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    NEVER ROMANCE A RAKE
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    NEVER ROMANCE A RAKE
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    NEVER ROMANCE A RAKE
    Ebook438 pages6 hours

    NEVER ROMANCE A RAKE

    By Liz Carlyle

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

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    About this ebook

    Baron Rothewell lives a dark, shuttered existence by day, and a life of reckless abandon by night. Scarred by a childhood filled with torment and deprivation, Rothewell cares very little for anyone or anything. His life on the edge of ruin suits him - until he meets a man who just might be his nemesis. The Comte de Valigny likes to play dangerously, but Rothewell's recklessness is undeterred. Until one night when de Valigny wagers something just a little more valuable than gold: his bastard daughter. Mademoiselle Marchand is a desperate woman in a strange land, and her pleading eyes seem to swallow Lord Rothewell body and soul - assuming he still has one. Now the baron must play his hand with the utmost care, for at last something meaningful is at stake...
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Australia
    Release dateNov 29, 2011
    ISBN9780731810321
    Unavailable
    NEVER ROMANCE A RAKE
    Author

    Liz Carlyle

    During her frequent travels through England, Liz Carlyle always packs her pearls, her dancing slippers, and her whalebone corset, confident in the belief that eventually she will receive an invitation to a ball or a rout. Alas, none has been forthcoming. While waiting, however, she has managed to learn where all the damp, dark alleys and low public houses can be found. Liz hopes she has brought just a little of the nineteenth century alive for the reader in her popular novels, which include the trilogy of One Little Sin, Two Little Lies, and Three Little Secrets, as well as The Devil You Know, A Deal With the Devil, and The Devil to Pay. Please visit her at LizCarlyle.com, especially if you're giving a ball.

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    Reviews for NEVER ROMANCE A RAKE

    4/5

    16 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Since last month I'm not in mood to read anything, I struggle with every book I started including those good ones. So I was quite surprised by how much I actually liked this book and how fast I read it.

      Kieran lives a senseless life not able to forget about the past and to forgive himself the mistakes he made. One night he wins unexpected prize -a fiancée, daughter of one of the gamblers, Camille. When the girl explains her motives Kieran agrees to marry her. Unfortunately, his health problems are getting worse and the easy business agreement of his marriage turns out to be more than he expected.

      I really liked the characters, Kieran and Camille. They are three-dimensional, tortured people who care about each other from the beginning. Their story is easy to follow and entertaining.

      I was about to give this book 3 stars but I liked it a lot so I decided to give 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      Again a tortured hero. Good plot.
      Maybe the language is too modern at times, but all in all this is a good series.
    • 2/5
      NEVER ROMANCE A RAKE begins when the Comte de Valigny gambles away his daughter's hand in marriage. Camille is pretty and has a good dowry, but I had a hard time believing a pair of dissolute aristocrats would compete to leg-shackle themselves to a woman of poor reputation, whom they have never previously met, when neither is in need of money. Sleep with? Sure. Marry? No. Actually, Camille is the one who needs to get married, and she's not too particular about the groom.

      Kieran has a terminal illness and since he expects to die shortly he's able to see marriage as an act of charity; he's saving Camille from marriage to a disgusting pervert. Camille tells Kieran that she's not very interested in wastrels like himself, but she has a use for his name and his seed - they're how she'll gain access to her inheritence.

      Both are determined not to develop any emotional attachment for one another.

      From there on out it's all moody histrionics. Kieran isn't much of a scoundrel - he's more like a martyr who's chosen death by non-traditional means. He spends his time wallowing in self-loathing and making sure that Camille is well taken care of. He realizes he's becoming attached to her, but he doesn't want Camille to be upset when he dies so he struggles to maintain distance. He spends a lot of time moping.

      As for Camille...first she loathes Kieran because she thinks he's just a loser addicted to vice. Then they get married, and she has a crisis of conscience - how could she like sex with such a bad man? So far so good. But before long, she starts to actually like Kieran. And then the reader is treated to endless mental monologues about whether or not it's ok to like Kieran, and how she doesn't want to get hurt.

      The sex is pretty tame. Every once and a while there's a hint of the kind of dark dominance that you expect to find in a novel about a woman gambled away during a card game, where Kieran is demanding and a bit crude, but these rare moments felt out of place to me. The truth is that Kieran is not an alpha male at all - he's pure beta. In a confrontation his most violent move is generally retreat, and from the start, it's really just a question of how long it will take Camille to take charge of him. Never the reverse.

