The Rake: Lessons in Love [Mass Market Paperback]

Viscount Dare inherited a financial mess when his father died four years before, so for the sake of the aunts and brothers he loves he's decided to marry rich to repair the family fortunes. He's just begun to court a rich young woman when Georgiana steals his attention, placing herself firmly back into his life by moving in with him under the guise of playing companion to his elderly aunts. Dare never ruined Georgiana as he could have, keeping the stocking for himself and losing the wager. (Something Georgiana seems to lack the intelligence to realize.) He enjoyed seducing her, and even underneath their thinly veiled war of words (and sometimes fans) he still feels a small attraction and if she's willing, he'll pick things up where they left off six years ago.

With a bevy of secondary characters (useless except for the fact that they're obvious advertisements for future books), "The Rake" is mostly Georgiana's attempt to teach Dare a lesson. The first 100 pages were difficult for me to get through, only my determination not to have wasted $6 kept me going. After the first bit, the reading became easier, mainly because the comedy-type situations had thinned out and there was some real emotion coming through. At the end, though, one scene with stupid actions on the part of both the hero and heroine left me cold.

I don't like the fact that Dare seduced Georgiana and never offered to marry her, as a man's honor at that time could be measured by that very action; it's also made clear that Dare would have no interest in Georgiana if she didn't have money, and that fact is played off as something we simply ought to be grateful for. I'm thrown off later when Dare seems likeable in other ways after his behavior to both Georgiana and the other woman he's courting. It just doesn't seem consistent with his character that he could have been so totally careless in his actions. Toward the middle of the book, I don't really believe that he's capable of the behavior he's guilty of; I think bad characterization is to blame.

Georgiana is a moron. There really isn't much more to say. I think she was silly for being so easily seduced all of those years ago, and her ideas for revenge are totally irrational. At the moment I'm at a loss to name one likeable thing about her.

"The Rake" is more a comedy of manners type Regency than a true historical romance (except maybe for the love scenes). Between the lousy characterization and the slight change in the tone of the book, I find it hard to believe that the fans of either type of book would be truly happy with it as a whole. "The Rake" gets two stars from me only because I could stand to finish it--my one star ratings are reserved for books I can't get through.

This was my first book to read by this author, and apparently this wasn't a good choice for me to begin with. It started out being cute and funny with the antagonistic relationship between Dare and Georgiana, but the story deteriorated as I read on. It became juvenile in nature, and just too corny to be believable. Plus, I really dislike the big misunderstanding and revenge plot devices. Unfortunately, this book contained both. In fact, I quit reading it and just skimmed through the rest. The main characters were one-dimensional and lacked real emotional depth. I've read some of the other reviews that say this author has much better work out there, so I will probably try another by her. But I don't recommend reading this, especially if you've not read Ms. Enoch before.