#My Rogue to Ruin

[the-final-sentence]

‘I vow to make certain it does.’

Erica Ridley, from My Rogue to Ruin

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 2/5

Book Blurb: The riotous Wynchester family has taken on a new case to expose a forger, but the prime suspect isn't at all what he seems in this captivating Regency romp from a New York Times bestselling author.

Marjorie Wynchester has always let her siblings take the lead when it comes to planning their investigations. But someone in London is trying to pass off counterfeits, and this time she's the only one with the skill needed to find the culprit. Soon, all the evidence leads her straight to Lord Adrian Webb.

Adrian is a roguish scoundrel of the first order, but he never meant to get caught up in a forgery scheme. Especially one that’s snowballed out of control. Now a blackmailer is out to ruin him, and the most alluring woman he's ever met is trying to put him behind bars. Every time Marjorie thinks she has Adrian figured out, her assumptions turn on their head. He’s a heartless scoundrel. A loyal brother. A smooth liar. A good kisser. Er…wait… Is winning her affections just one more attempt to avoid the law? Or is it possible he’s not such a rogue after all?

Review:

A new adventure with the Wynchester family, this time involving Marjorie Wynchester, a partially deaf but extremely talented artist who is hunting down a counterfeit money forger only to find herself falling for the roguish scoundrel himself, Lord Adrian Webb. Marjorie has always been looked over, her siblings treating her like glass but she's had enough and when her family's latest client asks for help with a counterfeit case she knows it's the perfect job for her. She proceeds to go undercover and work for the forger... only now she's spending days locked in a room with an extremely handsome and charming but irritating artist who has his own reasons for making the forgeries.... Lord Adrian Webb has a reputation as being a scoundrel, a family disgrace and now he's found himself being forced to make counterfeit money for the man he might have tried to con... and if he doesn't his sister's life is in danger. Adrian will do anything for his family, but when trying to find a way to destroy the blackmailer who has him he only finds himself trying to also save Marjorie who has landed herself right in the middle of his own trouble. Can these two find a way to get out of this alive and take down the man responsible for the crime while dealing with their feelings for one another or were they doomed from the start? This is part of a series but you can absolutely read it as a standalone. While this had all the ingredients to be a book I would enjoy, unfortunately I didn't really have a great time. I just didn't believe the romance between Marjorie and Adrian and found the story to be a bit slogging at points. Overall its a cute historical romance with some flirting and art crime and if that's your thing, definitely give it a go maybe you'll have a better time with it than I did.

*Thanks Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing), Forever for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[makeusfly]

The Wild Wynchesters

I don’t read a lot of historical romances, but it’s not the historical aspect that usually stops me – it’s the heteronormativity. Fortunately, Erica Ridley doesn’t know the definition of the word. I did initially read them out of order, starting with the sapphic one, The Perks of Loving a Wallflower. I pretty immediately doubled back to read The Duke Heist and have read the other two within…

[whimsicaldragonette]

ARC Review: My Rogue to Ruin by Erica Ridley (The Wild Wynchesters #4)

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Publication Date: September 12, 2023

Synopsis:

The riotous Wynchester family has taken on a new case to expose a forger, but the prime suspect isn't at all what he seems in this captivating Regency romp from a New York Times bestselling author. Lord Adrian Webb is a no-good, roguish, rakish scoundrel of the first order, which is why his father sends him to the Continent and cuts him off without a farthing. When (penniless) in Rome, what's a disgraced gentleman to do, but dabble in some light forgery? After all, better to leave the original works of art where they belong instead of some English snob's drawing room. But soon his scheme snowballs out of control, and a blackmailer is out to ruin him. The Wynchester family is known for their daring capers to help those in need. Until now, Marjorie has always let her siblings take the lead when it comes to planning undercover work. But someone in London is trying to pass off counterfeits and this time she's the only one with the skill needed to find the culprit. Her investigations lead her straight to Lord Adrian Webb. But every time Marjorie thinks she's figured Adrian out, she learns something new that turns all her assumptions on their head. He's a sinner. A saint. A heartless scoundrel. A loyal brother. A liar. A good kisser. Er…wait… She can't afford to lose herself in the passionate embrace of a man she'll have to turn over to the magistrate as soon as the case is closed.

My Rating: ★★★★★

*My Review and Favorite Quotes below the cut.

My Review:

I always love Erica Ridley's books, and I love the Wild Wynchesters the most. A charming, witty family of orphans with unusual talents who dedicate their less-than-legal efforts to the protection of those in need. What's not to love?

This is Marjorie's book, and it was so nice to get more of an understanding of her character. She has hung back in previous books (for reasons nicely explained here) and so was the Wynchester I was least familiar with. She is not only an incredible artist and forger, she has synesthesia and has a stubborn, independent streak that has previously been well-hidden.

Adrian is a cheerful, charming forger who gets in trouble with a slimy crime boss and requires Marjorie and her family to rescue him. The banter and flirting between them was such fun, and I loved seeing two artists and creative minds working together and sparking ideas off each other. It was inspiring.

