Product Details
- Title:The Merchant and the Rogue:
- Author: Sarah M. Eden
- Series: The Dread Penny Society #3
- Genre: Victorian Historical Romance
- Paperback : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1629728519
***I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own***
Book Summary
London, 1865
Vera Sorokina loves reading the Penny Dreadfuls and immersing herself in tales of adventure, mystery, and romance. Her own days are filled with the often mundane work of running the book and print shop she owns with her father. The shop offers her the freedom and income to employ and protect the poverty-stricken Londoners she's come to care about, and it gives her father something to do other than long for their hometown of St. Petersburg. She is grateful for the stability in their lives, but she often feels lonely.
Brogan Donnelly was born and raised in Ireland, but has lived in London for several years, where he's built a career as a Penny Dreadful writer. He has dedicated himself to the plight of the poor with the help of his sister. His membership in the secretive Dread Penny Society allows him to feel he isn't entirely wasting his life, yet he feels dissatisfied. With no one to share his life with but his sister, he fears London will never truly feel like home.
Brogan and Vera's paths cross, and the attraction is both immediate and ill-advised. Vera knows from past experience that writers are never to be trusted, and Brogan has reason to suspect not everything at her print shop is aboveboard. When the growing criminal enterprise run by the elusive and violent Mastiff begins targeting their area of London, Brogan and Vera must work together to protect the community they've both grown to love. But that means they'll need to learn to trust each other with dangerous secrets that have followed both of them from their home countries.
Book Trailer for The Merchant and the Rogue
My Review
I loved this book! I could end my review right there and that should say enough but I won't. This is the third book in The Dread Penny Society Series and now it's my favorite. I love the main characters, Irish-born Brogan Donnelly, his sister Moirin, and Russian-born Vera Sorokina. They all have had difficult lives with mysterious pasts. By this time in the series, readers know who the "bad" guys are and they are still up to no good. Brogan, a Dread Penny Writer of "The Dead Zoo", is called to go undercover at Vera's father's print shop. Once there he can't help but get involved in Vera's life, the community being extorted by a mystery enterprise, and the urchin children working in Vera's shop.
I loved how three mysteries were going on in this book. You had the extortion ring in Vera's community, and the two Penny Dreadfuls, The Dead Zoo, and The Merchant and the Rogue that held my interest throughout. I really liked the inclusion of both of the outside stories in this novel. They are also included in the first two books but are different stories. It was fun trying to figure out everything and I read this book pretty fast.
Sarah Eden has fun with this Victorian-era novel based on Middle and Lower class people of this era. I feel it's refreshing to have a break from the upper class of that time period. Brogan and Vera have a slow build romance that has many ups and downs. They do have a very saucy banter that gives needed humor and gaiety to this novel amongst its serious parts. It was of course nice to have all of the characters we met in the first two books show up as well. The saga of the evil Mastiff is heating up and the DPS is gearing up to try and take him down in the next book.
If you love Eden's books, then you'll love this third Dread Penny Society installment, The Merchant and the Rogue. You are always going to have a well-crafted novel to read when Sarah M. Eden is the author.
Meet Author Sarah M. Eden
Sarah
M. Eden is a USA Today best-selling author of witty and charming
historical romances, including 2019’s Foreword Reviews INDIE Awards Gold
Winner for Romance, The Lady and the Highwayman, and 2020 Holt Medallion finalist, Healing Hearts.
She is a two-time “Best of State” Gold Medal winner for fiction and a
three-time Whitney Award winner. Combining her obsession with history
and her affinity for tender love stories, Sarah loves crafting deep
characters and heartfelt romances set against rich historical backdrops.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in research and happily spends hours
perusing the reference shelves of her local library.
Sarah is represented by Pam Pho at D4EO Literary Agency.
****Author Interview with Sarah M. Eden****
Awards & Recognitions
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Seeking Persephone, 2008 Whitney Award finalist, Romance
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Courting Miss Lancaster, 2010 Whitney Award finalist, Romance
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Longing for Home, 2013 Foreword Reviews IndieFab “Book of the Year” Gold Medalist, Romance
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Longing for Home, 2013 AML winner “Novel of the Year”
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Longing for Home, 2013 Whitney Award finalist, Romance
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Longing for Home: Hope Springs, 2014 Whitney Award winner, "Best Novel of the Year,"
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Longing for Home: Hope Springs, 2014 Whitney Award winner, "Best Romance,"
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Longing for Home: Hope Springs, 2014 Foreword Reviews INDIE Award finalist
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The Sheriffs of Savage Wells, 2016 Foreword Reviews INDIE Award finalist
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The Sheriffs of Savage Wells, 2016 Whitney Award finalist
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Sarah M. Eden 2017 Best of State, Gold Medal winner, Fiction.
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Love Remains, 2017 Whitney Award winner, “Best Romance”
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Sarah M. Eden 2018 Best of State, Gold Medal winner, Short Story.
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Ashes on the Moor, 2018 Foreword Reviews INDIE Award, Silver Medalist, Romance
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The Heart of a Vicar, 2019 Foreword Reviews INDIE Award finalist
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The Lady and the Highwayman, 2019 Foreword Reviews INDIE Award, Gold Medalist, Romance
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Healing Hearts, 2019 Holt Medallion finalist
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Forget Me Not, 2020 Whitney Award finalist
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Forget Me Not, 2020 Foreword Reviews INDIE Award finalist
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The Gentleman and the Thief, Foreword Reviews INDIE Award finalist
Purchase The Merchant and the Rogue
HERE: https://amzn.to/3ewzXOe
Other Books in The Dread Penny Society Series
Book 1
Book 2
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