Review: The Taming of a Rake, by Kasey Michaels

The Taming of a Rake

Author: Kasey Michaels

Historical Romance

Published: HQN Books

Official Blurb:

MEET THE BLACKTHORN BROTHERS—
THREE UNREPENTANT SCOUNDRELS INFAMOUS FOR BEING MAD, BAD AND PERILOUS TO LOVE

Charming, wealthy and wickedly handsome, Oliver “Beau” Blackthorn has it all…except revenge on the enemy he can’t forget. Now the opportunity for retribution has fallen into his hands. But his success hinges on Lady Chelsea Mills-Beckman—the one woman with the power to distract him from his quest.

Desperate to escape her family’s control, Lady Chelsea seizes the chance to run off with the notorious eldest Blackthorn brother, knowing she’s only a pawn in his game. But as Beau draws her deep into a world of intrigue, danger and explosive passion, does she dare hope he’ll choose love over vengeance?

What I thought:

Okay...I don’t like to dwell on the negative so I will get this out of the way first.  I don’t like this book cover.  It does nothing to represent the wonderful characters in the story.  Being a reader who is very cover oriented I just had to put that out there.  However, I’m also very title oriented too and I happen to love The Taming of the Shrew, so this title definitely caught my eye.  (I do like the title font on the cover though! Very pretty!)

Now as much as I loved the title, I did find it to be misleading.  Beau was not a rake by any stretch of the imagination, though I found him to be quite an enjoyable character.  Okay, yeah...I thought he was hot—all tall, tan, and muscular with his blond sun-streaked hair, and a nice guy to boot.  Not to mention he was completely loaded...as in richer than most of the ton.  And of course he can kiss like the devil, so what’s not to love? Beau was born into less-than-favorable circumstances, in his opinion, and has spent his life trying to “change his colors” so he can be accepted into society.  I personally would have ditched the rest of society and gone with him.  He was certainly the better choice.

The heroine, Chelsea, was bold, demanding, and opinionated and I liked her.  She didn’t like the hand life was dealing her so she set out to change it and make it her own.  I found her outspoken ways to be humorous and unexpected.   I loved that she didn’t beat around the bush.  If she had something to say, she said it.  If she had something to do, she did it.  And that was that.  No weeping, weak, woe-is-me type girl here! Yay for that!

I also enjoyed the character chemistry.  Because of the way they storyline developed you knew the characters were headed for marriage from the beginning of the book.  But it was nice to see a marriage of convenience start turning to love—especially when one party involved has sworn off love for good.  But that wonderful sneaky love always manages to creep its way in somehow! (Happy sigh...)

The story was fast paced and kept my interest easily, though it may have slowed slightly at the end.  Nothing bad by any means, it just seemed to drag a little for me there for some reason. Perhaps because the big build up that everything was leading to changed and went off in a different direction.  Once again...not bad, just different from what I expected. 

There were a couple of extra subplots as well that helped add to the story and set things up for future books that will feature Beau’s two brothers, Puck, and Jack.  I will definitely be watching for their stories because this one was a lot of fun!

My Rating:

Reviewed by:



Lacey Weatherford
Author - Reviewer