From the first page, A Rogue by Night by Kelly Bowen is fast-paced and brimming with danger and intrigue. This story features a strong, take-charge heroine and a hero who appreciates her. What's not to like there? And I really love when an historical romance author writes a heroine who reflects the unexpected ways that women often defied the social conventions of their time. Surgeon? Smuggler? If you're looking for an historical heroine who wears an assortment of bada** hats, then definitely give A Rogue by Night by Kelly Bowen a read.

Kate comes from a family of smugglers and has learned a plethora of medical skills. Now a competent surgeon, she is asked to teach at Haverhall School for Young Ladies.

Harland is a Baron and also a doctor. He is involved in smuggling to save his family and has the perfect cover between his doctor calls and titled privileges.

This book has quite a bit of action. I liked that it was rather different than the usual historical read. However, I thought the heroine was quite rude and aggressive with the hero through the first quarter of the book. Nothing about her personality was welcoming or engaging. Yet, at not even a quarter through the book, the hero was smitten with her. I just didn’t get it. It felt like insta love with nothing concrete to back it up. Then a few pages later he admits he’s besotted. This lowered the star rating for me because it didn’t feel the relationship grow into this. That’s what I love about romance is that tension build up and I felt like this book missed it.

I love when historical romance stories do something different within the constraints placed by the era. A woman and a peer both practicing medicine within their own realms of influence makes for an engaging read. Add smuggling and sexy times and you have one heck of a good book! I would recommend this for anyone looking for a historical romance that thinks outside the box and does it right.

A Rogue by Night by Kelly Bowen

⭐️⭐️

There was a titled doctor who was also a smuggler for a hero and I still couldn’t get into this title!! My main issue was the fact that Harland is attracted to Kate from the start and that makes a slow read for me.

I’m happily suspending disbelief because the storytelling is superb, nonstop action is exciting, and the characters are compelling.

We have Harland, our hero, who is a doctor, a baron, and a criminal all at the same time. He is so woke, he calls the FMC a surgeon and offers for her to be his partner, his equal. Of course, he's handsome. Swoonworthy, right?

Then, you have an intrepid heroine, Katherine. She's a midwife/self-taught doctor (?), a caring daughter and sister, and a smuggler. She's also smart and beautiful, naturally.

There's a cowardly former lover, a lord of the underworld whose story I'd love to read, an overzealous captain, and a couple of funny old ladies for comic relief. Quite balanced.

This book caught me in the right mood, because had I read this at any other time, I'd have rolled my eyes at all that perfection of the MCs and the historical inaccuracies in the story and given this a three. With historical romance, I'm so much more forgiving, I guess . I enjoyed it for the fiction that it truly is.

Thanks to Hachette for giving me an advanced copy to review via NetGalley.

I've really enjoyed the prior books in this series and this book doesn't disappoint. This author writes great smart, strong heroines. While this is the story of the final Hayward sibling, the focus of the book was really the heroine who comes from a family of smugglers. She tries to leave that life behind, but gets drawn back in to help her family. We learn in this book more about how the hero became involved in smuggling to save his family from ruin. The book has a great blend of suspense and romance, along with an appearance by King from the author’s previous series.

This author is an auto-buy for me and I can't wait see what she does next.

A Rogue by Night is book three in The Devils of Dover series. This book did not disappoint! It was an incredible read that showed us the world of smuggling and medicine. Sir Harland Hayward is a titled baron, doctor by trade and is under the service of a smuggling king. He is very aware of what is happening in the coast of where he lives. He helps out the people by treating them medically and also serves as a liaison for them to get paid for the items they have smuggled. Of course they are unaware that the harmless doctor does this. One night Harland meets Katherine Wright, whose family have been smuggling for many years in order to survive. She has served during the war as a surgeon and midwife. A trade that she learned from her mother and other doctors during the war. Katherine's brother has been shot and in the middle of Katherine attempting to treat him is when she meets Harland who knocks on their door in order to provide his services. Harland is instantly attracted to her, not only by her beauty, but how intelligent and giving she is for those in need. She is reluctant towards Harland at first. She had been hurt in the past by a man who was titled. Therefore, she believed that all titled men only served one purpose: to get what they want without any care for others. They embark on a journey and is during this time that they get to know each other and love blossoms between them.
This was story was very fast paced and hard to put down. It had a lot of action and best of all romance. Both Harland and Katherine were very likable, strong characters. Though I did like Harland more. He was such a sweet and brave man. I loved how he admired her beauty and most important her brain.
I highly recommend this one!
*Thank you to the publisher for the ARC given through NetGalley for review.*

Harland and Katherine are a matched pair. I loved this book. The two of them go on a adventure that shows them just how well matched they are. This is the kind of book you don't want to put down.

