Rakes Rainbow [Paperback]

Why then, the four star review? Because, Lane's writing is really just that good and her ability to tell a story is beyond so many other writers of Regency romances. She is able to go beyond the stereotypes that most other such writers use and she does something I find admirable -- she points out the good AND bad in the minor characters. There is something to both like and dislike about many of them. I ended up adoring many of the minor characters and the heroine. While this is something of a over-used plot in Regencies, Lane does her best to make it refreshing and interesting. Truly, she's one of the three romance writers that I ever pick up without questioning the fact that I will get a decent read.

I would highly suggest this book and Lane's other books, but, at least for this one, I would not recommend that you expect to much of the main male character.

The story of The Hon Thomas Mannering and Miss Caroline Cummings is not an easy read. If you like your regencies lite 'n' fluffy, then this book is not for you. It is dark, distressing and depressing but, ultimately, full of hope and triumph against what seem to be pretty overwhelming odds.

Thomas and Caroline marry in order to escape - for her poverty and governessing and for him in order to gain an inheritance. Thomas had become ensnared by Alicia - a heartless, fickle nymphomaniac who strings him along never intending to marry an earl's mere second son. He slips into a deep depression, drinking and gambling and nearly slipping over the edge into madness.

Caroline is the stronger of the two for, with astute insight into human nature, she is able to save him by letting matters run their course, never giving up hope that the man she sees beneath the hopeless despair is worth nurturing and loving. Some might say she is a bit of a sacrificial lamb but, within the social context of the times, she did what she had to in times when divorce was virtually impossible. The descriptions of her meeting Thomas's family for the first time and finding her way through the Season were excellent for she does it without the support of her husband who, by this time, is so depressed that he ignores her completely.

I liked the way the author developed Thomas's family; each member, particularly his father, the Earl of Marchgate and his foppish but sweet elder brother, had a significant role to play in the development of the story.

There is a great deal of pain, angst and high emotion in this story. Tempers flare, characters sometimes act against their own best intentions and the hero is flawed but honourable. The heroine is strong but tender and loving. Sometimes the reader will want to point a pistol at Thomas and at others will want to love him - for this story is a real emotional roller coaster.

I will read another of Allison Lane's books to see if my first experience was atypical. It's just too bad she did not meet in The Beleaguered Earl the exceptionally high standards that she set with The Rake's Rainbow. It was very well done; polished prose and obvious careful research gives it a very authentic air. Her depiction of the Season, the Ton and marriage and family life in the Regency era were very good and most realistic.