TW/CW: Domestic abuse, murder, sexual violence. Most are off the page, save for the latter.

The Rogue of Fifth Avenue is a spin-off series from The Four Hundred series, though this book operates just fine on its own. It has a phenomenally gorgeous cover and the hero is Frank Tripp, a charming lawyer who we’ve met in other books. I adored the heroine’s chutzpah and how she never wavered in doing what was right, but ultimately the timing of this release against our current news cycle halted the majority of my excitement.

Marion “Mamie” Greene is a Robin Hood-esque figure. She and her younger sister Florence often frequent casinos; their winnings are later distributed to families and women in need. They also do a bit of pickpocketing among the casinos’ rich and often inebriated clientele. The Greene sisters don’t readily have access to funds and they certainly don’t want their father keep tabs on how much money they ask for and how frequently they ask for it.

Frank Tripp is the Greene family’s lawyer, namely representing Mamie’s father Duncan Greene. Frank only represents the wealthy and treats his status in New York’s elite very seriously…because he’s hiding a BIG SECRET! Frank was originally born and raised in the Five Points slums where his alcoholic father abused his mother. No one knows this, as he’s constructed quite the story of being from some well-to-do mining family in Chicago and earning his degree from Yale. He does have a law degree, but it sure as shit isn’t from Yale.

Frank does his best to look out for Mamie, getting her out of the various troublesome spots in which she finds herself. After all, prim and wealthy women have no business gambling. Frank sees this effort as part of his role working for Duncan: he’s keeping the man’s daughters from becoming salacious topics of gossip.

But of course, the real reason is that Frank is hopelessly in love with Mamie. Unfortunately, he’s ashamed of his upbringing and Mamie is soon to announce her engagement to a family friend. This engagement has been in the works for years, a merger of two prominent families. Mamie has agreed to her arranged marriage (complete with a contract that dictates punishments for infidelity and the timeline in which Mamie should have children) so her two younger sisters can make their own decisions in regards to marriage later on in life.

If you thought a pending engagement and class differences were enough to complicate matters, what about MURDER?! DUN DUN DUN.

Mrs. Porter, one of the women that Mamie frequently helps, has been charged with murdering her abusive husband. To protect her children, Mrs. Porter attacked him with a frying pan and killed him. Since Frank is essentially on retainer for the Greenes, Mamie turns to him for help. I know this all sounds like a lot, but the plot threads are well-balanced and woven well together. There wasn’t a subplot that overshadowed the main romance despite the book having numerous plates in the air.

Shupe does a lovely job creating the atmosphere of late 19th century New York. The women’s suffrage movement is gaining traction and though it might be hard to explain, I just felt the tension in the city, as if New York is on the verge of something.

This is only the second book of Shupe’s I’ve read, but the internal characterization and insight has been done really well in both this one and A Notorious Vow. Though Frank and Mamie interact frequently, there are these moments of introspection where they think about how their lives are forever changed by simply being around this one person. It’s utterly adorable.

Against his better judgement he took her upstairs.

Frank never took women to the second floor of his home. It was his private space, one he didn’t like to share. Growing up, he’d never had a room to himself, let alone a bed. With so many people in one tiny space, there’d been nowhere just for him. Once he could afford to live alone, he made a habit of using only hotel suites or the woman’s home for liaisons.

And now, here was Mamie, standing in his bedchamber like she belonged.

I like her here.

He might never recover. He’d have to sell the house and start over just to erase the memory of her in his room.

Frank does a lot of pining, if that’s your catnip, and he does it rather well. And I can totally understand why he’d pine for Mamie. She’s wonderful.

Mamie is a woman with privilege, born into a family that has more money than they know what to do with and she wants to put that money to use. Becoming a society wife who takes up an occasional pet project isn’t the future she wants; she also isn’t sure if she even wants to be married given the double standards for men and women.

