Review: Rogue Awakening by Cara Maxwell

Title: Rouge Awakening

Author: Cara Maxwell

Publication Date: April 4, 2023

Series: Wicked Widows’ League (book 4)

Page Count: 114 pages

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09ZNWBN1M

Rogue Awakening is the fourth book in the high-heat Wicked Widows League Series by Cara Maxwell. By this reviewer’s standards, it was a flaming success! 

It could easily be read as a stand-alone novel, as it is the first book of the series I’ve had the honor of reading, and it made perfect sense. So, if you haven’t started the series, go ahead and jump on in here, or for more fun, go back and read the rest of them. 

Rogue Awakening had many of the traditional roles of regency heroes, and heroines reversed within the series. For example, the heroine, Lady Sylvia St. Vincent, was by far the more promiscuous one as she had spent a decade in a loveless marriage and, after her mourning period, was set on becoming a member of the infamous Wicked Widows League, a group of flamboyant widows with a string of handsome lovers. 

She was set to join this group, and nothing could stop her, well perhaps not nothing….true love could have definitely stopped her! 

At the beginning, you are absolutely hooked into the story by how over the top it is! The world-building is just intriguing, to say the least. I personally thought she would end up with the handsome duke casting glances at her from across the ballroom during the opening chapter. I always love a good duke romance. Alas, it was not to be because the absolutely darling hero ended up being the decorated military officer Jasper Armstrong, newly minted as Viscount Warrington. This was just as well because he came into the story absolutely head over heels for the heroine, and he had been since they had first met. 

For anyone who is interested in reading this story, it would fall into the best friend’s brother trope, has a lot of intimacy, and is a very light-hearted read. It verges on outlandish and comical at times.

What stands out to me?

There were details and play-on-words that stood out to me in this series. One is the name of the Widows League residence: Matron Manor, which made me think f the controversial TV show MILF manor. At times the book had me thinking that the main storyline was a decent man falling in love with a hellion.

I remember thinking towards the beginning of the book, though before the hero was even introduced, that there was so much glitter, glam, and scandal in the first chapter that you were hooked before reading about Lady Sylvia St. Vincent’s love interest.

Another moment that stood out was when the hero and heroine roles were reversed in the book. At one point in time, that classic scene where the guy drinks himself into oblivion after the leading couple splits were reversed. It ended up being Lady Sylvia St. Vincent, who was doing most of the drinking. But in the end, there was that perfect happily ever after! 

Where can you get this book?

Rogue Awakening is available for pre-order right now on Amazon and will becoming out on April 4, 2023. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily reviewing it however, so you get a small sneak peek at this great new regency ahead of time! I give this book five stars for its excellent storytelling, and five flaming hearts on the clean to steamy regency scale!