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Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake Love By Numbers Sarah MacLean 9780061852053 Books

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Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake Love By Numbers Sarah MacLean 9780061852053 Books

This book is spectacular. It is everything I’ve ever wanted in a romance novel.

I don’t want to spend too much time describing the book’s plot or the character backgrounds since there are many other reviews that focus on those aspects. Instead, I’d like to focus on what makes this book so incredibly special, and that is not necessarily the plot. But I do want to say that the plot is new and fresh and completely believable that a heroine living during this time might feel exactly the way Lady Calpurnia feels. Whether or not the actual tasks she sets out to complete would have been realistically accomplished is beside the point for me. The novel is so heavily based around Gabriel and Calpurnia’s interactions that the logistics of her activities in the book are hardly a concern.

And that is precisely what I love so much about this book. While reading you feel like you are catapulted into the very room as the two main characters. They are the only two people in the world. They have eyes for no one else. Thoughts of others are distant and secondary. And anyone who has ever fallen in love can easily understand how two characters falling for each other might find themselves with a very narrow world view that includes only themselves and barely any others for most of their blossoming relationship. That’s how it feels to read the story of Calpurnia and Gabriel. And that is how a romance novel should be…entirely about their romance.

These two characters truly grow and change throughout the book. How they grow and change is almost entirely based on how their relationship with one another impacts them. Their changes happen gradually. Slowly, from interaction to interaction, with only hints of understanding and realizations coming at them as time progresses, just as people grow and change in real life. They do not suddenly find themselves in love. They do not act the same the whole book until a breaking point and suddenly change. That happens in so many other romance novels that it’s tired, boring, and frankly, weak writing. The character development here is strong. You truly feel that you get to know these characters at the same time they are getting to know themselves. It’s wonderful.

And the way they fall in love is sweet and delicate, while at the same time passionate and breath taking. Another reviewer complained that Gabriel is constantly touching Calpurnia. Yes. He is. It is near constant. I loved that. Calpurnia burned for his touch and he gave it to her. But unlike so many romance novels, their intimacy built up over time. It wasn’t a kiss in one scene and into the bedroom in the next. Or worse, a kiss and then they don’t touch again (or aren’t even in the same room!) for the next 72 pages. I was enthralled with every single interaction these two had together. On the edge of my seat, feeling like Calpurnia must have felt, waiting…. dying for him to touch her. And when he did, more often than not, it was tender and slow and all about her pleasure. The sensuality in this book is a slow burn. It’s like a spark, not an explosion, but a little spark, is lit at the beginning, and it burns slowly and steadily throughout the book, never extinguishing. There are moments where it burns brighter and moments when it dulls, but in the end it’s strong and full and will never burn out. It’s the kind of heat that gives you chills. It’s beautiful.

I particularly adore the way Gabriel interacts with Callie. His character, unlike so many romance heroes, is not angry or cruel. Yes, he is prolific in the bedroom, but he is a good man. He cares about people. And while his behavior isn’t always beyond reproach (why bother reading an historical romance with a hero who is always the perfect gentleman?), his actions were nearly always in response to what he witnessed Callie wanting. Whether intimately or conversationally, he gauged her and responded in a way befitting of her personality. He thought about her and tried to please her in the most charming (and seductive) of ways.

You can feel the moment Gabriel falls in love with his Empress. It is somehow both subtle and clear as day to the reader, even if it is not clear as day to himself. The way he sees Callie throughout the book changes incrementally and masterfully. It is like he is looking at a black and white image that slowly comes to life in all of its brilliant color. That is how Gabriel’s love for Callie grows and it is a delight to read.

Callie’s progression is different, however. She has always been infatuated with Gabriel. He has always been brilliant and colorful to her. But as she gets to know him she learns to decipher her fantasies from reality and ultimately falls in love with the man he truly is, imperfections and all. It came more easily to her than for Gabriel. But her love is wrapped up in her story of self-awakening, which Gabriel ends up being inextricably tied to.

I loved this book so much that I re-read multiple parts of it over and over again during my first read. Then I put it down for a couple days and read the whole thing through again. And I will certainly read it again in the future. I highly, highly recommend this book. One thing though, you cannot be squeamish about sex scenes. There are a lot of them. But they are not vulgar. They are tasteful and romantic and heart pounding, and in my opinion, the best part of a love story like this.

