I had high hopes for this Regency-based romance, and story of a rake’s transformation from the jerk he was to a respectful person by the end of the book.
Instead, I was pretty disappointed. Jasper, Lord Heddington, is known amongst his fellow peers of the ton that he romances women then dumps them. Jasper soothes himself about the negative repercussions to the women by sending them off with various expensive baubles and the like. His latest conquest is a young, pretty thing with about zero brain. After bedding and dumping her, even his closest sister thinks he went a little too far, and sends him out of town, whereupon he’s shot by a beautiful redhead for no reason he can imagine and then, after a long difficult month of recovery, Jasper has a change of heart and decides to do better in his future relationships.

Jasper’s transformation was not credibly handled by the author. Before his near death experience, he wondered how an acquaintance of his, a duchess or something, who is a spoilt, self-centred, manipulative person, could fare so well in Society. Considering he’s a spoilt, self-centred, manipulative person, I found his musings hilariously ironic, and thought it unlikely that one month was all it took for him to suddenly start caring about the reputations of the women he is yet to be involved with.
I also thought the author only awkwardly engaged with the power differentials between Jasper and all the women he used and the various lower class people he dealt with in the story; as well, Grizelda’s turn from hatred to love was too fast and implausible.
And the plot was meandering, and already overloaded, then the author threw in a kidnapping.
So, overall, awkward and too long.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Matador for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The Rake is the first book I've picked up by Gillian Hawser and while I have another book of hers in my library, I'm holding on picking it up. I didn't love this story. For me, I have to connect with the characters and I didn't really love any of them in this book.

Jaspar, while wholly fitting the title, isn't great. He apparently has been working his way through the ladies of the Ton but most recently, seduces an innocent, Laura Ludgrove. When things go sideways and he decides to head out of town, he comes across a mysterious woman who eventually shoots him. As he is recovering, he has an epiphany that he decides he wants to change and find a relationship like the one his sister has with her husband. He also keeps flashing back to the woman who shot him. Eventually they cross paths again and he finds out she is Grizelda Ludgrove, Laura's sister.

As Jaspar and Grizelda continue to cross paths their relationship changes. I found it a bit odd how her feelings changed and honestly didn't love that Jaspar had a relationship with both. It seemed weird.

As I said, I didn't love this one but the writing was great and I will pick up the other book eventually.

The Rake by Gillian Hawser had both pluses and minuses for me. On the plus side, I enjoyed the story line with its tale of redemption and its enemies-to-lovers theme. Jaspar Heddington was not at first a likeable character, but we did see him change and grow throughout the story, and I enjoyed following that transformation. On the negative side, the pacing of the story was a little off. The opening and ending were entertaining, but things floundered for a while in the middle, with a wide range of side characters drawing the action away from the main plot. Also, although this book was published back in July (and was therefore not an ARC still awaiting final proofreading), there were a fair number of typographical and grammatical errors, which did jerk me out of the story at times as I paused to work out what the sentence was trying to convey. Despite these minuses, though, The Rake was still an entertaining story overall and if you are a fan of Regency romance with rakish heroes, I am sure you will find enjoyment in this piece. It gets 3.5 stars from me.

I was intrigued by this book from the start, the setting and blurb captured my attention, and I loved the cover. Couple things that I was unaware of. One, it’s written in the 3rd person which I am not a fan of. It detaches the characters for me and makes it harder to get into the story because I feel like I am outside the story and not in it if that makes sense. Second, it has fade to black I know that’s not a big deal for some, but I am not a fan of them, I prefer the details it again helps me to connect with the characters and what’s happening between them.

Okay now to the story I was overwhelmed at times with all the secondary characters throughout, it convoluted the story and made it kind of hard to follow. Jasper is a Rake, and he is the definition of one, taking what he wants with no recourse and without remorse. I didn’t like him, but that’s to be expected I mean the book is called The Rake for a reason. What I was not a fan of was he didn’t have any redeeming qualities until about midway. I am glad that he finally had some but at that point he just irritated me.
All in all, this was a good story, not great but good. I like the redemption ARC and that he did decide to become better. I am sad that it was due to his almost dying and not because he realized he’s a terrible person, but I digress. This book had great potential but fell just a little flat for me. Absolutely worth a try though.

Voluntarily Reviewed an Advanced Complimentary Copy

I did enjoy this book, although the pace did slow during the middle part but there was plenty of action later on and it became a real page turner. There were a good number of characters, some I think could have been left out as they didn’t add anything to the story. I like Grizelda ( apart from the name), she was feisty but also caring for those she loved. Jasper, Lord Heddington, had a change of character after a near death experience and began to change his ways. The way people spoke and behaved seemed right for the era. There is a romance but neither are sure of the other’s feelings and it doesn’t go smoothly. This was an entertaining read and I will read more by this author. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I received this ebook from NetGalley and this is my freely given review.

I really started out hating several aspects of this story.

Jasper Heddington, the so-called hero, is a rake, in this case meaning a true predator, seeking to seduce even innocent young women. Literally seeking to seduce them, then abandoning them in the morning with a bag of coin like a whore, at an inn, and leaves with no remorse. This is the first section of the book. Essentially he comes across as a man slut, having also bedded both the heroine and her sister's godmothers too. Really, from the way he is written, he should be pox ridden with a passel of bastards, have his nose falling off from syphilis, or should have been shot at by a few husbands or fathers.

But as the story goes on we find out that he wants love and a relationship like what his sister has? Ridiculous to expect that considering his disregard of women as anything beyond prey for seduction, or brief dalliance. Laughable to think he would yearn for something with greater depth when he is incapable of giving that depth, as well as hypocritical. Even his grandmother wants a marriage of convenience for him, with a woman she likes, and whom she thinks would be fine with him continuing to have affairs with various other women.