Kelly Bowen has done it again! She has grabbed my heart and taken it as her own with this emotional, inspiring story of secrets, good vs. evil, and love against all odds. The main characters had so many twists and turns to their story, and I loved how their interactions were genuine and heartfelt. There wasn't a scene in this book where I could say the author overdid the drama or underplayed the tragedy - it was passionate and real.

All Katherine Wright wanted to do was escape her family's smuggling business - it was too dangerous and she wanted something more in her life. But what she got was betrayal and loss, and when she returned home seven years later, she dedicated herself to healing her family and working to ensure they could eventually leave the dangers of their profession. One evening, when her brother is injured, a man arrives who she knows only as a lord with a love of women - certainly not as the doctor he claims to be. Harland Hayward, Baron Strathmore lives a double life. By day he is a carefree lord, teaching young women how to become doctors and ensuring the safety of his family. By night he is the money behind Katherine's family's smuggling business. Starting out as adversaries, they become friends and soon much more. But Harland has a secret, one that can prevent him from giving Katherine the lives she deserves and the love she craves.

Harland was perhaps one of my favorite characters in any book I have read this year, simply because of his way of interacting with everyone around him. He had one of those personalities where he knows exactly what he wants to say at the moment who wants to say it - the perfect retort, the perfect backhanded compliment, and the perfect response to calm down a flustered young woman. He was the ideal hero for Katherine, who was jaded, rightly so, and wanted nothing to do with a lord who wasn't who he seemed to be. She had had enough of men, particularly ones who seemed to go through women every week. As they got to know each other and see the layers beneath the skin, they realized that each had a past that needed to be dug up if they were every to heal and move on. They needed each other. It was a very symbiotic relationship.

I can't wait to see where the series goes next, if there is another book here. I hope so!

It took me a while just to start this book because I'm not a fan of smuggling plots. I wish I had trusted in the author!
The titled doctor brother from the earlier books gets his story and I loved it! This can be read out of order, the other characters in this series don't have much page time. The heroine was a pleasant surprise and unique to her time. They go from one danger to the next and are potently attracted to one another.
This is a story I will read again. And will a certain exclusive crime boss get his own story? I hope so!

I received a free ARC from Netgalley.

A Rogue by Night by Kelly Bowen 5 stars

This is Book #3 of the Devils of Dover series and it starts out with a bang. A stormy night, a woman operating on her brother who has been shot and a knock on a door. Enter the hero, Harland Hayward - Physician, Baron and Smuggler. We met him in the first book, A Duke in the Night, he is the brother of the heroine Clara Hayward. The heroine is Katherine, the sister and daughter of smugglers and she points a rifle at Harland on their first meeting.

I loved this book, for me the words Courage and Honor are the main themes of the novel. It takes courage to be an outsider, to not be conventional, to do things that aren't considered proper in society. It takes honor to keep a bargain you would rather put aside, to put away your misgivings and do something for the sake of others. Courage and Honor will apply to both Harland and Katherine.

Both Harland and Katherine are out of step with conventional society. Harland because he is a practicing physician and a member of the noble class. Katherine because she has the skills of a surgeon but will only ever be classified as a midwife - no women can ever be doctors. She also is a survivor - abandoned by her lover and seeing the aftermath of battle firsthand during the Peninsular Wars. Both are intelligent, brave, and practical. Under the laws of that time, they are both criminals. I prefer to think of them as just trying to survive a skewed system. I think this is the last one that features the Hayward family, but I hope that the next one that Ms. Bowen writes will have some news about their lives. I not ready to let go of them just yet.

