Even without the “USA TODAY Bestselling Author,” the fact that Margaret Moore is spelled out in noticeably larger letters than the title tells me that she’s a big name, established writer in the romance genre. Now the way to get well known, besides the obvious need for talent, is to write a lot of books. This one shows just how inventive an author can get in the historical subgenre of romance, most specifically the London section.

Highland Rogue, London Miss takes the established trope of a gentleman rogue cast into the company of a bluestocking and turns it on its head. Rather than your traditional closet bluestocking, Esme is the sister of a solicitor (a lawyer), who is his behind the scenes legal assistant and would be a solicitor in her own right if only women were allowed to be in such roles. The gentleman rogue is nobility, but a nobility cast down not by financial troubles but by his own actions…or at least that’s what Esme believes.

To add to the oddity of a tradesman’s sister as the leading lady (a more common trope for contemporary romance where the class lines are not drawn quite so rigidly), one of the themes of the book is her brother’s tragic love story where his lady love was, in fact, a true lady, and so she refused his hand because he didn’t have enough standing, or so she told him.

Besides playing with the traditions, this novel is one of surprises, of assumptions and deliberate deception. The events unfold with hints that all is not as expected. The characters, Esme and Quinn, must uncover a truth more complicated than either expected while also discovering that the unexpected, and unacceptable, interest each has in the other is mutual.

It’s a well written tangle that could have played like a farce, with certain points of humor, but which brings you into the story until you’re rooting for the characters and for this to all work out, even when it seems impossible. Now this is a romance, so of course it works out, but the way things turn around is both surprising and endearing.