LynneC’s review of Rake with a Frozen Heart by Marguerite Kaye
Historical Romance published by Harlequin Historical 17 Apr 12
It’s a charming beginning to a charming story, which, although is not without fault, is one of the most pleasant historical reads I’ve had for some time.
Rafe finds a woman he doesn’t know face down in a ditch on his land, after she’s been knocked on the head and left for dead. He takes her home, and naturally, puts her in his own bed.
When she awakes, Henrietta tells Rafe that she was knocked out by a housebreaker and that she works for Rafe’s neighbour, a notorious widow, as a governess. She and Rafe have a charming interlude, but while she accuses Rafe of being a rake, something that annoys him, he keeps his hands to himself – mostly.
When she returns home, she finds her employer has been burgled and the family diamonds are missing. The widow accuses her of being the thief.
There is no irritating high concept here, no attempt at bringing the past up to date, and the story is all the better for it. Ms. Kaye depicts Regency life better than most, although there were a few mind-boggling errors, especially towards the end.
So we’ll get those out of the way. Anyone not bothered with historical accuracy can skip this bit, because most of the problems will only bother you if you want a story with no “what?” moments or you know absolutely nothing about the Regency era.
First, the name, the problem that repeats throughout the book. The hero is Rafe St Alban, Earl of Pentland. This means he’d be known as Rafe Pentland, not, as Kaye and the heroine refers to him, Rafe St Alban. When a man has a title, the surname all but disappears and in all cases the title effectively becomes the surname.
And Rafe. It seems to be much more popular now than it ever was in the Regency.
“Nice” means something different to the Regency person. It meant pernickety and overfussy, not in a good way. It didn’t mean “pleasant,” and Ms. Kaye’s repeated use of it with that meaning began to pall a bit.
When Rafe makes his confession to Henrietta (to tell would be a spoiler, so I won’t), he says he has to “rebuild his ego,” and uses “sex” as “a release mechanism.” That is what I meant by screaming. Freudian references have no place in the Regency, and “sex” referring to the sex act is a twentieth century usage. Later, he refers to a “stooge,” which is definitely vaudeville and another twentieth century term.
When Henrietta meets a relative for the first time, she gives her a hug. I cringed.
There are references to “mauve,” a color invented in Victorian times, and a lorgnette, which, while charming, is not a pair of glasses on a stick at this period, but a pair of opera glasses on a stick, and did evoke some smiles, but probably not of the intended variety.
Back to the story. I found Henrietta naïve but not annoying. She has good reason for most of what she does and an impetuosity that doesn’t always work to her advantage. She’s not universally loved and she’s not without fault – for which, big cheers, say I, and long may the imperfect heroine reign.
Rafe is an intriguing hero, very kind, but with good reasons why he won’t give anyone his heart. There is some fun sex in the book, but the ease with which Henrietta gives up her virtue, and Rafe’s assumption that he could turn her into a woman of easy virtue, aren’t altogether believable. Henrietta is a respectable girl, or is before she takes up with Rafe, and there is a gulf a mile wide between the monde and the demi monde, as far as women were concerned. Still, the sex is hot and fun and not too much of it.
Much of the book is a road story, involving the search for the man who will prove Henrietta’s innocence. But that part of the story is downplayed and isn’t ever much of a threat. I do wish the threat is better used, perhaps by making Henrietta’s ex-employer, Lady Ipswich, a respectable member of society, for instance, and able to make her ex-governess’s life miserable or having more of a mystery surround the emeralds, which, if you don’t guess in the first part of the book, you’re not paying attention.
At her first society ball, she is a brown girl, brown hair, brown eyes, creamy complexion, and they make her wear orange. Omg, what are they thinking?
But for all that, Kaye gets the feel right. There are some clues that she’s a Heyer fan, for which—yay! There is no insistence on turning England into a putative USA or having the characters behave like complete idiots. The dialogue is charming, and some of the best parts of the book are the courtship of the couple and their slow realisation that they are falling in love.
I’m up for the next book, for sure.
Grade: B
Summary:
Waking up in a stranger’s bed, Henrietta Markham encounters the most darkly sensual man she has ever met. The last thing she remembers is being attacked by a housebreaker—yet being rescued by the notorious Earl of Pentland feels much more dangerous!Since the cataclysmic failure of his marriage, ice has flowed in Rafe St. Alban’s veins. But meeting impetuous, all-too-distracting governess Henrietta heats his blood to the boiling point.When she’s accused of theft, Rafe finds himself offering to clear her name. Can Henrietta’s innocence bring this hardened rake to his knees?
Read an excerpt. (scroll down)