I read the entire book with a smile on my face and hated to see the story end. I don't think I could ever get tired of the Wynchesters' heists and capers and sheer chaos. This is definitely one of my favorite romance series. The story is fun and light and flows easily and the characters are well-rounded and feel like real people.

I can't wait for Elizabeth's book. I realize I've been saying that from the beginning, but it's still true. She always manages to steal the show for a bit from the sidelines for me. I'm terribly curious about Jacob's story as well. His trained animals also always steal the show a bit and inject a lot of humor into the story. How could adorable homing kittens and hedgehogs fail to charm?

I have preordered the audiobook so I can listen to the story again when I need to be cheered up. I highly recommend this series for fans of lighthearted Regency romps (one of my favorite genres).

*Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for providing an early copy for review.

Favorite Quotes:

Any book a reader chose to invest time in was by definition a worthy book.

---

“Finally,” Elizabeth said with feeling. “I thought I’d never get to use my sword.”

---

“Any excuse to create art is a good reason.”

---

Marjorie hooked her arm through Adrian’s. “We each have our talents.” Elizabeth brightened. “Is my talent murder?”

[loveexpelrevolt]

KURT & ROGUE X-Men ‘97 1.09 | “Tolerance Is Extinction — Part 2”

[andorerso]

tragedies (i./ii.)

[kata-kemi]

Vesper - Fire Genasi Rogue, a loyal member of The Black Backfire Company. My beloved dnd rogue, but also a nasty villain in my other DM's campaign! Her personality summed up is: "Feeling cute, might dig dirt on you later and blackmail you with it >:3c" while also glowing in the dark with her lava vein/scars.

[rystiel]

“pissed me off seeing the doctor suddenly being interested in men and kissing one for the sake of shoving it in our faces. kissing jack was a comedic moment for shock value so it didn’t count as woke pandering.” i’m hitting you with my bare fists

[spectrestardust]

"He was almost out of time, and all he could think was: I'm sorry, everyone. Sorry for promising what I couldn't deliver. Sorry for not coming up with a better plan. He'd tried. That counted for something, didn't it?"

bodhi rook x best that i can, vance joy

[roguesidea]

i do not understand fnaf lore in the slightest i just think theyre neat. some artistic liberties taken because i was going off of like 1 blurry screenshot

[caliburn-not-calculator]

Offers you a robot

This is Relic, my totally mentally and physically well warforged arcane trickster!

+ as of now, wizard!

[froot-batty]

Losers!

@sarseemd I still love the name Lightning Bugs for them so I'm yoinking that !! It's canon now !! Friendship name !!

Garfield Lynns was born and raised in Gotham - more specifically, in one of the many run-down apartment complexes in the Narrows. They had no idea what happened to their parents, for as long as they could remember they'd been raised by their three older brothers. "Raised" was a pretty strong word, though. Their brothers were a gang of well-known arsonists, and often either completely neglected Gar, forced them to do tasks for them, or yell at/bully him.

Due to how Gar was raised, they developed a fascination with fire from a pretty young age. They were never allowed to participate in the arson (or anything that their brothers were working on; they saw them as a nuisance), so Gar would watch as they made firebombs or flamethrowers - or watch the destruction their work would cause on the news.

One day, when Gar was 16, they decided that they had absorbed enough knowledge that they thought they could improve on their brother's weapons (and hopefully gain their approval in the process). They actually didn't end up being terrible at designing the mechanism or the weapons themselves - the problem came when Gar was attempting to mix chemicals. Gar was not the best at chemistry at the time, and their inexperience would result in an unexpected reaction in a mixture, one that let off sparks that would eventually reach the numerous HIGHLY flammable things in the apartment.

The resulting fire would not only render most of the apartment complex unlivable, but it would completely decimate Gar's home. It also killed all three of their brothers, who didn't wake up in time to escape the fire.

Gar, however, would end up living - in critical condition, with most of their body covered in burns. However, instead of being traumatized by the event, it would actually trigger a full obsession with fire in Gar. In their eyes, the fire had gotten rid of something that had kept Gar under lock and key for their entire life; it made them feel powerful.

So, the moment Gar was able to, they fled from the hospital. This is when their first crime spree would happen - little more than just them with a lighter and some gas setting things ablaze, but it was still destructive enough that it caught the attention of Batman.

Bats would recognize this was the same kid from the apartment explosion, so in the hopes that they'd be rehabilitated before continuing down this path, he took them off to Arkham (Gar was 18 by this point). Bats didn't know that this would eventually make even more of a headache for himself.

Maisy Zapropoulos Maxie Zeus was first born in Crete, though her parents would move to Gotham after they were both offered jobs at WayneTech. Her parents were strict, no-nonsense people, and had high expectations for their daughter right off the bat. They were the type of people that thought children should never step out of line, and that with enough punishment and reprimanding, bad behavior would be corrected.

So, when Maxie started acting out as a young kid - getting into fights, destroying property, stealing - this was unacceptable to them. But instead of getting her any kind of help for her then undiagnosed conduct disorder, they thought that with enough of a firm hand, they could fix what was "wrong" with her.

