Any Rogue Will Do by Bethany Bennett

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The fourth and final book I read for the Historical Romance Readathon was Any Rogue Will Do by Bethany Bennett. This is the first book in her Misfits of Mayfair series and covered the prompts green/red on cover, in a series, new to you author, clinch cover, rogue in the title, rec'd to you, lady heroine and book you own. I was also able to apply this to the Winter's Kiss prompt green on cover, Merry + Bright prompt Baby It's Cold Outside (dual perspective) and Banging Through the Snow Prompt red or green cover.

Charlotte, aka Lottie, is returning to London from her country home. Her father has started to come out of mourning and has decided it's time for her to marry. He arranges for her to marry friend's second son, but she is not in agreement. She has until November to find another acceptable husband. When there's an accident on the way, she runs into Viscount Amesbury, Ethan. He was a suitor during her first season, but ends up ruining her with a nickname. As they continue to run into each other, they propose a fake engagement to at least get Lottie's father to stop pushing the horrible man he wants her to marry.

Oh my gosh, this book was so wonderful. I mentioned this during my wrap up, but I own this because I heard good things about the second book, West End Earl, and picked it up at Walmart. When I got home and realized it was book 2 in the series, I immediately added the first book so I would have them both. I pulled this as a secondary option for my readathon tbr. Someone commented on my post and mentioned that they really loved this and that the hero was Scottish. I immediately raised it up in my tbr and when I saw it would be a book that would give me a bingo, I knew it would be my last book for the readathon. Even though this isn't a Christmas book, it at least gives the vibes with a green and red cover!

But about the book. First off, this is Bethany Bennett's debut novel and that just blows me away even more. I absolutely adored Ethan. He was so sweet and pining for Lottie. I loved how he kept putting her first, at first due to his guilt but at the same time knowing and trying to ignore the attraction he's had for her from before. Lottie was such a great heroine. I feel like a lot of the more recent historical romances push the feminism threads more than needed and it almost becomes the focal point to the story and not the romance. While there is that here, at the same time I enjoyed how Lottie immediately regrets pushing Ethan away and tries to make it up to him. They both agree to come to a compromise to be in a healthy relationship but also give her what she wants in life. It didn't bother me as much here outside of that I wish that her father wasn't as against Ethan. That would be my only downside of the books was that her father was an antagonist on top of the villain of the guy he's trying to marrying her off to. Then that leads to her breaking up with Ethan and I just didn't like that as the extra conflict. It just felt like a little too much for the final conflict, but I did like how it also forced Lottie to really open up to Ethan and figure out what she really wanted.

I really enjoyed this book and immediately pulled West End Earl. I want to pick it up soon and am so intrigued by who Cal is going to be paired with. I have an idea, but I don't want to read the blurb before going in. I am so happy to find another new author and am excited to see how her writing is going to grow and evolve. Such a great debut!

Have you read Any Rogue Will Do?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Any Rogue Will Do, Bethany Bennett, 5-stars, 1 day, Paperback, 352 pages, published in 2020