Pages & Pressings

Pub date: June 2, 2026

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me this ARC!

“How odd that nothing in her life had ever felt quite so luxurious as being known.”

This book took me completely and ardently by surprise. I must confess, I requested this book solely on the basis that it was a historical romance and the cover was absolutely gorgeous. In the end, I got so much more enjoyment out of this reading experience than I thought I would.

Game of Rogues is the 9th book in Julie Anne Long’s Palace of Rogues series. Thankfully for me and other unsuspecting readers, the Palace of Rogues series is a collection of novels that can be read as standalones- each contain a new couple and new situations. Game of Rogues is set in Regency England and follows Guinevere (Ginny) Woodville, the daughter of the deceased Earl Woodville, and Gabriel Marchand, a self-made man that was a poor orphan who now owns an exclusive gambling club. One night Ginny’s brother, the current Earl Woodville, gambled away the money the Woodvilles set aside to pay for dowries of their younger sisters at Marchand’s club, Lucifer’s Fall. Ginny takes it upon herself to get that money back no matter what. She becomes entangled with Gabriel Marchand in her journey to save her family, their money, and their reputation.

In complete honesty, I thought this book would be absolutely filthy after seeing the covers of the other books in this series. I can confidently say that I was so wrong. I’ve never read yearning done quite like this. If we put aside the sexual overtones of it all, the romance felt true and believable. There’s nothing I hate more than when characters fall in love too quickly, especially when they’re strangers. The enemies-to-lovers and forced proximity trope works so well in the plot, because what could be more loathsome than being in close quarters with someone you find utterly revolting? That is, until you spend (forced) time together and realize they’re not so bad after all.

The first third of this book was quite a slog and hard to get through. As someone who’s new to this author and series, the flowery language-though very fitting to the setting-was hard to follow at times. In retrospect, the first third of the book was probably slow because the author spent time acclimating the reader to this world. That along with the fact that the characters had to seem, at least at first, unscrupulous, insufferable, and otherwise clear opposites of each other for the tension to build.

The pros of this book easily outweigh the cons, and it is the perfect read for anyone who isn’t looking to commit to a series, but wants a heart-warming tale of passionate, headstrong people that form an unlikely bond despite social status and Regency era propriety.