Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake
Series: Love By Numbers #1
Author: Sarah MacLean
Published May 1st 2014 by Piatkus

Goodreads Synopsis
A lady does not smoke a cheroot. She does not ride astride. She does not fence or attend duels. She does not fire a pistol, and she never gambles at a gentlemen's club.

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has always followed the rules, rules that have left her unmarried—and more than a little unsatisfied. And so she's vowed to break the rules and live the life of pleasure she's been missing.

But to dance every dance, to steal a midnight kiss—to do those things, Callie will need a willing partner. Someone who knows everything about rule-breaking. Someone like Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston—charming and devastatingly handsome, his wicked reputation matched only by his sinful smile.

If she's not careful, she'll break the most important rule of all—the one that says that pleasure-seekers should never fall hopelessly, desperately in love.
Goodreads

Review
A lady knows she must be above all reproach, and be perfectly respectable in all manners. This is the mantra that Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has lived by her entire life, but now aged 28, she's decidedly on the shelf, and seeing her 18 year old sister be lauded as the 'Allendale Angel' is disheartening. Callie wants more, and so she creates a list of nine things she wants to do, like ride stride, smoke, gamble in a club, and most of all, steal a kiss. Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston, has been in her heart since she was 18 herself, and with his notorious reputation, Callie decides he is the one to share her first kiss with. But, Gabriel also needs something, someone respectable who can help introduce his newly discovered half-sister, Juliana, to English society, and agrees with Callie's plans, as long as she helps him. It sounds like the perfect agreement, but the longer the two spend in each other's company, the more it seems as if they are falling, and falling hard.

I have fallen in love with Sarah's books during lockdown, and as soon as I could get a hold of this series, I devoured the three in the space of a weekend. Callie is a typical lady, on the surface. She's one of the most respectable to the ton, but still is unmarried, and often spends balls or parties in spinster corner. She's never liked this, but hates it even more now that Mariana is being lauded as the belle of the ball - though she never resents her sister. She wants a bit of fun though, and Gabriel is the one who she thinks she can do that with. Sneaking into his bedroom, they kiss, and a partnership is formed that I just adored. There's always the chemistry between them, but a true friendship develops between them, with the give and take that you would always imagine. The way that Gabriel always seems to appear when Callie is up to no good, and catches her in the act was hilarious, and their chemistry was one of the best I've read. They were made for each other, but fought against it as much as possible, but it was inevitable. Their families, from Gabriel's twin brother, Nick, and new sister, Juliana, and Callie's siblings, Benedick and Mariana, helped to make the story, and I'm glad we'll see more of them in the sequels.

Dates Read:
October 23, 2020

Rating
4 Stars