For example, her soon-to-be-fiance admits that he has a mistress and doesn’t intend to give her up once he and Mamie wed. She doesn’t really care that he has a mistress because she knows he’s a wet blanket anyway and they’re just doing this out of familial obligation, but (and I’m paraphrasing here) she too wants a hot side piece. She even entertains approaching Frank about being her lover after she marries, or at least engaging in some no strings attached shenanigans until then.

She’s self-assured, sexually confident, smart, and empathetic. I really, really like Mamie. She also has a sass mouth and calls Frank out on his bullshit. Here’s a scene where Mamie assumes Frank had slept with a married woman:

“Does it bother you?” He recovered and was now studying her face. “Meeting a woman I’ve known intimately?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t care about any of your women. I am appalled you would ruin another man’s marriage, however.”

He returned the glass to the tabletop, his lips twisting into a mischievous smile. “For the record, that friendship ended before she married. As a rule I try to avoid relationships with married women, especially when clients are involved. But she has been rather persistent and it’s hard to remain polite while representing her husband. Now, does that restore your faith in my character?”

A bit…not that she would admit it to him.

She arched an eyebrow. “Are you seeking praise for resisting something that any decent person would know is wrong? If so, I fear you’ll be disappointed.”

Then there’s Frank’s “proposal” scene, which I won’t ruin, though Mamie isn’t having it.

Though I loved nearly every moment Frank and Mamie were together, I felt they had a head start. Frank mentions that he’s been smitten with Mamie for several months now and the deficit showed. I didn’t see him falling in love with her because he was kinda sorta already there.

As someone who hates flashbacks in books, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wanted some dang flashbacks to when Frank started his relationship with the Greene family. I want to know what he and Mamie’s first meeting was like. What about the first time he caught her in a casino? Or just literally any other moments that showed the progression of his feelings.

The biggest hurdle with this book, though, was timing in the sense of our current political climate. Unfortunately, release dates can’t really be helped and publishers can’t see the future. A majority of the conflict in The Rogue of Fifth Avenue with both main and side characters is that powerful men control women’s decisions. Mamie’s father has dictated who she can marry and originally had a timetable in place for when and how often she should get pregnant. Frank’s mother was a victim of domestic abuse, as was the aforementioned Mrs. Porter.

There is an eventual happy ending for Mamie, and she’s able to live the life of independence she wants, but it takes an act of near sexual violence for her father to relinquish control over her future. It just reminds me of men not caring about women’s issues unless they frame from the perspective of their sister, mother, daughter, etc.

Right now, I just CANNOT with men having an opinion on what women can do with their lives, their bodies, their finances, their educations, their anything. While I’d definitely describe Mamie has a feminist and she has no problem standing up to the men in her life, seeing all these capable women characters be held back by all manner of forces (the police, fathers, societal norms, etc.) was too real of an issue for me. I get that I’m ascribing modern sensibilities to a historically set romance, but each frustrating encounter a woman experienced in this book was a glaring reminder that while women’s rights may have advanced, the fight is still on.

As I read this book, abortion bans were passed in Georgia and Alabama, and news of violence against vulnerable people appeared in my news feed hourly. I was tired of hearing about ways in which men police women’s lives and bodies.But then to go back to a romance where that very same thing was happening on multiple levels made me, well, rather depressed. Current events drastically tempered my excitement to get back to the story – which, to reiterate, is not the fault of the story at all. But timing and environment influence how I interact with a book, and the themes that were explored so well in the novel also appeared simultaneously outside of it, and it was sometimes too much for me. It might be for other readers, too.

However, the next book in the series is about Florence Greene. She’s the middle sister and bad influence, who loves stashing erotic novels beneath her bed. The Greene sisters are so great together and I can’t remember being this excited about a set of connected romances.

If you’re particularly sensitive to current events at the moment, I might suggest waiting to read this one. But if you’re of my ilk and possess zero patience, I hope you’ll enjoy Mamie as much as I did. And yeah, I guess Frank’s all right too. BUT MAMIE HAS MY HEART.