I do have one complaint about this book, which concerns the ending. I really wanted one more love scene at the end, after Gabriel fully realized he had fallen in love with Callie. I wanted to read the full force of their love for one another after they both finally acknowledged it and were ready to give everything to each other. After waiting all that time for them to be together and in love, I was extremely sad to let them go without that reward. It is the only misstep in this book, in my opinion. Perhaps one day the author can add another chapter (I know that rarely happens, but one can dream).


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Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake Love By Numbers Sarah MacLean 9780061852053 Books Reviews

TITLE Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake
AUTHOR Sarah MacLean
SERIES Love by Numbers, Book 1
SETTING Late Georgian (post-Regency), London Season
THEMES/TROPES spinster, reformed rake, cross-dressing, self-discovery, throwing propriety to the wind

OVERVIEW
Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has spent ten years among the ton, passive and well-behaved and dreaming of the rakish Marquess of Ralston, who once offered some kind words to her during her miserable first season. But at 28, with her baby sister happily betrothed, Callie is finding that she can’t spend her whole life trying to be a perfect society miss, and she comes up with a list of all the things she’d like to try if propriety weren’t a question. When she decides to put that list into action, Ralston seems like the perfect person to help her get started.

Ralston, in the interest of helping his newly-discovered half-sister, has just decided to reign in his own scandalous activity when Callie enters his life. He’s perfectly happy to give her what she wants, as long as she agrees to teach and sponsor his sister in return … until he realizes that her plans for adventure go far beyond one impropriety. While Ralston may find Callie’s progressively more outrageous schemes to be entirely exasperating, he soon finds that it’s better to be breaking the rules with her than anywhere else, and his biggest challenge is convincing her to believe the same.

PROS
MacLean does a fabulous job mixing modern sensibilities with historical detail and understanding. There is a lot about this book that doesn’t feel true to the historical period, mostly because of the serious breaches of propriety, but there is never a sense that the disconnect comes from a lack of understanding of the setting. It feels much more like a conscious decision to explore the social confines of Callie’s situation through the lens of modern social concepts. Callie has something of a feminist awakening, or at least a culmination of feminist thoughts that have been brewing in her head, exploring the frustration of all the things she can’t do as a woman.

Callie and Ralston are both very well developed throughout the story, Callie experiencing a major self-discovery when she decides to take charge of her life, while Ralston goes through a subtle realization of his interest in Callie and his ability to love her. These gradual developments and the often-strained relationship between Callie and Ralston made for a compelling emotional story that made me want to keep reading to see when they would reach a breakthrough.

The secondary characters are really delightful all around. Not only are Ralston’s siblings, the leads of the other books in the series, both fascinating, but Callie’s sister and her fiancé are adorable, her fashion-challenged and wedding-crazed mother is comical, and her brother provides a wry, sensible backdrop for the family.

CONS
Some of Callie’s “adventures”—her seriously rule-breaking, potentially scandalous plans—were a little hard to swallow. As much as I like the combination of modern sensibilities and historical setting, some of the things Callie did were just too hard to believe of an earl’s daughter in 1823.

RATINGS
Writing 5/5 Smooth, quality narrative and dialogue.
Characters 5/5 Well rounded and subtly developed.
Plot 4/5 A romp of improper adventures.
Setting 5/5 Well detailed historical London.
Romance 5/5 Compelling tension.
Sexiness 4/5 Good, but not great.
Humor 4/5 More comical situations than quotable humor.
Average 4.57/5 Historical Romp with Modern Sensibilities

OTHER INFO
This is the first of the Love by Numbers books, the following two books telling the stories of Ralston’s two siblings, though this book easily stands on its own.
This book is spectacular. It is everything I’ve ever wanted in a romance novel.

I don’t want to spend too much time describing the book’s plot or the character backgrounds since there are many other reviews that focus on those aspects. Instead, I’d like to focus on what makes this book so incredibly special, and that is not necessarily the plot. But I do want to say that the plot is new and fresh and completely believable that a heroine living during this time might feel exactly the way Lady Calpurnia feels. Whether or not the actual tasks she sets out to complete would have been realistically accomplished is beside the point for me. The novel is so heavily based around Gabriel and Calpurnia’s interactions that the logistics of her activities in the book are hardly a concern.

