Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake: Number 1 in series (Love by Numbers, #1)

by Sarah MacLean

'Fabulous' Eloisa James
'Smart, sexy, and always romantic' Julia Quinn
'For a smart, witty and passionate historical romance, I recommend anything by Sarah MacLean' Lisa Kleypas

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 . . .

This is the first novel in the Regency romance Love By Numbers trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean - perfect for fans of Lisa Kleypas and Eloisa James

Love By Numbers series:
Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake
Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord
Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart

Praise for Sarah MacLean:

'Sarah MacLean has reignited the romance genre with a bolder edge' The New Yorker

'Funny, smart, feminist and roastingly hot' BookRiot.com

'Do yourself a favor and discover the compelling magic of Sarah MacLean' Amanda Quick

'MacLean writes with an entirely unique blend of elegance and ferocity that bursts from every page' Entertainment Weekly

'Great chemistry, intelligence and sparkling humor' RT Book Reviews

• ISBN10: 0749959665
• ISBN13: 9780749959661
• Publish Date: 1 May 2014 (first published 30 March 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Piatkus Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Katie King]

read on my booklr: https://thirtyfivebooks.tumblr.com/post/190342465286/book-review-nine-rules-to-break-when-romancing-a

wow so i had a really hard time with this one. i enjoy the occasional romance novel, don’t get me wrong. i’ve liked a fair number of them. and i’ve also read sarah maclean before.

this was just...NOT her best work by FAR. first of all, calpurnia/callie is the whiniest girl ever. we are constantly reminded of her virtue and stellar reputation, but not really shown that? and the entire book, she’s trying to ruin it anyway?

the constant miscommunications/misunderstandings between her and gabriel where they would do something sexual, then someone would make a comment/do something to be misinterpreted, and the other person would think ‘tis not meant to be/won’t work, i must treat them like shit from now on’ was SO EXHAUSTING. i get foreplay, i get cat and mouse games, but DAMN.

and interspersing that was...nothing i cared about. the subplot about a bastard child trying to prove her worth to some snobby assholes was boring. the reputation conflict (?) with callie’s brother what’s-his-face was boring. the maybe-love-triangle with gabriel’s brother what’s-his-face-st.-john was boring. i was just either bored or frustrated the entire time.

the ONLY reason this doesn’t have one star is because i think part of what i felt was intended by sarah maclean, and for that, her execution was good.

this is book 3/105 of my 2020 booklr challenge! check out the full list here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5714101?shelf=challenge-booklr-2020

[wyvernfriend]

breaking out Lady Calpurnia Hartwell is tired of being good, it hasn't got her anywhere and now she's approaching the shelf at speed and she feels like she hasn't really lived.  She makes a list of what she wants to do, would like to do in her life and she decides to go about doing them.  She enlists the help of Gabriel St.John, the Marquess of Ralston to help and he discovers that he's more interested in her than he thought.
 
Fun romp with a character trying out some things that stretch her and the limits society put on her.

[nitzan_schwarz]

I loved this one the second time just as much as I did the first time. Swoon and hurts and fierceness and gahhhh perfect!

[Angie]

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake was so adorable! I love Historical Romance where the heroine decides to challenge society and do whatever the heck she wants! Callie is no great beauty. At least that's what her mother, aunt, and the snobby ton have her to believe. At 28, she's firmly on the shelf and has resigned herself to being a spinster. However, she refuses to be seen as passive anymore. She wants to live a little! So Callie devises a list of activities that young, unmarried men are allowed to do, but would be improper for a woman. First on that list: kiss someone passionately. And she has just the man in mind.

Nine Rules to Break was just super fun! I loved Callie from the beginning. She's not overly innocent. She knows what goes on behind closed doors, and she wants to experience it herself! In fact, she gets drunk and then heads to the Marquess of Raltson's home to get her kiss! She's mistaken for a prostitute by his butler, but no matter! He has a reputation, so he does indulge her, but he wants something in return: help his long lost sister come out into society! Callie has the most squeaky clean reputation of anyone (as long as no one finds out about her list), so she'd be perfect to assist his "low born" sister. From there, it's one adventure after another!

There's also a bet plot, which I wasn't the hugest fan of. The Duke of Oxford claims that he can get Callie to marry him. He's not interested in her at all, just her very generous dowry. Ralston bets a ridiculous sum that it'll never happen! Of course, bets never turn out good. At least he didn't bet that he would be the one to marry her. But the big confrontation near the end left me a bit annoyed. Callie has every right to be upset that she was part of a bet, but she also knows that half the things Oxford was saying were false. He's a delusional drunk, but she never pauses to think about the straight up lies he told. I guess she was just upset that the man she loves would enter a bet over her at all, but still. Don't listen to the drunk!

I really enjoyed Nine Rules to Break! I loved witnessing Callie complete all of the items on her list! There's plenty of gender-bending, since she needs a way to get into a gentlemen's club for gambling and fencing. I also thought Raltson's twist on "riding astride" was clever! You, rake, you! Not to mention the duel! It was just a lot of fun!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Amanda]

Do you ever have a book that has you glancing over to the next page because you have to see what's happening next and then going back to your page and furiously reading? That was Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake. Lots of furious reading. And it was glorious. Sarah MacLean doesn't disappoint.

