Review: Night of the Scoundrel

Night of the Scoundrel by Kelly Bowen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved Kelly Bowen's "Night of the Scoundrel," a unique and engaging tale featuring likeable characters that were incredibly well developed for such a short story. I was intrigued by the male lead character, King, when he was introduced in a previous story, so it was very exciting for me to learn more about him in this novella. At first, King seemed like such a contradiction because he was a leader of the criminal underworld but at the same time so urbane, demonstrating great interest in fine art and a talent for playing the piano. Given those interests, I wasn't surprised to learn that King was connected to the aristocracy in his childhood. It was nice to see him get the opportunity to reclaim some of his past after the trauma of his youth, as well as find a partner like Adeline who made him so happy.

Adeline was also an intriguing lead character. She had to find a way to survive on her own after losing her parents during the French Revolution, and she came up with a very clever, if unorthodox, way of doing so that allowed her to help others at the same time. I really admired Adeline's strength and independence, as well as her willingness to show her vulnerability with King, expressing her feelings for him even though she didn't know how he would respond. It was lovely that King and Adeline were able to bring light to each other's lives after they both experienced so much darkness in the past.

Even though this novella is nominally a part of the Devils of Dover series and follows up on King's appearance in the third book, it seems to me to be more strongly connected to the Season for Scandal series because the secondary characters who appear in this story were all featured in that series. Regardless of its connection to both of those series, this novella stands very well on its own. I have only read one or two of Ms. Bowen's earlier books but did not feel lost at any point, although it's possible that I would have enjoyed the story even more if I fully understood the characters' background and relationships.

At any rate, I very much look forward to reading more of Ms. Bowen's work in the future!

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

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