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A review by heartscontent
A Rogue of One's Own by Evie Dunmore
Received an Advanced Reader’s Copy from the author exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
I’m segmenting this review into two portions because that’s the way that I had to look at it because there were parts I really enjoyed and there were other parts that I had to bring to notice.
The plot is very clearly about bringing to everyone’s awareness the struggle that women have gone through (and still go through) on the front of equality. No matter what you believe in or don’t or what you’ve been through in life, you can feel for this cause with every bit of your heart and those wounded moments that you still remember from being treated like less than a person because of your gender.
Lucie has always been on the very forefront of the struggle for Women’s Rights and abolishment of the Married Women’s Property Act and it has been a long long fight with many struggles. Lucie is the very embodiment of a woman who’s got the right questions to ask and someone aware of the sacrifices that they must make to get where they want to. It means they must be ready to be disregarded on many fronts and at the same time disregard many things as well and these things are brought up. The questions that are typical of someone in her place, with this large responsibility and immense passion are asked, addressed and answered. Everything about Lucie will move you.
Tristan, however, is just about straddling the line of an anti-hero. At least that’s how he felt to me. He stays very true to his character from beginning to end. He’s callous in all the places he’s always been, brave, angry, kind, rude, hurting, an all round grey character. But truly, he’s perhaps the perfect match for Lucie simply because he sees her through and through and he knows what he must do for the woman he sees and how he must respect her. He also breaks a few typical stereotypes and that’s definitely a good thing.
The supporting characters, their interactions with the protagonist and the overall growth in the movement towards empowering women one step at the time is a big part of the whole story and the last eight percent tugged so hard at my heart.
But…
(This part is spoiler-y so do click to read. There is also a trigger warning section at the end)
Here are the difficult parts. The representations in this book were not done justice. The one gay character in the book was given a negative role for his affections not being returned and the scene towards the end where there was a conversation between the protagonist and this character was a miss for me. I felt that the protagonist apologises very vaguely for his mistakes and even though he explains to the reader why he’s apologising he doesn’t say any of that out loud which weakened the apology for me.
Also, this is very personal to me, but I do wish that because this book is all about empowerment of women, I would’ve loved to not see that a women attempt to ruin the heroine’s reputation/hard work because her affections not being returned. But perhaps that’s the idealist in me speaking.
Also, the one Indian representation was a butler when as a friend (Dany @Ambivert Words) reminded me, those were the times when Royalty and other influential figures from India travelled to Britain as well–among others. There was also a tattoo in the book inspired from a prominent Hindu God that had a strange callback in the end. Truly it could have been any other tattoo with a specificity that aided the conflict resolution.
I also have to mention that author reached out to me as soon as she found out because I am an Indian reader and apologised for any hurt caused and told me I needn’t read the book at all. I chose to read it of my own choice.
Also, trigger warnings: child abuse, parental abandonment, mentions of domestic abuse and cheating, depression, mood disorder, loss of child, PTSD, subtle mentions of body-shaming.
*lets out a breath* Okay.
Stay safe all of you.
I’m segmenting this review into two portions because that’s the way that I had to look at it because there were parts I really enjoyed and there were other parts that I had to bring to notice.
The plot is very clearly about bringing to everyone’s awareness the struggle that women have gone through (and still go through) on the front of equality. No matter what you believe in or don’t or what you’ve been through in life, you can feel for this cause with every bit of your heart and those wounded moments that you still remember from being treated like less than a person because of your gender.
Lucie has always been on the very forefront of the struggle for Women’s Rights and abolishment of the Married Women’s Property Act and it has been a long long fight with many struggles. Lucie is the very embodiment of a woman who’s got the right questions to ask and someone aware of the sacrifices that they must make to get where they want to. It means they must be ready to be disregarded on many fronts and at the same time disregard many things as well and these things are brought up. The questions that are typical of someone in her place, with this large responsibility and immense passion are asked, addressed and answered. Everything about Lucie will move you.
Tristan, however, is just about straddling the line of an anti-hero. At least that’s how he felt to me. He stays very true to his character from beginning to end. He’s callous in all the places he’s always been, brave, angry, kind, rude, hurting, an all round grey character. But truly, he’s perhaps the perfect match for Lucie simply because he sees her through and through and he knows what he must do for the woman he sees and how he must respect her. He also breaks a few typical stereotypes and that’s definitely a good thing.
The supporting characters, their interactions with the protagonist and the overall growth in the movement towards empowering women one step at the time is a big part of the whole story and the last eight percent tugged so hard at my heart.
But…
(This part is spoiler-y so do click to read. There is also a trigger warning section at the end)
Spoiler
Here are the difficult parts. The representations in this book were not done justice. The one gay character in the book was given a negative role for his affections not being returned and the scene towards the end where there was a conversation between the protagonist and this character was a miss for me. I felt that the protagonist apologises very vaguely for his mistakes and even though he explains to the reader why he’s apologising he doesn’t say any of that out loud which weakened the apology for me.
Also, this is very personal to me, but I do wish that because this book is all about empowerment of women, I would’ve loved to not see that a women attempt to ruin the heroine’s reputation/hard work because her affections not being returned. But perhaps that’s the idealist in me speaking.
Also, the one Indian representation was a butler when as a friend (Dany @Ambivert Words) reminded me, those were the times when Royalty and other influential figures from India travelled to Britain as well–among others. There was also a tattoo in the book inspired from a prominent Hindu God that had a strange callback in the end. Truly it could have been any other tattoo with a specificity that aided the conflict resolution.
I also have to mention that author reached out to me as soon as she found out because I am an Indian reader and apologised for any hurt caused and told me I needn’t read the book at all. I chose to read it of my own choice.
Also, trigger warnings: child abuse, parental abandonment, mentions of domestic abuse and cheating, depression, mood disorder, loss of child, PTSD, subtle mentions of body-shaming.
*lets out a breath* Okay.
Stay safe all of you.