      Liz Carlyle's Devil trilogy has exactly the kind of romance I was hoping to find here - exuberantly sensual, with just enough edge to be exciting and a little dark. NEVER ROMANCE A RAKE is just gormless. Liz Carlyle used to be on my auto-buy list - but this is the third or fourth book of hers to disappoint me, and I don't think I'll be picking up another in the future.
    • 5/5
      Kiernan is a dark, tormented, self-destructive man and for good reason given his childhood abuse. He spends most of his time drinking to excess, smoking, and frequenting bawdy houses and gambling dens. His health is deteriorating badly and he fears his death is imminent and does nothing to alter his behavior. One thing I dislike about books about rakes is that they turn out to be "fake rakes". Well, Kiernan is a real rake deserving of the title.Kiernan meets Camille Marchand one evening in a corrupt gambling hell when her depraved father, Comte de Valigny, wagers the right to marry her (and her large dowry) in a card game. Kiernan is shocked and thinks to put a stop to it but then realizes that Camille is not fighting it. But he cannot allow the lecherous slime at the table to have her so he makes sure he wins. Afterward he takes her aside tells her she doesn't have to marry him. But Camille insists upon the marriage AND a child in exchange for her dowry. She can only collect her grandfather's inheritance after she marries and produces a child. Camille is the illegitimate daughter of the Comte's and had a difficult and insecure childhood. Her father is now trying to use her to get at her huge inheritance.Both Kiernan and Camille are deep multifaceted characters and their relationship development was a delight from their first meeting to eventually falling in love. The love scenes are steamy and Kiernan's redemption from rake to loving husband was wonderful. All the characters were well done especially Kemble. I believe he has appeared in several previous books by Carlyle.Given these two superb characters and their relationship and Carlyle's usual excellent prose, I was completely enthralled. Kiernan's health issues and Camille's family issues (which I won't spoil) are resolved very satisfyingly. NRAR is another keeper from Carlyle. GRADE: A-
    • 4/5
      Lord Rothewell is ill and expects to die soon. Camille needs a husband and, preferably a baby. Why shouldn't this work? Two damaged people have to find a way to happiness.I don't normally like the kind of book that starts with a father betting his daughter in a card game, but it works here.
    • 4/5
      I was looking forward to Never Romance a Rake because Kieran Neville intrigued me as the brother of the heroine in Never Lie to a Lady. Their relationship was really well done. You could see the strong bond between them, forged through the as yet undisclosed horrors they suffered together in the past – in this book we finally find out how terrible their childhood was on their uncle’s sugar plantation in Barbados. So while the love is there between Kieran, Xanthia, and Gareth (the latter a kind of adopted sibling in the Neville family) that shared pain also keeps them apart because of the way Kieran reacts to his tortured past. He’s very over the top in his grand passions of guilt and agony. But I still feel sympathy for him because his back story is compelling. It’s a twisted family story of betrayal and forbidden passion and all that juicy stuff. Anyway, I think Kieran was, for the most part, ok in this book. Not only does he have his tortured past, but he is suffering from some bodily ailment as well. We don’t find out until later what exactly is wrong, but it’s clear his hard life of drinking and debauchery has caught up with him at last. In his depression though, he’s hardly inclined to do anything to prevent his decline or save himself. He’s given up. Then, at a fateful card game, while he’s busy trying to drown his sorrows in drink and vice, the bad guy of the book wagers his daughter’s hand in marriage. Enter Camille. Kieran is instantly attracted, and to save her, or so he says to make himself feel better, from the lecherous pervert who is also playing, Kieran wins the game. It’s a fairly unoriginal, contrived way to bring our hero and heroine together. And it just gets worse from there. What follows is an overly elaborate plot of hidden inheritances, secret parentages, and the evil pimp of a father. The heroine is “feisty” and annoying – particularly her faux Frenchness. (She says “oui” a lot.) Nor is she particularly consistent as a character. Her reasons for marrying involve the aforementioned tortuous plot of secret wills. She also wants to thwart her father, who is mean and evil. But the grand scheme she cooks up is very stupid and she goes about it very stupidly. What would she have done if such a handsome fellow hadn’t come along to win her? Then she makes a show of saying she just wants Kieran for his “seed” because all she wants in life is a baby. But then she starts whining when she gets exactly the kind of loveless marriage she asked for from the start. Nor is her sad past half as traumatic as Kieran’s, but she makes just as big a fuss about it. And Kieran gets annoying too, moping about, wondering if he can ever love or let anyone love him, despairing that he’ll never be truly intimate, truly one with anyone. None of these angst-ridden inner ramblings gelled very well for me. None of it stirred my interest or sympathy. Kieran on his own is interesting and sympathetic. But when it comes to his relationship with Camille, he and she both got on my nerves or bored me. They didn’t have much chemistry either. Their romance consisted of them each drifting about in their own little worlds, moping and sighing and declaiming the sadness of their blighted lives. The opening of Never Romance a Rake offers some lyrical, beautifully written prose, but the momentum swiftly waned after the first few pages.
