Cover Image: Two Rogues Make a Right

Two Rogues Make a Right

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Member Reviews

Ohhh I wasn’t expecting to love this one as much as I did, but here we are. These two are the softest, most adorable idiots. I love them.

This is the story of Will and his best friend Martin. Martin has been sickly all his life, but during a fair bit of this book, he’s suffering from consumption, which was very often fatal at the time this book takes place. Will is a former opium addict with a past full of not-niceness from his time in the Navy. Martin has been missing for months, only to turn up near-death living in Will’s brother’s attic. On doctor’s advice, Will takes him out to the countryside to recover (after a bit of light abduction). And as he recovers… ^_^

I wouldn’t recommend reading this one without having read the first two books in the series. It does stand alone, but there is a loooot of context you would miss out on. Martin’s family and the Sedgwick family, most especially Will’s brother Hartley, have had considerable drama between them for years. Having that context was very helpful. And also Ben’s story and Hartley’s story are both adorable and you should just read them.

One of the best things is finding a book with characters that you can relate to. In this particular case, one of the main characters is bisexual, and the other is demisexual, which is… something you don’t generally see a lot in fiction (more as of recently though!), especially in romance. I was pleasantly surprised by this, and I think it helped me latch onto this pair even more.

All told this was a quick, adorable, and very soft friends-to-lovers story and I loved it a lot. It’s pretty safe to say at this point that I love pretty much anything that Cat Sebastian writes, but I loved this one a little more than is usual. ^_^

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I always love Cat Sebastian’s work, and this is no different. This is the third book about the Sedgwicks, and I do recommend reading them in order, as Will’s brothers are around a lot and some of the plot connects to previous novels.

One neat element in this story is there is no real antagonist other than Martin’s health and fear. Sebastian explores friendship and love between the heroes with a sweetness that I could not resist. I loved the characters and was happy to see Will get his happy ending.

There are also some fun references to literature from the time.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Net Galley in return for a fair review.

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One of my favorite types of novels is “stories about nothing.” By this, I mean “books where there really isn't much external conflict, but somehow it is really about a lot of other little, but important things.” If you also enjoy this manner of storytelling, then this sweet little romance is for you.

This continuation of the Sedgwicks story lines (which is much enhanced by having read the previous works, this will lose something if read as a stand-alone) is a quietly romantic tale of two people finally getting over themselves. Without any serious drama, we get the semi-tragic backstories, with deftly handled chronic illness and substance abuse recovery, and a shared history of long-time love. While the story explores some common tropes, there is no grand gesture, no major conflict and very few broken hearts along the way. This manages to be exceedingly romantic while also feeling very realistic. This is how people fall in love and make a life together.

This “happily ever after” is a touching ode to the slow evolution of true love.

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This book was just so lovely. I am not sure it was the best place for me to start the series - but I still really enjoyed the heck out of it. In a way, Will and Martin have been star crossed lovers from the start. They were friends as children and have gone out of their way to protect and support each other even when they are separated.

I hadn't read the other books in the series - so I felt like I was dropped into the middle of an ongoing conversation when the story started, but that didn't stop me from adoring it. Reading this book was like sitting in on a very intimate conversation. The relationship between Martin and Will is something that is so relatable and beautiful it almost hurts to look at it. There isn't a lot of external conflict - and it isn't missed. This book is 100% about these two characters coming together after a long time and finding home within each others.

I loved it!

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley but these opinions are all my own.

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Martin is on death's bed for the first part of the book. Will is nursing him back to health. Quite boring so I scammed most of that. After that I was just unable to finish the book. I made it to chapter 11 and gave up. They both complain about the way that they look and how useless they both are. To me it was just a bunch of whining.

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I enjoyed the banter between the characters in this book but I was never able to pinpoint what the main issue was to their reluctance to be together. Was it Martin's health, his guilt over what his father did to Will's family? There were many options but I was hoping, whichever it was, would have been more developed.

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“This was going to be the death of him. He had survived this latest illness only to be murdered by casual affection.”

I recently complained about a book for having no external conflict/plot. At the time, I was bored but maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind and I ought to reread it. Because TWO ROGUES MAKE A RIGHT has even *less* external conflict/plot and I enjoyed it! Clearly this pandemic is changing my reading preferences. The first third is textbook hurt/comfort fic as Will tends to a sick Martin; the second third is puttering around a run-down cottage while falling in love; and the final third is a brief separation/something resembling angst (but isn’t) before they make heart-eyes again.

There is no plot and honestly? I’m okay with it! It’s like reading a hurt/comfort AO3 fic with the following tags: oblivious requited pining; abduction for the best of intentions; it’s not kidnapping if you’re doing it to nurse them from the edge of death; childhood friends-to-lovers; idiots in love; seduction via Moll Flanders’s scandalous (and criminal) exploits; seduction via shaving each other’s beards; seduction via exchanging longing gazes in a small cottage with Only One Bed; oh no they’re apart now; just kidding they literally can’t function without each other; surprise! there is no plot after all; and happily-ever-after.

So yeah. I liked it! YMMV. It’s a valid critique that little external plot exists in the book, so consider if that sounds appealing before you read it. On the flip side, it’s possibly one of the more intimate romance novels I’ve read in a while. The MCs spend all their time in the same room and/or thinking about each other. The book is Capital-F-Feelings in its purest form, and I prefer that to a romance novel where the MCs are squabbling/not together for most of the book (cough looks at the alarming number of badly executed enemies-to-lovers romances I’ve read in the past year cough).

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Okay, this book was really surprising. I usually go into romance novels ready for the worst of all the tropes, and usually my expectations are met. Cat Sebastian's book was like a breath of fresh air! It feels like the romance equivalent of a cozy mystery. It left me all warm and fuzzy, and I read it in one sitting. I hadn't heard of this author before, but I'm interested in reading her other works if they are anything like this one.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet and tender M/M historical romance, the third entry in the author's "Seducing the Sedgwicks" series. It starts slowly but definitely stick with it, as the more the reader gets into the story, the greater and more rewarding the pay-offs are. Will and Martin's journey to a life together neither thought they could have is a journey well worth taking.

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Is it really necessary that a book have a "plot"? Is it not sufficient that it be about two devoted best friends nursing each other through illness and addiction while pining after each other despite living in the same one-room cottage that has only one bed? Your answer to these questions may be different from mine, so: if you want a romance with a strong B-plot or a lot of character conflict, this is probably not the book for you! If, on the other hand, wallowing in hundreds of pages of mutual pining and hurt/comfort sounds delightful, get thee to an online retailer of the printed word, because you're going to love this. I was going through a mini-reading slump brought on by coronavirus anxiety and this book cleared my skin, watered my crops, and let me get to sleep at night thinking about something nice for once. While the terminology is obviously not used in ye olden times, the protagonists appear to be pansexual and demisexual, respectively, and both chronic illness (Martin appears to have asthma and tuberculosis) and addiction (Will is no longer actively using opium, but it still affects his daily life) are handled thoughtfully. Will is the Sedgwick in this installment of "Seducing the Sedgwicks" and both of his brothers make cameos in the midst of their blissful HEAs; you could probably read this book without having read the previous two but you would miss a bit of Martin and Will's backstory so I think it would ideally be better to read in order.

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