Ironic he does not like the Duchess of Stapleford, the mother of the heroine, Petty form The Arranged Marriage, damning her as being self centered and manipulative to get her way. Like he is not? He does have some redeeming features in that he loves his family and friends, but really other things like building the hospital came after his near death experience, which would not have happened if he wasn't such a cock wielding asshole to begin with.

So obviously, I dislike Jasper. I like him a bit more in the end, because his near death blah blah blah seems to make him realize that his behaviour is pretty horrible and he has to redeem himself. But I find I really did not like or understand some of the female characters also. The young woman he seduces seems rather silly and superficial. The heroine of the story was OK, but then ultimately I could not believe that she went from wanting to kill him for what he did to her sister to wanting to marry him. I could not relate to that about face. Some aspects of their conflict and developing relationship, and his actions to redeem his behaviours were appealing, such as his helping Tarn and his family, but I felt it was also quite a big personality change and too much of a change from the callous bastard who seemed more interested in dalliances than social reform.

I would say this is 2, at the most a 2.5, out of 5 for me. The Arranged Marriage was a better story, and I did like the crossover of some of those characters here, though they did not really add anything of real substance to the plot of this story.

A remarkable tale of redemption and transformation, The Rake is a love story set against the backdrop of a changing world.

It is the turn of the 19th Century and Lord Jaspar Heddington is a rich handsome rake, who womanises with impunity, indulged by the world he inhabits who turn a blind eye to his peccadilloes. However, when Jaspar seduces the beautiful, innocent Laura Ludgrove, the enusing scandal is different.
To escape the fallout, his beloved sister, Nillie, orders him out of London and back to Bardfield, his estate in the country. On the journey, he encounters a mysterious and beautiful girl who captivates him - and then unexpectedly shoots him. Wounded and bleeding, his life is ultimately saved by young Dr Horace Sugden, a trailblazer of the new scientific world.
Overwhelmed, Jaspar struggles to understand why he was shot. Still haunted by the strange encounter, Jaspar decides to search for the girl who invades his dreams - but will he emerge with more than he bargained for?
This book was filled with mistakes. The letter l was continually used in the place of the letter I. I hope that this mistake was fixed in the published copy.
This is a convoluted tale of mistakes and love.
I have not previously heard of this author yet I will give her another chance.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review The Rake. I did not finish this book. I very much wanted to like it since the cover is very attractive, but I only made it about a quarter of the way through the book before I gave up.

None of the characters were likeable to me. The rake, Jaspar, had no redeeming qualities that I could discover and his relationship with his sister was a little uncomfortable for me. Laura was much too naive to be likeable or relatable. I’m confused by her hair color because I can’t picture “apricot blonde” curls. I looked it up and it looks like a rosy gold, but that’s not a natural hair color and it’s not realistic for her hair to be dyed.

I know this sounds picky, but those are the kinds of details I can’t look past in a book.

The Rake by Gillian Hawser is about Lord Jasper Heddington being involved in a scandal with a young Laura Ludgrove. He leaves London to return to his country home but after a stay in an inn, a red haired woman shoots him and nearly kills him. He spends time searching for the beauty while coming to terms with his mortality. He realizes how he wants to marry, love and have a family. He struggles with his search and the option of marrying the woman that his grandmama wants for him. He returns to London and rejoins society for the season while trying to repair Laura Lodgrove's reputation and image to also find the woman who shot him.
This story has the very basic push and pull and a little bit of enemies to lovers. I enjoyed the first third of the story and was really looking forward to the rest of the story. I shortly realized many problems with the writing and storytelling. For example I counted more than 10 spelling and grammar errors. I had trouble following all the characters that were introduced with their backstories. The story fluctuated between interesting and boring. Every character that was introduced had a several page backstory that did nothing but hinder the storyline.
The storyline was interesting but I do wish that it was evenly spaced out and focused more on the main characters.
Read on Netgalley

4 stars

I liked this story though I didn't really like the hero. He treats women badly and comes across as entitled, probably typical of his time. It is novel that we don't meet the heroine until much later in the story.
The other aspect of the book that harks back to Heyer is the inclusion of historical characters and the sheer number of people in the book. Modern novela seems to put a spotlight on perhaps 4 protaganists in a narrative, whereas this one joyfully adds the other debutantes, Jaspers friends, Grizelda's godmother, his and her sisters and other couples that get their HEA. (I think Grizelda isn't a particularily flattering name but IMO is evocative of her anger towards the hero).

I will look out for more novels by this author it's a great start as a debut novel. For those to whom such things matter it's a clean story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The book started off with a bang with this new author. The Hero, Lord Jasper was a difficult character to like. His use of woman was very shabby..... This is the story of his growth from a Rake to a more caring man. He has a near death experience and this changes him. The book had a lot of side story's and characters. I enjoyed the first third of the book the most. It slowed down in the middle with several side plots and picked up again at the end. It was a nice book.

Thank you to NetGalley for enabling review copies of The Arranged Marriage and The Rake. Gillian Hawser is a new author for me and I’ll certainly look out for books written by her in the future. The books are in the regency romance genre and are written in a unique traditional yet modern way. They are good clean tales of romance with many twists and turns on the way. At some points, I found myself laughing out loud. Definitely excellent reads for fans of this genre.

Terrific regency romance, with which Georgette Heyer would not be unhappy.

A must read for any fan of romance, Regency or Heyer, this book has it all in spades.

It is reminiscent of the more serious of the Heyer romances, and the reader has to suspend belief for a short while, but ultimately a gripping story with intrigue and derring do aplenty.

Try it. I doubt you'll regret it.