Review: At Last the Rogue Returns (Avenging Lords #1) by Adele Clee


Print Length: 251 pages
Publisher:  (June 29, 2018)

From Goodreads.com:  A lady discovers that the monster of her nightmares just might be the hero of her dreams.

The lady labels him a devil.

Miss Lydia Lovell is on a quest for justice. For years, Lord Greystone's tenants have suffered at his hands. While he abandoned his estate to rusticate abroad, poverty and illness crippled those who depend upon him. Now Greystone has come home, and Lydia is determined to make him pay.

Greystone returns for revenge.

Having spent five years abroad making his fortune, Miles Oakley returns to England with one goal in mind - to ruin those responsible for his mother's humiliation. The plan is in place. But when a spirited lady accosts him at the manor gates, hurling her ridiculous accusations, he discovers another shocking betrayal.

The course of true love never runs smoothly.

But Lydia has more to worry about than Greystone's tenants. Her brother and his cunning wife want control over her inheritance and are plotting ways to accomplish their goal. And damn Greystone. Lydia cannot fight her attraction to the man she's spent years despising.

When threats of murder and blackmail throw them together, and passion burns with ferocious intensity, Miles and Lydia must overthrow their enemies if they have any hope of surrendering to love.
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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5


This book was.... okay. There were some things that I liked, some things I didn't like, but on the whole, I don't regret using it to pass the time. 

I liked the chemistry between these two characters. I liked the backbone that Lydia first displayed when she rushed to confront Miles about his "wrongdoings". I enjoyed watching the pair as they teased each other, and got to know each other as she took him around his estate introducing him to the tenants, and in most cases, smoothing the way by giving her word that he was not responsible for their misfortune. 

What I didn't like was just how over the top and ridiculous the villains of this story were. Nor did I like how Lydia was stupid enough to put herself in a situation she very nearly didn't escape from. What purpose did it serve? There was just so much going on when it came to who was doing what that it all became a bit muddled for me. 

I also found it a bit hard to swallow when twice Lydia is very nearly raped by different characters, only to be rescued by Miles and then willingly puts herself into sexual situations with him. For someone who claims to know nothing of how sex works, she doesn't seem particularly bothered by the fact that she was almost forced, twice. 

All things considered, I have heard good things about the second book in this series, so I will probably read that at some point. The potential was here for a good story if the author had only toned it down a bit and given us more depth to the characters. 


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                     At Last the Rogue Returns  is available from Amazon.com

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