Q: What are you reading this weekend?
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The Merchant and the Rogue
Sarah M. Eden
Pub Date: 8/17/21
#arcreview
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This was a charming story, the third in The Dread Penny Society Series. 

This story is about Vera, a print shop owner’s daughter who helps run the shop. And Brogan a penny dreadful writer. Though Vera mistrusts writers and he does not let her know who he is at first. They are drawn to eachother. 

It seemed a bit gothic and mysterious. It sets up for the next in the series as the society is after a villain called the Mastiff who keeps doing all sorts of dastardly deeds.

I enjoyed the Penny Dreadful that was mixed into this story. It was a story within a story about Tallulah and Royston with their Haberdashery and Confectionery shops. I do enjoy going to both those types of shoppes. Theres had a bit of magical realism and it paralleled what was happening in the other story in a way.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you shadowmountainpub and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Synopsis:

London, 1865

Vera Sorokina loves reading the Penny Dreadfuls and immersing herself in tales of adventure, mystery, and romance. Her own days are filled with the often mundane work of running the book and print shop she owns with her father. The shop offers her freedom and an income, and while she is grateful for the stability it brings to her life, she often feels lonely.

Brogan Donnelly was born and raised in Ireland, but has lived in London for several years, where he’s built a career as a penny dreadful writer. He has dedicated himself to the plight of the poor with the help of his sister. But with no one to share his life with, he fears London will never truly feel like home.

Brogan and Vera’s paths cross, and the attraction is both immediate and ill-advised. Vera knows from past experience that writers are never to be trusted, and Brogan has reason to suspect not everything at Vera’s print shop is aboveboard. When a growing criminal enterprise begins targeting their area of London, Brogan and Vera must work together to protect the community they’ve both grown to love. But that means they’ll need to learn to trust each other with dangerous secrets that have followed both of them from their home countries.