Thank you Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC

It is always a good book with this author. You have romance, intrigue and a great story. Could mot wait to get to the end.

Thanks to Grand Central Pub & Forever Pub for this beautiful print copy, which I read for my review, and Netgalley for a complimentary e-copy. All opinions provided are my own.

​​It’s a dramatic beginning: lightning flashes. The heroine’s brother is bleeding out on a table. Soldiers are coming, ready to make an arrest. And our heroine Katherine holds a gun on our hero, believing him to be a threat to her family.

It only gets better from there. A Rogue by Night is full of intrigue, plots, and drama. It’s also terribly sweet, with a swoonworthy love story and two main characters who deserve every bit of happiness that’s coming their way—provided they can be wily enough, daring enough, to grab it.

Bowen does a stellar job portraying Katherine and our hero Harland—making them aspirational characters that also feel human. Characters I admired and also grew to love.

Katherine’s an intrepid heroine, willing to do pretty much anything to save the people she loves, and even take care of random strangers she knows need medical care. She’s resourceful and talented, able to stitch someone up and dive to bring up a smuggler’s haul and put on an Oscar-winning performance like a pro. She’s beautiful and in case it wasn’t clear—really smart—but I wasn’t annoyed by her because *ticks fingers*: she’s also highly defensive, she jumps to conclusions, particularly about our hero, and she’s not always tactful.

All of this made me love her more. Yay for imperfect heroines.

And Harland? He is a dream. He's also selfish a couple of times, willing to do things that would keep him closer to Katherine even as he kept his secrets. And again, his mistakes, his fears, his humanity made me love him more.

A Rogue by Night is a big slice of sweetness, with some tartness thrown in. It’s another wonderful romantic offering from an author I think needs to be read more. Thanks to Kelly Bowen for writing a duo that I’ll be smiling about for a good while to come.

Q: What’s one of your favorite books featuring a physician as a main character?

(rated 4.5 stars)

Another wonderful book with an amazing female heroine that kicks butt and takes names; oh yah and there is a really hunky guy that helps her when she needs it. Seriously though I don’t think I would’ve ever started reading historical romance if it wouldn’t have been for Kelly Bowen. Her female characters are so strong and lead such strong lives fighting the stigma’s of their time period.
Katherine knows that she has to stand up for her family and finish out the last job. Which of course comes with lots of danger. Katherine is a doctor; however no man in her era would admit that except a select few. I loved how strong willed she was and that she wouldn’t hesitate to step in and do what needed to be done. She could ride, shoot, stitch up someone, dive into the ocean, all with limited fear. I really like watching these strong women being backed up by multiple men in these books, not just their love interest but after men meet them they learn to respect them. I liked how Katherine’s attitude changed with each new compassionate person she met her heart started to melt just a little bit more towards people.

Harland really was the best person to match up with Katherine; he was in awe of her from the beginning. Then as he realized how strong of a woman she is, he just continually backed her up. He realized even if he couldn’t have her as a romantic conquest he would like to have her as a partner. He constantly stood up for her telling people she was a doctor. Not only did he stand up for her, he stood up for other people too. He wanted you to think he was a really harsh person but in reality he isn’t. I liked how he valued Katherine’s input on so many things. How he was very calm when she was a firey type of person.

All in all it was another really amazing read from Kelly Bowen. This author has become an auto buy for me. I will not hesitate to pick up a book with her name on it. I don’t think anyone else should hesitate either. While this is the third book in the series it can be read as a standalone, I know I have because I didn’t read the first two and I didn’t feel left out at all.

I have received A Rogue by Night from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. This is the third book of her Devils of Dover series but can be read as a stand-alone. I have read ALL of Kelly Bowen books and have enjoyed them all greatly. A Rogue was no exception.
In order to save his family from financial ruin, Baron/ Physician signs a deal with the devil; in this instance, a King. Becoming a smuggler, he lives a double life as an aristocrat by day and criminal by night. As a doctor, he is able to help those that step into danger for him.
Katherine Wright was raised a smuggler and swore to leave that life behind. But when her bother is hurt, she has to step into the role as smuggler Having to work with Harland, she sees a different side of aristocrats and men. But her instincts war with her past and a risk of the heart might be too much.
I love Kelly Bowen's writing and this book is no different. Harland and Katherine are fully developed characters who have faults and difficulties with life, love, feeling, etc. The way they work towards their HEA is typical Bowen; with heart.
I will admit that I have been waiting for King to make and extensive appearance in one of her stories and he finally does!! King always steals the show (sorry) with his typical stand offish alpha persona and I cannot wait for his story!! #ARoguebyNight #NetGalley

