TBR Challenge: Sarah MacLean - Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake

A lady does not smoke 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.

Comment: It's time for the February's TBR Challenge post and the theme is "Previously, in Romance" which I've looked at in a very particular way. To me, this expression immediately made me think of romances we would find in the past years for the trend they belong to or for the style we insert them in. Some might link it to the "old school" idea but I would not think of the "previously, in romance" as something that would be as old as "old school" somehow implies. 

For me, "previously, in romance" refers to something closer in time to me. Thus, I've picked a book which is not as old in time as, let's say, something from the 90s or before, but that still takes us to years ago, in this case this book was published in 2010 and that is, in romance, already something that happened previously, just like in a tv show whose new season links back to the one before and not to one from 30 years ago.

In this historical romance, my first attempt at something by Sarah Maclean, we meet heroine Calpurnia, a young woman having her debut but she is fully aware she isn't a real beauty. Still, she has hopes and one random encounter with Gabriel, the marquess of Ralston allows them to exchange a few words and she is forever smitten with him. Ten years later, Callie is a wallflower on the shelf, as she tells herself, and she is tired of having the reputation of passive. Therefore, she writes down a list of tings she would like to do, like an adventure, and the very first thing is to be kissed. On a sudden impulse, she leaves her house and visits Ralston on his, something no lady should do, and she gets her kiss. For her, it's a great adventure, for him is a surprise but it just happens he needs her help to present his recently found sister to society.... is there a way for them to find happiness in each other despite their differences?

As a whole, this was quite a story and I liked the writing style enough to feel I might read more things by the author. I've seen that the author has recently published her first contemporary book and I think I remember seeing somewhere that some of her books weren't as traditionally historical as the ones in her early career and were more centered on "feminist heroines". I cannot prove this from experience but I should say that hearing certain things does impact one's opinion and I expected a certain type of story but this one was surprisingly sweet and very alike other historicals I've read by other authors.

The premise is set on Callie's need to do something for herself, a way to prove she isn't as passive and quiet as everyone assumes due to her looks and wallflower status. However, precisely because of this and her reserved personality, I struggled to easily accept she would be as daring as to look for Ralston on his house. If they had met at a social event or in the park or some other way that not her visiting him in his house, I think this adventure aspect would seem more natural. It certainly helps he knows her reputation and he asks for her help in exchange but their dynamics seemed stilted from the start.

Still, as the story moves along we learn that Callie is actually more daring than she seemed (but always with some understanding of her limits) and Ralston isn't the rake he is known to be by others. Their romance develops slowly, and the fun is in seeing how Ralston is more and more fascinated by Callie, even ignoring the supposed lack of looks for her taste for life and her way of seeing things, which gives him a different perspective in life. I wasn't especially touched by his behavior in the beginning and I think Callie wasn't always as shy as described, but I was interested in seeing how things would progress.

In part, I've felt this because at some point Ralston agrees on a wager with another man regarding Callie and I thought that surely when Callie learned of this that would prove to be quite the angst or drama, but I confess I've felt disappointed over the choices related to this subject. I also think the admittance of their own feelings, mostly Ralston's, was delayed so that some things were put into place. I can understand the tactic, of course, makes sense in any similar romance, but sometimes I thought it was also a little frustrating to wait for something more meaningful to happen.

In a way, this story did remind me of other books I had read with similar plots and in the same genre, so the real attraction was to see how the characters would evolve. Callie, as predictable, went from being a shy lady to someone who realizes her worth and that eventually matches how she behaves and deals with others. It helps her that being in love makes her more daring. Ralston, however, was harder to like despite his change of mind closer to the end, because I just can't love a hero who is afraid of commitment simply because of the behavior of a parent... isn't it obvious he is a different person? Still, psychologically speaking, this could be quite the theme but the author didn't go there.

The plot does touch all the points one might think of when we consider the overall themes used in this story and I liked the main things, but there were details I wasn't too fond of and things I'd change to better suit me. In a way, I wish the heroine didn't have to do all those "daring" activities to win the hero's heart, or for him to see her through different eyes. Nevertheless, the reading experience wasn't too bad and I feel glad to have had the experiment of trying the author's work.

Grade: 7/10