I have a confession to make, though. Calpurnia---Callie---is often considered "plain" because she has brown hair and eyes. And I'm trying to figure out why it bothers me less here than in, say, Someone Like You. It always bothers me to see brown-eyed, brown-haired characters considered plain. But perhaps the difference here is that Callie is internalizing and accepting what society has told her---like what society today still tells us. I can relate to that.

But what's more: Ralston, too, thinks Callie plain. Until he looks closer and gets to know her. And that's what I find redeeming about Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake: brown-eyed, brown-haired Callie turns from plain to lovely. Or rather, she always has been. In a way, it forces us to reconsider what it means to be "plain." And that brown is beautiful too.

It helps too, that Callie just wants to fight for her happiness. She wants to experience everything that's been denied to her because she had the "misfortune" of being born a woman. And I love when women buck tradition. I love when strong, pig-headed men fall hard. When self-proclaimed "ne'er fall in love"ers fall in love.

Sarah MacLean's historical romances hit my happy spot. The kind of happy spot that has me curled up in a chair reading the book cover to cover because I can't force myself to stop. The happy spot that has me eyeing the next book in the series, which I also picked up at the library, and thinking I better start that one soon. And I shall.

[inlibrisveritas]

Oh wow…I can honestly say that Sarah MacLean has a new fan, and this is the only book of her’s that I have read. I read two reviews that really made me want to read this, one was from Kimba @ Kimba the Caffinated Reader and the other was from Danielle @ Book Whore.

Callie is respectable woman who has gone season after season without any sort of luck when it comes to marriage proposals, so she has been placed on the shelf. She’s sweet, she’s curvy and she’s incredibly intelligent; but the ton thinks she’s plain. When her little sister finds a perfect match she sets out to really live, even if it risks her reputation and requires a lot of sneaking. So she comes up with a rather unique list of things to do, and because of it she finds herself in the path of Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston. Gabriel is a notorious rake and Callie has been secretly in love with him since she was nineteen.

I fell in love with so many characters in this novel. MacLean really knows how to craft a character in a way that no matter how small their part may be they leave an impression. Callie is such a kind hearted girl who dreams of romance and wants adventure, but she’s not quite used to what adventures entail so she ends up in more than one situation that require a little help to go through with. Callie is surrounded by such passionate personalities that you would think she would be lost among them, but she truly shines in a way that made me adore her all the more. Gabriel is the very definition of rake; he’s charming and a bit of a dandy but he is much deeper than that. He’s fiercely loyal to his family and he thinks himself incapable of love. Gabriel’s journey to discovering the depth of his feelings is truly one that I invested myself in, and the relationship that develops between him and Callie is incredibly steamy but it’s also one that had me cheering for the both of them.

I’m super excited that I’ll get to see the characters again in the next book, and I can’t wait to see more of Gabriel’s brother and sister as well. MacLean really knows how to tell a story and have it so that you are hanging on every word. The romance was fantastic, and the plot was one that made me want the very best for Callie and the rest. It made me laugh, swoon and it even made me want to hit Gabriel on the head for being such a guy. I can not wait to dig into the next book and I just know it’s going to be just as good.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake is the first novel in the Love by Numbers series by author Sarah MacLean. I read a review by Chrissie @ Once Upon aSeries and simply knew I had to read this novel. I hadn't visited the ladies and gentlemen of the ton in quite some time and this novel delivered everything I hoped for and more. MacLean gave me feisty characters, hilarious antics and characters I adored.

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell is on the shelf. At 28 years of age, despite a healthy dowry, she finds herself destine to be seated in the spinster section of every ball. Calpurnia is considered plain by the ton. Her buxomest figure is out of fashion and only old men and fortune hunters show her a care. When her younger sister becomes engaged, Calpurnia or Callie as she prefers, begins to wish she could be free of her reputation and have a little adventure. A glass of Sherri and a misguided conversation with her brother, leave this imaginative girl to create a list of nine things she would like to do for adventure. Some include; smoking cheroot, riding astride, gambling, firing a pistol and sharing a passionate kiss. Determined to begin at once, she sneaks out of her home (at midnight) and finds herself at the door of Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston. He is breathtakingly gorgeous and a notorious rake. An act of kindness on his part when Callie was nineteen, made an impression on her. She has secretly loved him ever since. Thus, she decides he should be the one to kiss her! The tale that unfolds was deliciously romantic and absolutely hilarious as Callie gets herself in one predicament after the other.

I adored the characters MacLean has created for this novel. Callie is such a breath of fresh air. She is a true romantic at heart and a good girl. She wants adventure, but doing these things makes her nervous, creating delightful situations. Her ornery and wise maid made me laugh as did the famous seamstress. Callie’s mother despite having a big heart was dreadful. Her boisterous ways and horrific fashion sense had me bursting at the seams. Gabriel is a complete rake; with a fractured heart. Despite his dandy ways, he has a strong sense of family and looks after his twin brother and sister. With his crystal clear blue eyes and devilish smile he had me swooning. He believes himself incapable of love and watching his journey of discovery had me consuming this novel without pause. The romance was hot and steamy and the two of them danced a delicious tango. Watching Callie unknowingly rattle this man was divine. I found myself rooting for them, and anxious as I waited for my happily –ever after.

McLean’s plot was fantastic. She kept me riveted as she delivered elements of romance, suspense, adventure and comedy. I love when a novel sweeps you away and you drift into the realm the author has created. Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake did exactly that. While the tale wasn’t completely original, the characters came alive and I believed in them. I read this almost completely straight through and enjoyed the rollercoaster of emotions McLean wrought from me.