And that is precisely what I love so much about this book. While reading you feel like you are catapulted into the very room as the two main characters. They are the only two people in the world. They have eyes for no one else. Thoughts of others are distant and secondary. And anyone who has ever fallen in love can easily understand how two characters falling for each other might find themselves with a very narrow world view that includes only themselves and barely any others for most of their blossoming relationship. That’s how it feels to read the story of Calpurnia and Gabriel. And that is how a romance novel should be…entirely about their romance.

These two characters truly grow and change throughout the book. How they grow and change is almost entirely based on how their relationship with one another impacts them. Their changes happen gradually. Slowly, from interaction to interaction, with only hints of understanding and realizations coming at them as time progresses, just as people grow and change in real life. They do not suddenly find themselves in love. They do not act the same the whole book until a breaking point and suddenly change. That happens in so many other romance novels that it’s tired, boring, and frankly, weak writing. The character development here is strong. You truly feel that you get to know these characters at the same time they are getting to know themselves. It’s wonderful.

And the way they fall in love is sweet and delicate, while at the same time passionate and breath taking. Another reviewer complained that Gabriel is constantly touching Calpurnia. Yes. He is. It is near constant. I loved that. Calpurnia burned for his touch and he gave it to her. But unlike so many romance novels, their intimacy built up over time. It wasn’t a kiss in one scene and into the bedroom in the next. Or worse, a kiss and then they don’t touch again (or aren’t even in the same room!) for the next 72 pages. I was enthralled with every single interaction these two had together. On the edge of my seat, feeling like Calpurnia must have felt, waiting…. dying for him to touch her. And when he did, more often than not, it was tender and slow and all about her pleasure. The sensuality in this book is a slow burn. It’s like a spark, not an explosion, but a little spark, is lit at the beginning, and it burns slowly and steadily throughout the book, never extinguishing. There are moments where it burns brighter and moments when it dulls, but in the end it’s strong and full and will never burn out. It’s the kind of heat that gives you chills. It’s beautiful.

I particularly adore the way Gabriel interacts with Callie. His character, unlike so many romance heroes, is not angry or cruel. Yes, he is prolific in the bedroom, but he is a good man. He cares about people. And while his behavior isn’t always beyond reproach (why bother reading an historical romance with a hero who is always the perfect gentleman?), his actions were nearly always in response to what he witnessed Callie wanting. Whether intimately or conversationally, he gauged her and responded in a way befitting of her personality. He thought about her and tried to please her in the most charming (and seductive) of ways.

You can feel the moment Gabriel falls in love with his Empress. It is somehow both subtle and clear as day to the reader, even if it is not clear as day to himself. The way he sees Callie throughout the book changes incrementally and masterfully. It is like he is looking at a black and white image that slowly comes to life in all of its brilliant color. That is how Gabriel’s love for Callie grows and it is a delight to read.

Callie’s progression is different, however. She has always been infatuated with Gabriel. He has always been brilliant and colorful to her. But as she gets to know him she learns to decipher her fantasies from reality and ultimately falls in love with the man he truly is, imperfections and all. It came more easily to her than for Gabriel. But her love is wrapped up in her story of self-awakening, which Gabriel ends up being inextricably tied to.

I loved this book so much that I re-read multiple parts of it over and over again during my first read. Then I put it down for a couple days and read the whole thing through again. And I will certainly read it again in the future. I highly, highly recommend this book. One thing though, you cannot be squeamish about sex scenes. There are a lot of them. But they are not vulgar. They are tasteful and romantic and heart pounding, and in my opinion, the best part of a love story like this.

I do have one complaint about this book, which concerns the ending. I really wanted one more love scene at the end, after Gabriel fully realized he had fallen in love with Callie. I wanted to read the full force of their love for one another after they both finally acknowledged it and were ready to give everything to each other. After waiting all that time for them to be together and in love, I was extremely sad to let them go without that reward. It is the only misstep in this book, in my opinion. Perhaps one day the author can add another chapter (I know that rarely happens, but one can dream).