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jaclynder's review
2.0
Never Trust a Rake is Annie Burrows' newest historical romance and my ultimate impression of it was that it was just OK. Henrietta Gibson has come to London for her first season at twenty-two. She talked her father into the season because she is sure that her childhood friend, Richard, is in love with her and that this will give him the opportunity to propose. When the novel begins, Henrietta has learned that Richard is not planning on showering her with attention, leading her to escape to a terrace and vent her tears. While standing outside, Henrietta hears Miss Waverly trying to compromise the rakish Lord Deben into marrying her. Henrietta saves Lord Deben from this fate by telling Miss Waverly’s mother that not untoward happened between her daughter and Lord Deben. Lord Deben decides that he must help Henrietta to thank her for rescuing from a fate worse then death, but he also has ulterior motives – he wants to convince Henrietta to be his wife!
To be completely honest, I found the plot to be rather slow. I just felt that it took forever for the characters to acknowledge their attraction to one another and even then I didn’t totally understand Henrietta’s appeal to Lord Deben. Deben was not really all that nice and I don’t think he ever learned what was wrong with his supposed “compliments.” Deben was my main issue with the novel. I didn’t like him and I didn’t really get a sense that his transformation from rake to adoring suitor was completely sincere. He initially only wanted to marry Henrietta because it would be unlikely that she would cheat on him, like his mother did to his father. I would have liked to get more of the novel from his point of view, as most of it was told from Henrietta’s. I think if I understood more of his thought process I could have got behind his change at the end.
What I did like the most of the novel was the light-hearted, funny moments, such as an interesting drive about town and the hilarious proposal. I liked that Burrows including these types of moments on the novel. I would have liked more of these outrageous moments and more emotion from Lord Debon.
And as a final note, I didn’t like the fact that it took forever to find out what Deben’s name was. And Henrietta never calls him by his name in the entire book. I kind of feel that using first names it a bit of must for intimacy and marriage.
To be completely honest, I found the plot to be rather slow. I just felt that it took forever for the characters to acknowledge their attraction to one another and even then I didn’t totally understand Henrietta’s appeal to Lord Deben. Deben was not really all that nice and I don’t think he ever learned what was wrong with his supposed “compliments.” Deben was my main issue with the novel. I didn’t like him and I didn’t really get a sense that his transformation from rake to adoring suitor was completely sincere. He initially only wanted to marry Henrietta because it would be unlikely that she would cheat on him, like his mother did to his father. I would have liked to get more of the novel from his point of view, as most of it was told from Henrietta’s. I think if I understood more of his thought process I could have got behind his change at the end.
What I did like the most of the novel was the light-hearted, funny moments, such as an interesting drive about town and the hilarious proposal. I liked that Burrows including these types of moments on the novel. I would have liked more of these outrageous moments and more emotion from Lord Debon.
And as a final note, I didn’t like the fact that it took forever to find out what Deben’s name was. And Henrietta never calls him by his name in the entire book. I kind of feel that using first names it a bit of must for intimacy and marriage.
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