Two Rogues Make a Right

Reread in October 2024

So, first up, I want to take a moment to just appreciate that cover. This is likely my favorite cover for any romance novel, ever. I love how it's intense and intimate without being sexualized the way a lot of covers are. (And, honestly, the way I think t second cover in this series is. Or the cover for the book I'm going to mention next.)

I'm pretty sure this is one of my two favorite books by Sebastian with the other one being The Soldier's Scoundrel. So, yeah, can't believe this is only my second time reading this book. ... I think I loved it more the second time around...


Original Review

“Did it ever occur to you that we were together even before we were...together? I mean, you're always at the front of my mind, even when we're hundreds of miles away. You're the most important person in my life. Even if we had never gone to bed together, even if neither of us fancied men, we'd still be together. We just wouldn't have a name for it.”

There was, honestly, a lot I liked about this book. This is a friends to lovers where one doesn't realize he's in love with his friend and the other has been in love for so long, he just doesn't think about it. One of them is bisexual and has bedded both women and men and the other is demisexual with a side of ‘only him' - which I read as a natural progression of them being so incredibly into each other. I mean, they have been the most important person in each other's lives for years.

I'm not putting a number on the ‘years' because every so often I have to remind myself that they are in their early twenties. Which goes quite a ways in excusing my sole problem I had with this book.

There's this tag in fan fiction over at AO3 that is gaining popularity for a specific couple that I like: sweet of heart, dumb of ass. That sums up these two boys so well. They love each other so, so much and they want what's best for the other, but they never think that they should, I don't know, talk about it. They have a tendency to make themselves miserable because they are trying (and, usually, failing) to give the other what they think he needs.

I just wish that the second half had been a little more like the first. Which was that cover in word form.

Two best friends comfortable around each other and in each other's space and just happy with each other. Because can we take just a moment to appreciate the gorgeousness that is that cover?

(Probably more of a 4.5, but I willingly rounded up.)

This was a strange book. Most of the action took place before the story opens, and the only thing keeping the two MCs apart is their boneheaded insistence that they have to sacrifice each other for their true love's own good. So really all that's left is some gentle banter and a few non-explicit sex scenes. I got bored towards the end and skimmed the rest of it. Sebastian is a strong writer (I loved her story in [b:He's Come Undone: A Romance Anthology 51831578 He's Come Undone A Romance Anthology Emma Barry https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582818691l/51831578.SY75.jpg 76324549] ) but this wasn't her best effort.