This obviously only made her act out even worse. She would take out the anger and the pain of her living situation on anything and anyone around her. She would start being an excessively cruel bully to her peers in school, when she would even go to school. Half of the time she would skip to go and shoplift or spray paint on the side of buildings.

Her behavior would eventually get so out of control her school decided to expel her. At this point, she was only 15, and none of what her parents were trying to do to "fix" her was working. In their eyes, this was the final straw that cemented her as a disappointment. A lost cause.

So they packed up her things and took her to Arkham Asylum. They didn't particularly care if it would actually get her help; they just wanted to get her off their hands. They signed custody of her over to the director of Arkham, Hugo Strange, and abandoned her there.

Maxie only kept acting out in the Asylum. She was alone, angry, and had even more of her life controlled by other people - hurting people or destroying things was the only way she felt like she had any freedom at all. At the time, Arkham still had a lot of outdated medical practices. Their goal is not to help people, and it certainly isn't Hugo's goal.

Maxie would end up being sent routinely to get electroshock treatment. The word "treatment" was mostly a cover, though - Hugo was interested to see what high amounts of electricity would do to the human body and mind. She'd spend so much time in there that the room they did the electroshock would be given the nickname Maxie's Room - as she spent more time in there than her actual room.

You'd think that this constant bombardment of electricity (oftentimes far too high than what is considered safe for an already dangerous practice) would just completely fry her brain. But, to the surprise of Strange...it didn't.

Maybe the shocks had triggered something in her DNA; some kind of inhuman gene most people didn't have. But her body slowly gained the ability to store electricity within it, to be expelled at will through her limbs. At first, they had no idea how this worked, and it led to a lot of explosive accidents when Maxie ended up not being able to control her newfound powers (this is when Strange got that scar on his arm!). Eventually, they'd make her those gauntlets and the sandals she wears, which allow her to safely and precisely channel her electricity.

By the time Gar was sent to Arkham, Maxie had already gained her powers. When Gar arrived, she saw another person she could make fear her - or, at least, that's what she thought. She was genuinely caught off-guard when Gar was nothing but friendly to her. They thought she was ridiculously cool!

It was the first time in her life that someone had ever been nice to her. And, for Gar, they lept on any chance to have a real friend (they were already used to being put down constantly by their brothers, it made dealing with Maxie easier). Their path to becoming friends was not an easy one, but they were both desperately lonely kids who just needed someone that got them. And they got each other!

Gar would be the person to give her the name Maxie Zeus. Maxie came from Gar accidentally mishearing her first name at the time, which they thought was funny enough to keep using, and Zeus was a play on the fact she's Greek, has lightning powers, and her last name started with a Z. Maxie would eventually completely adopt this name, since she'd always hated the connection with her family that her old one had.

Ever since then, they're completely inseparable. They go to Arkham together, they escape Arkham together, they cause destruction across Gotham together. If you ever hear that they've broken out of Arkham, you'd best get on the bridge to head out of Gotham, because it's going to be covered in fire and lightning before too long.

[wiverly]

[jynjackets]

honestly imagine how corny it would’ve been if they kissed on the beach and died like that. this is why they are such a high quality ship and why they smooched in the elevator off-screen because they don’t do pda

[roguesscribbles]

I never thought a fnaf game would make me cry but here we are

[massiveladycat]

tell us about your pjo ocs!! tell us your headcanons, their appearances, if you feel like they might get along with other ocs that you or others have !! this is pretty much a judge-free, get your ideas out space i have my own pjo oc and i'll share him just to get it started!! Hector Campbell is one of the many sons of Athena. As a twin, Athena created him to be the battle half; he isn't good at reading emotions or reading other people, but give him a task and a battle zone map and he's got it all figured out. He's even apart of a rogue demigod group I'm willing to talk more about (literally, my mind is 30% this man and his friends). He has a lot of street smarts and is trained in cityscape mobility as an errand runner and sentinel for said rogue demigod group. Since the rogue demigods are all practically homeless, Hector is a little ratty and scrawny. He's malnourished, so his height has been progressing much later and much less than it would if he were healthy. He has dirty blond, tangled wavy hair, a leather cap, a camera, and usually a black jacket. And, if you have a PJO OC, to me, you've gotta have a weapon for them too . . . So I picked up a stop sign. Yes, this man is walking around with a massive stop sign strapped to his back. Yes, he gets weird looks. He absolutely gets asked if he stole the stop sign. He actually got it from a pile of scrapped metal. Hector’s a moody, snarky little guy. He’s a demigod; the son of Athena. He’s skeptical and cautious, with a biting sense of sarcasm and slightly dark humor. As expected of all children of Athena, he’s very intelligent and witty, but he also has not-so-good morals. He's a good guy, he's just strange. He does what he needs to survive, and he was raised to not be warm and cozy because he didn’t trust others, and they didn’t trust him so go ahead and share your own ocs if you want!!