Game of Rogues by Julie Anne Long
The Palace of Rogues #9
Historical Romance
June 2, 2026 by Avon

Review by Melanie

Julie Anne Long’s The Palace of Rogues series has delivered one banger after another and the latest entry is no different. One of the reasons I love this series more than her Pennyroyal Green series is because even though the other series features two actual families, this series gives us a true sense of home and found family within the walls of the Grand Palace on the Thames. While it’s a boardinghouse (the most exclusive one in London, as Dot the maid would have you believe), there’s a real sense of cozy warmth and belonging and though some of the guests change from book to book, there are some charming regulars who have become key side characters in this series. 

The MCs in this book are Gabriel Marchand, the owner of London’s most exclusive gaming hell, and Guinevere (Ginny to her family) Woodville, the sister of an earl. 

Ginny is in a bit of a pickle. The eldest of her four siblings, she was tasked with raising her siblings when her parents died following a carriage accident when she was not even sixteen. Cut to eight years later and her brother has inherited an earldom and GInny thinks her family’s financial worries are a thing of the past…until her brother, usually sensible and smart, loses the entire fortune in Gabriel Marchand’s gaming hell. Problem is, Ginny’s two younger sisters are about to be married and that money was supposed to serve as their respective dowries. Whoops! 

So, what’s the enterprising, bold, take charge Ginny to do but take herself off to London and manueuver her way into a face to face meeting with the devil himself, Gabriel Marchand. Surely, she can charm her way into getting him to forgive her brother’s debts. 

What follows is a battle of wits when both Gabriel and Ginny find themselves as guests of the Grand Palace on the Thames. She’s desperate to help her family out of the dire straits they find themselves in and he’s desperate to not give his heart away. 

The romance between these two is so beautifully rendered, a commentary on the idea of how one sees themselves versus how others see them. Ginny has always seen herself as the caretaker of her family, the one who takes charge and fixes what needs fixing. Gabriel is the first person to truly see her and beyond that, to give her what she needs, to be taken care of, for someone else to handle things. While he’s got a painful past of his own, with Ginny, he finds himself falling, almost despite his best efforts, for a woman he’s not sure he really deserves. 

There’s no third act breakup in this book, more of a third act time out. These two dance around each other, their attraction almost a living, breathing thing between them, before they give into their mutual desire. Julie Anne Long’s prose is a masterclass in writing, there’s so much mutual yearning here and two incredibly clever, witty people learning just how far they would go for the one they love.

Grade: A

Content Notes: parental death, loss of child