    • 4/5
      I don't know why I don't read more historical romances than I do. I enjoy a good Regency novel—with their embarrassing covers featuring half-clothed women on sumptuous beds—yet I hardly ever buy them. I suppose that will remain one of life's many mysteries. Never Romance a Rake was my introduction to Liz Carlyle's writing (thanks to thisbookforfree.com), and this book was no exception to my love of the social mores and breath of scandal of Regency romances.The story begins with the rather brutal beating of a young boy in Barbados who is protecting his younger brother. It seems rather obvious that one of these boys will end up our hero, but which one?Enter Baron Kieran Rothewell. He has a sexy name, so the book's already off to a good start. He smokes cheroots, which is a gross habit, but I think I have yet to read a book from this era where the hero didn't smoke so he is at least in good company. He is a large man (“almost disconcertingly large” if you know what I mean...I guess nobody wants to read about a hero with a small “manhood”) with dark hair and grey—or silvery—eyes.We follow Rothewell on a rather mysterious quest to find a doctor. He has just returned to London from 30 years in the West Indies raised by a monster of an uncle, and we soon learn there is something very wrong with him. To compound the problem, if Rothewell begets no heir some “odious Neville cousins in Yorkshire” will inherit everything. So far the plot isn't exceedingly original but the writing has me turning pages.Enter Camille Marchand: very beautiful, very French, very cold...or is she? Rothewell meets her under vastly inappropriate conditions and soon has to save her from the machinations of her vile father, the Comte de Valigny, and the perverse Lord Enders. Do I hear wedding bells? Indeed I do!The book then follows what I'm sad to say is a fairly cookie-cutter plot of mishaps and misunderstandings. Theirs is a marriage of convenience, you see. Yet Rothewell does something romantic, and Camille pushes him away to protect herself. Then Rothewell decides he must keep his distance to protect his own heart and the cycle continues. It's a story I've read before, but Ms. Carlyle did write it in a fresh enough way to keep me reading toward a happy ending. Will Kieran and Camille be able to let go of their nightmarish pasts and build a future together? Does Kieran even have a future? Can they weather the potential storm of society gossip?Overall, I give Never Romance a Rake a 4/5. The scoundrel-cum-hero storyline is one I enjoy, and there was enough character development to let me overlook the somewhat stale plot.
    • 4/5
      What a grand conclusion to Liz Carlyle's 'Never' trilogy. "Never Romance a Rake" is a story of redemption. Two people, both lost souls, learn to find and feel worthy of happiness with their love. Camille is a child of scandal. Her father is a titled French wastrel who has no use for her...until he finds a way to cash in on a forgotten inheritance--by wagering half that inheritance in a card game! Camille knows men. After growing up with her scandalous mother, she knows men are fickle and cannot be relied upon. But she needs a titled English husband and a child to receive her inheritance. And by God, she'll suffer what she must to get it and have the first security she's ever known.Kieran is a dissolute Baron. His horrific childhood has left permanent physical and mental scars. But even he can't believe what he is seeing when Comte Valigny bets his daughter's hand in marriage. Granted, she's a vision. And the only other 'gentleman' in the room is a truly depraved lord...but he'd no intention of marrying. Especially not if what he belived about his health is true.Ah Kieran. What a scoundrel. He's done some very bad things in his life and appears to be trying to kill himself in an effort to atone. Good thing his new wife turns out to be not so biddable as she's not about to let him give up!I read the first two in this series (which, incidentally, touches lightly on the Abolition Movement in England) and enjoyed them quite a bit. Liz Carlyle's heroines are never weak women waiting for a man to save them. Her heroes are also a bit tarnished, but redeemable. She has a deft hand with love scenes and her couples always share a grand passion. Her novels definitely aren't 'your mother's Victorian romances'. While there's not much danger, there's still a bit of action, but most of the story is centered on the effects of the past. If you read the first two, you'll surely want to pick this one up. If you didn't, there shouldn't be any problems as everything is explained well enough that it works easily as a stand-alone story. But I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up buying the first two once you finish "Never Romance a Rake"!