The Rake

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.

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.

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 author is new to me, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this up.
I found this to be a nice story about redemption, set in the Regency time period. It was ineresting to see the growth of Jasper from rake to a genuinely caring man. He starts out as a rake of the worst kind, seducing and bedding really any woman, even innocents. One time even his sister thinks he goes to far, and sends him off to the country to avoid scandal. On his journey there he is shot by a beautiful redheaded woman and is gravely injured. Having this near death experience he begins to see life differently and realizes he needs to change his ways. He tries to search for the shooter and in the process realizes that he wants to marry and have a family. He goes back to London and doesn't give up the search for the mysterious lady, and he eventually finds her. This story was an enemies to lover story of sorts and it was quite entertaining to read. I was a bit disappointed that the story was told in 3rd person, as I like reading the character's point of view, but the story was still enjoyable. I would like to read more by this author in the future.

I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

I am a sucker for a good Duke romance and this one was lovely. I highly recommend all the books by this author which I have enjoyed immensely.

I was attracted to the description of the story and the cover, but I’m afraid I really struggled with the story itself. The Rake, Jaspar was just too unlikeable and his character did not win me over I’m afraid. I really struggled to finish the story as it seemed a bit too meandering, but thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me a review copy.

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.

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.

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 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

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.

The Rake is a ridiculous romp. Lord Jasper is a rich, spoiled but importantly extremely charming rake who spends his time living large and seducing who ever takes his fancy but he goes too far when he charms and deflowers Laura Ludgrove the teenage beauty of the season. His sister tells him to leave until the furore dies down but on his journey he comes across a beautiful but deadly woman who shoots him for no apparent reason. After his brush with death Jasper is back in town and back in society only to find his femme fatale across a crowed ballroom.
This is completely ridiculous but throughly enjoyable. What I like about these books is that they don’t try to shoehorn modern values into history, they are in a weird way of their time. Jasper’s behaviour is despicable and should in no way be condoned or unpunished which makes his happy ending somewhat questionable especially as Laura’s character is denigrated later in the book to sort of make it ok. It isn’t. All of it is completely outrageous and soapy anyway that that is the least of the drama. It is a lot of fun.

Regency romance as a genre was more or less invented by the late, great Georgette Heyer in 1935. For many years there was a flurry of activity as numerous writers tried to imitate her quality and style but more recently the genre has almost been in mothballs. Now, like manna from heaven, Gillian Hawser has written with quality and skill a poignant story that captures the mannerisms of 1812 perfectly. The author clearly knows a thing or two about Regency England and puts them to good use here. A splendid novel.

The Rake is a regency romance about a guy named Lord Jaspar Heddington. He is rich, charming, and a bit of a rake. After he seduces a woman named Laura he is sent away by his sister. While away he is shot and left for dead. The experience changes him into a caring man. I thought the characters were very well-written and the setting was great. I did find it very slow in spots and found myself skimming through them. However, the writing is fantastic, this author knows how to tell a good story.

A lovely, sweet and warm hearted read. I really did enjoy reading and watching the characters change and evolve over the course of the book. Supported by a wonderful cast of characters- I had a delight reading this!

I thought the premise of this book was good. It was very abnormal to have a gentleman hook up with an innocent, and not try and marry her. I think it's great that it went in a different direction than normal, but it is also quite off-putting for the die hard romance fans. That was the first hurdle the reader must make it over.
The story is very choppy. I would say this is the second hurdle for a reader. The story jumped around and abruptly ended at times. Most of the time, it was easy enough to understand the closure, but it did make me pause every time it happened which slowed me down.
The next hurdle would be the various characters and story lines outside of the main story. These made following the main story more difficult. I do not mind extra characters and story lines, they just need to propel the main story in order for it to be a good addition. At times, I felt like I was missing a previous book with backstory to understand characters, ie the friend with one arm and his love interest. A couple of authors who have done entwined stories are Mary Balogh with the Survivor series, or Eloisa James with the Desperate Duchesses series. These authors have a tendency to have a lot of characters to keep track of, but the extra people build up the story more than just being included for fluff. Along the same lines, because of these extra stories, I had the hardest and longest time figuring out who the end heroine was. Between Grizelda, Netta, Aurelia, who knew where the story was going, which is not the romance norm. I would have liked to know sooner who I should be falling in love with. One last note on characters, using Nellie and Netta was pretty confusing since they are so close to the same. Also, using first names when the character has only been mentioned by last name previously was difficult, this happened with the fired chaperone.
I did enjoy how the story made a full circle with the main character going from being a villian to redemption to hero. I also really liked the time references throughout to help me know that it took more than a week for this change to happen and for the two main characters to fall in love. I like how Jasper was able to clean up his mess with Laura along with making himself better. I love that the story wasn’t too angsty. I would have loved to have seen Netta and the doctor fall in love rather than Netta being a crazy person in the end.

Overall, it was an enjoyable story, just difficult to get through reading it.

I saw mention of The Arranged Marriage in one review, I couldn't figure out if The Rake came before The Arranged Marriage or after. It would be helpful if it was more clear on Goodreads which book to read first.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the free copy via Netgally in exchange for a review.

Jaspar is (supposedly) an incurable rake, known for seducing and abandoning ladies, and when he meets young Laura, he acts entirely within character towards her, seduces her and then abandons her. But his life is turned upside down when a mysterious woman accosts him in an inn and shoots him. Surviving this attack, he begins to think differently about what truly matters - and then he comes into contact once again with the woman who shot him, and finds out who she is and why she did what she did.

It was quite an entertaining story but I never really warmed to any of the characters, particularly not the women. I felt as if the author had to tell us constantly what they were thinking and why they were doing what they were doing, because we never got to know them well enough to know their motivations. The romance between the two main characters was unconvincing and as I hadn't warmed to them, I wasn't rooting for them to succeed.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

This book was a pleasant surprise, not high on steam (mostly closed-door) but has supremely entertaining characters and story. Lord Jaspar Heddington is a terrible rake and human being that seduces the innocent country girl Laura. When he abandons her, Grizelda, Laura's sister decides to take revenge and shoot him. This sort of begins Jaspar's transformation when he finds himself falling for his attacker. Drawn to each other, Jaspar slowly begins to reform, and Grizelda begins to see him in a different light when he helps reform Laura's reputation. I also really loved how the story wrapped up, it was really cute.

I loved this story. I found Jaspar's redemption journey to be well-told. When the book starts, he's sort of this terrible character and as he finds himself drawn to wild Grizelda, he wants to be a better man. There's a couple of misunderstandings that move the story forward instead of hindering it. I found myself just really liking both characters and invested in their HEA.

While this book is low on steam, it doesn't deter the tension and attraction between the characters. I am excited to read more books from this author.

I read this after reading Hawser’s other novel and I really enjoyed it! A decent length means each character and storyline gets a good chunk of time spent on it. Yes it’s a romantic period drama, so if that’s not your thing then stay away. But for fans of Bridgerton it’s a great read. Grizelda was very likeable, even if her sister was rather infuriating!
I’ll be adding the author to my list of those to follow and eagerly await the next novel!

A well-written, if a bit too sweet (for me) romance novel. I think that this one would suit fans of Georgette Heyer quite well!

I love a good regency romance and this is up there with the best of them. This is the second Gillian Hawser book I have read and I enjoyed it just as much as the first. Throughly recommended!