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A review by brittaniethekid
A Rulebook for Restless Rogues by Jess Everlee
2.0
Unfortunately, I ended up enjoying this even less than the first book in the series, [b:The Gentleman's Book of Vices|59901166|The Gentleman's Book of Vices (Lucky Lovers of London, #1)|Jess Everlee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1664393064l/59901166._SY75_.jpg|94252641].
This book was a bit all over the place, plot-wise, and left a lot of the information off-page that I, as a reader, felt I needed to care more about these characters. It didn't help that I didn't really like either David or Noah and didn't see why they were so enamoured with each other.
The side plot of David's affair with the aristocrat leading to him running the molly house seemed unimportant while also being the main reason for the conflict in the story. We needed a lot more information about that, and a lot less about Noah's family. We didn't need Noah's familial background information for Noah and David's relationship to matter and it just bogged down the story, especially all the fake conflict between Noah's sister, Emily, and David which also wasn't fully explained. I also didn't really get an idea about why Noah going to Italy for his education/training caused such a riff between them, to the point where they weren't even friends anymore after, what, a few years or less? It just seemed weird. If they were the best of friends, being apart for a short time, even such a tumultuous time in both their lives, wouldn't have caused such a falling out. It just didn't make sense to me. It fell victim to the way-too-common trope of lack of communication between MCs.
Lastly, it also didn't help that I didn't remember these characters from the first book at all. I did remember Joe, Miles, and Charlie but had no recollection of David or Noah being in that book. These books didn't feel like they were at all related until those other characters appear to move the plot along.
Overall, disappointing. I'm a huge fan of historical romances with conflict like this but Everlee just isn't the writer for me.
This book was a bit all over the place, plot-wise, and left a lot of the information off-page that I, as a reader, felt I needed to care more about these characters. It didn't help that I didn't really like either David or Noah and didn't see why they were so enamoured with each other.
The side plot of David's affair with the aristocrat leading to him running the molly house seemed unimportant while also being the main reason for the conflict in the story. We needed a lot more information about that, and a lot less about Noah's family. We didn't need Noah's familial background information for Noah and David's relationship to matter and it just bogged down the story, especially all the fake conflict between Noah's sister, Emily, and David which also wasn't fully explained. I also didn't really get an idea about why Noah going to Italy for his education/training caused such a riff between them, to the point where they weren't even friends anymore after, what, a few years or less? It just seemed weird. If they were the best of friends, being apart for a short time, even such a tumultuous time in both their lives, wouldn't have caused such a falling out. It just didn't make sense to me. It fell victim to the way-too-common trope of lack of communication between MCs.
Lastly, it also didn't help that I didn't remember these characters from the first book at all. I did remember Joe, Miles, and Charlie but had no recollection of David or Noah being in that book. These books didn't feel like they were at all related until those other characters appear to move the plot along.
Overall, disappointing. I'm a huge fan of historical romances with conflict like this but Everlee just isn't the writer for me.