I adored this book! The Devils of Dover Series hooked me from the start. I was highly anticipating A Rogue By Night and it did not disappoint. I love how strong and loyal Katherine is, she will do whatever she can to protect her family. Harland also will do whatever it takes to protect his family. I love that he doesn’t think he’s better than anyone just because he has a title, and he treats Katherine as an equal. He wants to protect her, but he knows she is capable of extraordinary things and is able to depend on her. I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more from Kelly Bowen

This is the third book in the Devils of Dover series, in the first two books of the series we hear the story of the Hayward sister overcome personal and family struggles to find love. Now in ‘A Rogue By Night we hear the final tale of the Hayward siblings, brother, head of the family, merchant, baron, teacher, doctor and smuggler, Harland Hayward.

Dr. Hayward has been living on the Dover coast with his suiters at their school for girls and hiding in plain sight for years. He is not what the residents see and he is not what his family sees with. Secretly he has been leading the coastal smuggling ring and using the profits to rescue his family from financial ruin.

Miss Katharine Wright has recently returned to Dover from using her medical expertise int he wars on the continent. She has stayed alway for longer that needed to nurse her patients and her bruised ego and broken heart. She returns to her smuggling trade family sure in her belief that she will not go back to her old ways… until they need her… and a certain doctor needs her medical expertise.

This is a delicious enemies to lovers story where the hero and heroine are so much alike, that they can’t help to hate and eventually love each other. I loved learning about the brooding doctors back story and more about the smuggling hinted at in the past books. I feel this book is enjoyable in the series but can stand on its our for reader who have not read the first two. Kelly Bowen’s writing is enjoyable to read and her characters have many interesting facets.

Book three in the "Devils of Dover" Series is a wonderful love story. Kelly's writing is spectacular, she can make the list of ingredients in a recipe a must read! Her novels are character driven and her plots are original and compelling, making it hard to put down. There is passion, mind-numbing danger, laughter, and love that makes this story a treat to read.

Harland Hayward is a Baron, Doctor, and Smuggler. He made a deal with a devil to help him get the title and estates he inherited back from ruin. He is the man in charge of the smuggling ring and must keep this secret or he and his family will be ruined. Now he has no choice but to keep to the bargain he made so he makes sure he is close at hand on the nights when smugglers are out making a living just in case someone gets hurt. No one has made the connection between the smuggling runs and his presence to help patch up the injuries.

Katherine Wright has come home to take her father and brother away from the danger of smuggling and start a new life and a legal way of making money. Kate had left her family to follow the man who she loved and thought he loved her. Now she is heartbroken, tired and just wants to find a spot someplace where she can live a quiet life and take care of her brother and father. The only problem is that neither one of them wanted to leave the smugglers life, it is all they have ever known.

Into the absolute worst night of her life walks in a doctor who offers his services to help her. Kate is immediately suspicious of him. Why is a titled gentleman roaming the area and how does he know when to show up just when he is needed? She doesn't like him and wants him to leave her alone. She has had enough of good looking gentlemen who say they want to help her.

No matter how much Kate wants to have nothing to do with Harland the more she winds up in his company. She absolutely refuses to make another stupid mistake and trust her feelings for any man. Harland is wildly attracted to Kate and wants to show her how much better she should be treated. Just when Kate thinks that maybe he is right and she should start trusting him she finds out the secret he has been keeping from her and she is devastated again. Can Harland find a way to keep Kate and leave the smuggling operation for good?

Don't miss this one. I recommend you read this one and any of Kelly's novels.

Book Title: A Rogue by Night (The Devils of Dover #3)
Author: Kelly Bowen
Pub Date: May 28, 2019

***ARC was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 5/5 Doctors assist on a smuggling operation to rescue POWs.

