Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake – Review

Category: Adult Historical Romance
Keywords: Historical, romance, wallflower, rake
Format: Mass market paperback, eBook
Source: Library

From Goodreads:

A lady does not smoke cheroot. She does not ride astride. She does not fence or attend duels. She does not fire a pistol, and she never gambles at a gentlemen’s club.

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has always followed the rules, rules that have left her unmarried—and more than a little unsatisfied. And so she’s vowed to break the rules and live the life of pleasure she’s been missing.

But to dance every dance, to steal a midnight kiss—to do those things, Callie will need a willing partner. Someone who knows everything about rule-breaking. Someone like Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston—charming and devastatingly handsome, his wicked reputation matched only by his sinful smile.

If she’s not careful, she’ll break the most important rule of all—the one that says that pleasure-seekers should never fall hopelessly, desperately in love.

Thuy’s Review:

I started this book last night and stayed up until 4am trying to finish it. In the end I had to give up about 60 pages from the end because I had to function the next day. However, the book was just so good, that I considered eschewing sleep one night just to find out how Callie and Ralston’s story ended. This is only my second Sarah Maclean book but she is fast becoming one of my favorite historical romance writers. Callie, twenty-eight, has resigned herself to a life of spinsterhood when she comes up with the idea to write a list of improper things that she’s always wanted to do. The list includes tasks such as “smoke cheroot and drink scotch,” “attend a duel,” and “kiss someone-passionately.”

Nine Rules To Break When Romancing a Rake has such a great, original premise. Armed with a list of activities that no proper young lady should even think about much less try to accomplish, Callie sets out to find adventure. With little prospect for marriage, Callie decides to have some fun, even if it means tarnishing her spotless reputation. Callie was a character that I could really relate to. Plainer than most (though prettier than I think she believes), Callie is sweet and endearing and also has a lot of spirit in her. She’s never felt herself really worthy of admiration or love and it’s painful at times to watch her cut herself down. I did get frustrated a few times when Callie jumped to conclusions, immediately thinking the worst of Ralston. But her self confidence and self esteem grow and she really comes into her own by the end of the book.

Lord Ralston is the kind of rake I love – arrogant, smart, charming and irresistible. On the surface Ralston is a shameless rogue but, as the story goes on, he proves to loyal and kind as well. Ralston and Callie have crazy chemistry and the love scenes definitely raised the temperature in the room.

The book also has a great cast of secondary characters and I found myself wanting to know more about Ralston’s sister Juliana and his twin brother, Nick. Yes, more of both, please. am really looking forward to reading both of their stories soon.

Do yourself a favor and pick this book up ASAP! Be a little smarter than me and don’t start it late at night though because this is a book you’ll want to finish in one sitting.

Visit the author online at macleanspace.com and follow her on Twitter @sarahmaclean