Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake
by Sarah MacLean
Release Date: March 30, 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins/Avon
Age Group: Adult
Pages: 432
Source: Publisher
Interest: Author
Challenge: None
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 . . .
You wouldn't know it from my blog, but I am a HUGE romance fan. I love historical and paranormal romance. If you look at my Goodreads shelves you'll find romance novels scattered among all the ya titles.
My mom and I were going to do a mom and daughter review for this, because she reads more romance novels then anyone I know and I let her read my copy of Nine Rules and she devoured it, and then of course I took it back... but anyway like I said we were going to do a mother/daughter review, but it didn't quite work out... so you just get a regular old review with me. Maybe I can talk my mom into doing one later. Anyhow... my thoughts on the book:
I was first introduced to Sarah and her writing with her young adult novel The Season, which also takes place in Regency England. I knew when I heard she has a historical romance novel coming out, that I just had to get my hands on it. And I wasn't disappointed.
There aren't many times in a romance novel that I actually laugh out load, but I did, multiple times when reading this novel. The whole idea of Callie making this list of the most sordid acts to preform was absolutely hilarious! And it often lead to the most interesting encounters with the leading man, Ralston.
Callie's character was endearing and I recognized so much of myself in her. And of course Ralston was as delicious as a leading man should be, but I enjoyed all the characters in the novel. I especially loved Ralston's younger sister Juliana! I am so hoping that Sarah tells her story!
The story was fantastic, the writing was outstanding, and the romance was HOT! I mean, somebody just lit my fire hot...! Sarah just reaffirmed my love for the romance genre. I can't wait to read more about these characters! I love romance because they are the ultimate love stories and there is always a happy ending. What is not to love?