Review: Cold-Hearted Rake

Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Devon Ravenel led a charmed life of pleasure and selfishness. Moderately wealthy, distant relative to an earl, he and his brother Weston enjoyed their lives of drinking, gambling and womanising. When Devon's cousin Theo dies after being thrown by his horse and Devon becomes the new Earl of Trenear he is horrified, suddenly he has inherited a widow, the late earl's three younger sisters and a dilapidated estate in Hampshire that generates no income and is in urgent need of reparations.

Devon's first instinct is to sell everything and kick his cousin's widow and three sisters out to fend for themselves. But a spirited interchange with Kathleen, his cousin's widow persuades him otherwise, in fact the pretty widow has an altogether unforeseen impact on Devon who is already half in love with her.

As Devon and Weston discover the joys of hard work and having a purpose in their lives they become closer to Kathleen, Helen, Pandora and Cassandra and the estate workers who rely on the earl for their livelihoods. But can Devon persuade Kathleen that he has changed from the arrogant, selfish man she first met and can they save the estate without sacrificing some of the tenants, or Helen?

Kathleen had only been married three days when her husband's legendary temper led him to ride an untrained, spirited stallion whilst drunk. Her experiences of married life are not good and she has learned to distrust the Ravenel family who are quick to anger and violence, prone to excess and known libertines and rakes. Devon seems to be the worst, yet he shows her more careless kindness than her husband did their entire courtship. But Kathleen's natural caution leads her to suspect the worst motives and she is quick to see the worst in Devon.

Although I suspect that there were some historical inaccuracies (I could be totally wrong) relating to department stores, plasters and plaster casts, I really enjoyed this novel. Devon and Weston are engaging rakes who reluctantly embrace responsibility for others and learn to enjoy it. There are clear signs of future books being set up, obviously Helen's story which overlaps with this one, but also, I suspect, one of Devon's friends with one of the twins.

A fun historical romance set in the time when England suddenly becomes accessible through the railways, where women are still chattels exchanged between their fathers and their husbands and sex is a taboo subject for gently bred women.

I love Lisa Kleypas' novels and I look forward to reading Helen and Winterbourne's story.

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