Heroine (Katherine Wright): 5/5 Kate comes from a family of smugglers who operate on the shores of Dover. She is also a field trained surgeon and can patch up anyone injured during an operation. Kate is level headed and could undermine a war if need be. She believes herself incapable of love after a bad experience with a titled soldier.

Hero (Harland Hayward, Baron Stratmore): 5/5 While titled by birth, Harland prefers his title of Doctor. He treats the good people of Dover by day and runs a smuggling operation by night for illegal alcohol and stolen art. He believes himself incapable of love as he was scorned by his now dead wife for having a job.

Plot: 5/5 Kate’s brother is shot during a smuggling operation and while treating his wounds Dr. Hayward shows up to assist. Luckily Harland’s title keeps the law at bay when they come looking for the brother. Harland takes Kate and her brother Matt to his sister’s house to continue treating the wound in safety. While Matt will heal, Harland receives a summons from a powerful man he owes a favor to. He is to treat POWs on their way home after they are broken out of jail. He needs help and he knows it. But he knows one particular surgeon with a background in smuggling that could assist him and keep the operation quiet. So he and Kate set out on a mission together. Can they keep everything professional or will they give in to what draws them together?

Personal Review: I loved it, I would read it again and read other works by Bowen. Katherine was the right amount of stubborn to not seem obstinate. The pair worked really well together as surgeons. The banter between them always felt right.

Katherine is one of the best built female heroines in the genre of Regency Romance I’ve come across. She is sure in her actions, confident in general, and is very intelligent. She was a pleasure to read about.

The plot was fun and had plenty of action and adventure that was all very believable that the characters were equipped to handle the situations they were put in.

Baron. Physician. Smuggler. Sir Harland Hayward is living a double life as an aristocrat by day and a criminal by night. As a doctor, Harland has the perfect cover to appear in odd places in the dead of night, a cover he uses to his advantage to bring in all sorts of illicit cargo from across the English Channel. He's chosen this life to save his family from financial ruin, but he draws the line at taking advantage of the honest and trustworthy Katherine Wright.

Katherine has returned to Dover to find that her family is working for a mysterious new crime boss. Growing up in a family of smugglers, she knows it's only a matter of time before they are caught—and killed. So, after her brother is shot, she convinces her family to move away and start over. After they honor their last contract, of course. With her injured brother and elderly father unable to work, Katherine reluctantly steps back into the life she had left behind. And straight into the path of the merciless Harland Hayward.

Kelly Bowen is one of AAR's go-to authors for historical romance, and staffers Em Wittmann, Caroline Russomanno, Shannon Dyer and Kristen Donnelly got together to discuss her latest book, A Rogue in the Night.

Em:  Hi ladies!  I'm excited to talk about Kelly Bowen's latest with you. A bit of background for our readers first - the Devils of Dover series centers around three siblings:  Clara, Rose, and Harland, raised by progressive parents to pursue their passions (academia, art, and medicine, respectively) regardless of society’s views. Their lives abruptly change when their parents die, and they discover the fortune they expected to inherit is a figment of their imaginations. Instead, the trio is left with a crippling amount of debt and a foundering shipping concern.

Over the course of the series, Ms. Bowen revealed the hard choices the siblings had to make to restore the family coffers and save the shipping company. Readers know Harland has somehow erased their debt and kept the shipping company afloat (ha!), and Ms. Bowen alluded to his involvement in a smuggling ring based on the Dover coast, but his level of involvement remained a mystery.  He's an aristocrat, a doctor... and maybe a smuggler too.

I loved the first book, A Duke in the Night, liked the second, (Last Night With the Earl) but I'm on the fence with this one. I admit to a weakness for beta-heroes - especially only sons who are good to their sisters, so I was predisposed to like Harland. He's a dream, just as I hoped. And so is Katherine Wright, the women he falls in love with. But although I enjoyed the story overall and the principal characters are lovely, I thought the romance (especially in the early stages) was underdeveloped.  There's quite a bit going on here - he's a doctor, she's a doctor, he might be a smuggler, she comes from a family of smugglers, they have heaps of personal baggage between them - and I wished the author hadn’t leapt so quickly from the opening sequence (and their first meeting) to their being soul mates. Am I the only one who felt this way?

