Poor Miranda. She is yet another heroine who is considered ruined because she was caught kissing a rake when she should have been listening to the opera. Well, Jack the rake thought she was his mistress and it was dark, so why not grab her and give her the kissing of her life!
They were caught and Miranda was sent to the outreaches of the wilderness, JUST FOR KISSING!! Ugh.
But what impressed me about this heroine, is that she said to heck with mom and dad and went out on her own to teach and save money. But she stil dreams about that one kiss! Aww to be innocent again.
Years later, Miranda changed her name and became Jane- a spinster teacher. But Jack comes into the picture again and for some reason he is so attractive to this uptight spinster with the gorgeous red hair. Jack is the poor hero who was cut off because of his dasterdly kissing and lives in an empty mansion with no money. But through a comedy of errors, Mirana aka plain Jane and three of her students invade his privacy.
Boyle has written a cute little read, with some comedy and lustful glances from the hero and heroine. Will Jack figure out who Jane is? And what about those pirates that just pop up?(Probably to add something to the plot at least!)
This is not her best and the passion you expect is a little boring for my tastes. If you know what "Avonization" means,a then this book is the perfect example. This is the second book in the Bachelor Chronicles.
Simply a ho-hum read.

Katiebabs

Stealing the Bride (Avon Romantic Treasure)
Love Letters From a Duke

I had previously read only one short story by Elizabeth Boyle in the anthology titled HERO, COME BACK. I wrote a review for that book and stated that I loved all the stories except.....yep, EB's. So, why did I buy this book? I obviously did not read my notes before placing the order.

This one (even though it is a full length story) will fare no better with me. I did not like it. If you don't want to find out what happens in the book I would recommend you stop reading now.

I was not enjoying the book, the plot, nor the characters but I had decided to read on because surely at some point Jack would come to realize he shared an historical event with Jane (Miranda) and everything could move on from there. Well! This author asked me to swallow a series of events which do not make logical sense to me. Miranda (Jane) was "ruined" by Mad Jack at the opera when he kissed her. I'm O.K. so far. Her parents (both parents, mind you, mother and father) were so title mad that they saw her ruination as the end of their plans for the future. They banished her to live with relatives but that is not all they did. Now it gets really stupid. They told everyone she had died and even had a funeral for her!!! She (Miranda) did not know this. She lived with one set of relatives until they both died. After moving to live with the second set of relations Miranda rebelled and decided to go teach at the school where she had been a student. Miss Emery made her living teaching and training young ladies from well-to-do families. She would have kept up with how her former students were doing. She read all the papers from London. Are we supposed to believe that she knew nothing of Miranda's disgrace? Are we supposed to think that she did not read in the papers that Miranda had died? How could she not have known, even if it had just been through gossip from her students and their parents? Four years after her banishment Miranda learned that her mother had died through the newspaper. People read those things with a vengeance because it was their most obvious source of news. For Miranda (now Jane) to never know that she had been killed off by her parents was just too much for me to swallow. And to have her hear it from Jack (even though at this point he still thought she was Jane) added a dimension which made me cringe. Her parents were so awful they would prefer to have her dead rather than married to him? Her father thought Jack would just spend all the dowry money so "let's tell everyone Miranda died" instead of accepting his offer of marriage? Yet when her father died he bequeathed his entire fortune to "Jane Porter". The whole book lost me right there.

I read it all. I didn't like it when I started and I didn't like it when I finished, but I was curious about what the author was going to do with all those characters. This book is a part of The Bachelor Chronicles and we met several characters who were obviously in previous books during the telling of this tale. I would imagine that some or all of the girls in this story go on to books of their own. Luckily for me, I don't have to worry about them any more. They can all go do all the improbable things this author can dream up but I will not be participating in the train wreck.

It is character that always pushes a book from "nice read" to "memorable" for me and This Rake of Mine has characters in spades. Mad Jack and Miranda are a terrific couple and the supporting cast is interesting and well used to advance the main story. I loved the initial set up of how the fact that the hero and heroine's pasts crossed created both of their present conditions. I will be looking forward to Elizabeth Boyle's next book.

I was up till mid-night finished this book. It was pure historical romance with splash of mystery. Miranda's is 'ruined' by a rake and is sent to the country. Jack the Rake is also sent to the country because his brother the Duke has had enough of his embarressements. The book starts nine years after the kiss/ruin. The truth comes out over time and Miranda and Jack must face the truth. If you enjoy this genre I would also check out The Lady Lies The Lady Killer and The Lady's Code by Samantha Saxon.

Where to begin? This story had me shaking my head from page three. Nothing in the *story* is believable. From the mistaken identity to the so-called esponiage storyline. Personally, I couldn't beleive the leap frog conclusions these characters jumped to from moment to moment. (See, Lord John's musings once a man's button fell from Jane/Miranda's sewing basket.) I didn't understand at all how or why Aunt Josephine faked her death. If Lord John and his staff where secret agents, then what's with the musings of selling his unexpected guest. Why wasn't the King, paying for the release of his agents instead of a broke and banished ton member? And who bought Miss Porter decorum act? If getting caught kissing a rake could ruin a woman, what did it say about the four of them sleeping under a single man's roof---for several days? I don't buy a vast land only has one exit from the property--cut across the grass. The romance was comletely lacking. Where was the meeting of minds, becoming friends. Everything was based off a kiss--a drunken kiss at that. What happened to Bruno? He started off as an interesting character and disappeared completely from the book. I think the book would have been better with out the esponiage story. There were too many coincidences. For a while there I thought the ghost of Josphine was also playing matchmaker, too, until you find out she's alive. Then, I was wondering who was whispering all those *remember* in the character's ears. Bottomline, I never connected to any of the characters and found myself just trying to get through it because of the $5.99 price tag. I mean, c'mon, that's almost the cost of two gallons of gas.