The Rake's Revenge (Signet Regency Romance)

Rating:
Summary: subplots get in the way
Review: Actually I'd give this book two and a half stars if I could, as while the romance between the principal characters is engaging, the subplots involving the minor characters left me with the feeling that that I had somehow missed several key pages somewhere along the way. This book needed some careful editing, and I really wished that Emily Hendrickson's editor had done his/her work a little more carefully!

Regina Hawthorne is a rather beautiful young woman, with a respectable dowry and the right kind of family connections. With all this going for her, she should be one of the Season's success stories. Instead of which she is currently the object of a lot of unkind gossip. For a couple of weeks, Lord Torrington has been paying some serious attention to Regina, and everyone in 'society,' Regina included, expected Lord Torrington to propose fairly soon. Instead, Torrington suddenly drops Regina, and rushes off to propose to his first love, Katherine Talbot. Where did Regina go wrong -- that is the question on everyone's mind. All this speculation leads to Regina being labeled "Rejected Regina" and to a well known rake, Lord Wrexham, propositioning Regina. Rather than retreating to the country in defeat though, Regina decides to stay in London and face her detractors. Her stance earns her the admiration of another rake, Lord St. Aubyn. His sister had faced a similar jilting, but she had ran away from London, and now leads a life of seclusion in the country. The beginnings of a scheme comes to St. Aubyn's mind: he will help Regina face her detractors, and hopefully restore her to her proper position in society, if she will in turn help him with his sister.

Will St. Aubyn's scheme work? Lord Wrexham for example does not take too kindly to St. Aubyn's interfering with his plans for Regina. And as for Regina, she knows not what to make St. Aubyn or her responses to him: why is she quite frequently ripping at him when he has been so kind? She only knows that St. Aubyn's smile causes a havoc of emotions in her and that she could quite easily succumb to it, and that she should guard herself against any further heartache like falling in love with a man who sees her only as a friend.

"The Rake's Revenge" is primarily a good read. The chemistry between Regina and St. Aubyn is palpable and believable. However there are also several subplots/romances involving other characters, and this is where this novel becomes a little unsatisfactory. One romance subplot involves Regina's younger sister, Pamela, and St. Aubyn's younger brother, Thomas. We are told that they've fallen for each other, and in the following chapter they have a falling out, which leaves Pamela ripe to fall for Wrexham. It looked as if the Pamela-Thomas relationship was just a conduit to give Pamela a bruised heart, and so make her vulnerable to Wrexham's machinations. However, I think that the plot would have been stronger without Thomas. Pamela is just young and naive enough to fall for Wrexham without giving her bruised heart as a reason. And then there is the constant harping on why Torrington dropped Regina. Halfway through the book, it looked as Emily Hendrickson had resolved the matter, and in a way I found realistic and refreshing. So I was really surprised when this question resurrected itself again towards the end of the book, and for no good reason!

I enjoyed reading about Regina and St. Aubyn, but found all the other subplots very distracting, they just seemed to get in the way. And this is a shame because "The Rake's Revenge" has the potential to be a really good read if only the subplots had lived up to the promise of the main story line.

Rating:
Summary: A lively romp
Review: Jules, Lord St. Aubyn, knew of the scandal surrounding Regina Hawthorne. Lord Torrington had led Regina and all the Ton believe he would offer for her. Instead, he jilted her and claimed another. Through no fault of her own, Regina's class status had been lowered. One "gentleman", Lord Wrexham, even made her an offer that any lady would take offense to. Jules admired Regina because she did not run off to hide in the country, as his own sister, Lady Amelia, had done two years before when confronted with the same scandal.

Jules approached Regina and offered to help her wade through the rough time. Lord Wrexham was not finished with Regina though. He vowed to claim her even if he had to threaten to seduce her younger sister, Pamela, to do so!

***** A lively romp through the madness of yesteryear's London Society! Author, Emily Hendrickson, pens some of the finest of today's Regency Romances! Recommended reading!