Caroline: I didn’t see it that way. For me, too many books use artificial emotional obstacles (My parents had a bad marriage! My ex was a tramp!) to keep characters apart and then declare them resolved on an unrealistic timetable. I liked that Katherine and Harland felt connected and had to sort through external obstacles. Bonus for the fact that Harland’s ex WAS a tramp and he didn’t turn into a horrible misogynist over it.

Shannon: I really loved the romance between Harland and Katherine. It was refreshing not to deal with a bunch of unnecessary angst and melodrama. Our leads behaved like adults, and I loved watching them come to terms with their feelings for one another.

Em:  Let me clarify - I'm glad they liked each other and that's established from the get-go -  I don't like gimmicks either.  I had an issue with the how quickly they segued from strangers to soul mates.  I didn't think they knew each other well enough to know they were meant for each other quite so soon.

Caroline: I can see that. Harland was all-in pretty quickly (which I like in a hero!) and by the second half of the book, it’s clear Katherine loves him but is resisting only for external reasons, which makes the second half more of an adventure story than a romance. What about that main source of tension - Katherine's issues with nobility and desire to leave the smuggling life?

Shannon: I was 100% behind Katherine's desire to get out of the smuggling life, but I also understand why her father and brother were less than thrilled at the prospect of giving it up. Ms. Bowen did a fantastic job showing both sides of a complex issue.

Kristen: I also liked that Harland was all-in, but that did make me lose patience a bit with Katherine. The balance of dedication came off as... I can't quite find the right word. Like, if she was my friend, I would have sat her down and said, "okay girl, let's make a pros and cons list and get this over with." Am I being too harsh on her?

Em: I don’t think you’re being too harsh – I think perhaps we needed to know more of her backstory sooner so that we could understand WHY SHE WAS INSANE AND DIDN’T FALL MADLY IN LOVE with sexy, sweet, super-hot doc Harland. Girl. He makes you shiver. He’s smart. He likes your family and is an excellent secret keeper. It’s clear she has her reasons – and they’re good ones – but he’s in love with her before he knows anything about her. That’s a problem.

How did you feel about the circumstance that brings these two into regular orbit with one another? King – my current favorite crime lord – asks them to help out on a rescue mission of sorts. He totally steals every scene he’s in, but he also provides opportunity for them to be alone together and, inadvertently, exactly what Katherine needs to heal and fix her future.  I thought it was ingenious plotting. Did you?

Shannon: I completely agree with you. Not only was I thrilled to see King again, his presence in the novel served to put Harland and Katherine into an extremely dangerous situation that required them to trust one another completely. That trust felt natural to me, and I'm not sure it could have if the stakes hadn't been quite so high.Caroline: Yeah, I also found King a scene-stealer. I actually wish that he’d been toned down a bit, because I began falling for him instead of Harland!

Kristen: King is easily the most fascinating character in Ms. Bowen’s repertoire company – as it were – and I seem to always gravitate towards him and also expect his machinations within her works. I won’t go so far as to fall for him, Caroline, but zero shade if you ever did!I’m giving it a B+. My summary is that I’d recommend this for sure for fans of historical romance in general and Ms. Bowen in particular, and from our chat here, I think you’d all agree. Yes?

Em: This isn't quite the story I expected it to be; I felt like it was less romance and more romantic suspense-ish, and while I think it worked, when I pick up a Bowen book I expect to feel the love. I liked the story, the principals, and the clever ending, but I didn't feel emotionally connected to these two and it's why I can’t go higher than a B for this one. Good, but not great. AND WHEN WILL WE GET KING'S BOOK????!!

Caroline: I loved the meticulous historical detail around smuggling, like goods and techniques. I liked that Katherine felt believable as a heroine who could hold her own in the smuggling world and society both, and that Harland felt like someone who could make a match with her on both levels. The plot held my attention, but I think there were some balance issues and pacing issues around when the plot was focused on the relationship and when it was focused on adventure. I'd give it a B+.

Shannon: It gets an A- from me. The romance made me super happy, and I absolutely adored the smuggling storyline. It reminded me of the historical romances I fell in love with back in the 90s, and I loved every minute I spent with the leads.

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