Review: The Spinster and the Rake

Review: The Spinster and the RakeThe Spinster and the Rake by Anne Stuart
on August 15, 2016
Genres: Historical
Pages: 162
Goodreads
four-stars

FINAL DECISION:  A sweet historical romance between a woman who has spent her life raising her brother’s children and a man who has plenty of notoriety behind him.  He brings animation into her life and she bring stability to his.

THE STORY:  Gillian Redfern has reached the age of thirty never having even been kissed.  Living with her brother and his family, Gillian takes care of the children and the household.  One night she meets Ronan Blakely, Marquis of Herrington who has been absent from England for twenty years.  Ronan is a true rake who left England in scandal.  Now he has returned as the Marquis.  When he meet Gillian, he thinks of making her break out of her comfortable world by turning his charm toward her.

OPINION:  I enjoyed this book tremendously.  It has a little dated feel to it (having been written in the early 1980s) but I loved Gillian as a character.  She is a woman who comes out of her shell and into her own as the book progresses.  She learns to reach out for what she wants in life rather than letting things happen to her.

Ronan is a true rake.  (Sometimes in modern books, rake is overused).  He has had notorious relationships (including an attempt to make off with a married woman).  I miss the opportunity to see his development as a character because much of his thinking remains murky (not uncommon in older romances).

I like how Ronan doesn’t know how to deal with Gillian.  Everything in the book was great until the ending.  There is a big twist that really wasn’t necessary and was brought up and resolved far too quickly.

I was amazed that so much story and character development was contained in so few pages.  I enjoyed it and this book reminds me that Anne Stuart has been a great writer for a long time.

WORTH MENTIONING:  This is a reissue (with a bit of new material) of a 1980s Candlelight Regency romance.

CONNECTED BOOKS:  This is a standalone.

STAR RATING:  I give this book 4 stars.

four-stars

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