietresses require all guests to dine together and socialise in the parlour at least four nights each week.
Ginny manages to identify the person her brother lost a whopping 15,000 pounds to (in addition to the 4000 he owes Marchand), and he's none other than the Earl of Sydenham, her father used to call friend, but who also seemed to never have forgiven that Ginny's mother married Woodville instead of the Earl. If Ginny manages to locate a rare Ming vase, part of the inheritance her brother would have gotten from the late Earl of Highgrove, Sydenham is willing to forgive the debt. Otherwise, he wants it paid in full in a month.
The Woodville siblings became orphans when Ginny was sixteen, after her father drove his high-flyer too quickly around a corner. Ginny's mother survived her husband by two days, and on her deathbed, Ginny promised to always take care of her younger brother and twin sisters, and make sure they all made good marriages someday. Having single-handedly spent the last eight years raising her siblings, taking care of the family finances, managing their crumbling estate, basically taking on the responsibility of both her deceased parents, Ginny is determined to find the vase so she can restore the fortune that her brother lost. Unexpectedly, Marchand proves to be a valuable help in this search, both helping to locate possible places the vase may be, and providing protection when she insists on going to more unsavoury areas of the city to look for it.
Of course, all this galivanting around unchaperoned with a devastatingly handsome rogue, while also seeing softer sides of him when they spend evenings together in the cosy parlour of their boardinghouse, means that Ginny not only stops hating Marchand, but also realises that she may be ruined for all other men, not least Francis, the carefully respectful third son of a duke she had assumed she would marry until she had to go off to London to save her family. Marchand is equally surprised to find that this stubborn and unusual young woman, who refuses to be afraid of him and constantly challenges him, is making him yearn for a very different future, one that doesn't involve him eternally striving to acquire more wealth and influence.
Really good historical romance is getting harder to find. Meredith Duran is no longer writing. Sherry Thomas is writing historical mysteries. Tessa Dare's last novel was published in 2019, and fans are still waiting for the promised fourth book in that series. Julia Quinn is busy with the TV adaptations of her work and is now apparently making luxury hardback editions of romance novels for collectors. Loretta Chase and Courtney Milan publish a new book every few years. Julie Anne Long, however, is still reliably publishing a romance a year, and while I thought the first few novels of her Palace of Rogues series were merely good, not great, the last three have been absolute stone-cold classics, and I'm happy to say that this book continues her streak. I was both happy and surprised when I was granted an ARC, and because of my terrible memory and my tendency to fall behind on reviews, I waited to read it until just before the release date.
Some books take a while for me to get into. Not so Ms. Long's books. Within the first few chapters, reading one of her books feels like a soothing escape from reality. Each new book in the Palace of Rogues series introduces us to a new main couple, but also lets us come back to the comfortable found family of regulars to see how they are getting on (we're getting closer and closer to a romance between Pike the footman and Dot the maid with each story). Delilah and Angelique, their handsome husbands, Mr. Delacorte, Mrs. Pariseau - it's like seeing old friends again, while also getting to experience a new and exciting love story each time I pick up one of her books.
We're rapidly nearing the end of term, and I have a lot of work to do and many grades to finalise, yet once I started this book yesterday morning, I pretty much ignored all of my other responsibilities until I had finished it before lunchtime today. Julie Anne Long writes interesting characters, and frequently her heroines are people who have been shouldering a huge amount by themselves, and have spent their lives fixing things for others, until they finally find the man who wants to ease their burdens and take care of them. Her heroes are often intimidating, powerful men who have troubled backgrounds and finally find the woman who sees their insecurities, refuses to be intimidated by them and makes them soften, without really losing any of the things that make them powerful.
I don't know how many books Ms. Long has planned for in this series, but her Pennyroyal Green series ended up being twelve books and a novella, so I'm hoping I can keep visiting this comfortable and charming corner of the fictional Regency for many years to come. If you've enjoyed other books by her, this is another keeper, which I can see myself returning to for re-reads, if not as many times as with What I Did for a Duke, in my opinion, her best book, and one of my favourite ever romances. And I only just now realised that both of the heroines are called Genevieve. No wonder reading this made me want to reread it, for the umpteenth time.
Judging a book by the cover: Since these books will no longer be printed in mass market paperback format (a development that makes me very sad), it seems that Avon decided to introduce a new cover design entirely, which means this book won't match its predecessors. Since some of the covers earlier in this series have been, at least in part, really awful (usually the portrayal of one or several of the people on said covers), this isn't necessarily a bad thing. But as someone who hates it when my physical books don't match, this radical difference in cover design also annoys me. That said, the choice to make the cover look like a playing card, with very stylised silhouettes rather than realistic images of the couple, works for me. It feels classier than the traditionally illustrated covers.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read.
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