Wednesday

Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean

Another debut author (or at least an adult debut; Sarah MacLean has written a Young Adult novel).
http://blog.macleanspace.com/index.html

I've been seeing a pattern this year. I'm loving my debut authors and not loving my auto-buys so much. And once again the artist for the cover misses the mark. Oh sure, the heroine has a big chest; however, like most normal people she also has the hips to match. When I looked at the cover I was concerned that she might just fall over. And, what's wrong with her oddly positioned hand?

Anyway, this story had a number of elements about it that could have gone wrong, but Ms. MacLean didn't allow it to go that far. The heroine could have been one of those silly girls that was constantly getting in trouble, but she wasn't. You see, she's drawn up a list of things that she's never done... and she's chosen Mr. Rake, Gabriel St. John to help her do them. Yes, this plot has been done before, but don't let that stop you from reading this book. Even though there were times when Callie came awfully close to being silly, I also found myself identifying with her, and that doesn't happen often in romance books. This is a very character-driven book and there are some great secondary characters. There's also a sympathetic mistress. Gabriel has a twin brother and an illegitimate sister and Callie has an interesting bookish brother Benedick (can you say sequels?)

This is a fast paced book, couldn't but it down... and even when it started to go into silly waters, it didn't stay there. I am looking forward to more books from this author!

Time/Place: 1823 England
Rating:
Sensuality Rating: Hot

2 comments:

Victoria Janssen said...

Thanks for the rec!

SidneyKay said...

Enjoy!!