Cold Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas

A twist of fate . . .

Devon Ravenel, London's most wickedly charming rake, has just inherited an earldom. But his powerful new rank in society comes with unwanted responsibilities . . . and more than a few surprises. His estate is saddled with debt, and the late earl's three innocent sisters are still occupying the house . . . along with Kathleen, Lady Trenear, a beautiful young widow whose sharp wit and determination are a match for Devon's own.

A clash of wills . . .

Kathleen knows better than to trust a ruthless scoundrel like Devon. But the fiery attraction between them is impossible to deny—and from the first moment Devon holds her in his arms, he vows to do whatever it takes to possess her. As Kathleen finds herself yielding to his skillfully erotic seduction, only one question remains:

Can she keep from surrendering her heart to the most dangerous man she's ever known?

I’m one of the readers who was just over the moon when I found out Lisa Kleypas was writing Historicals again.

This Victorian Romance begins with the new unwilling earl Devon Ravenel and his brother West talking about how neither of them wanted this crumbling money pit, nor the responsibility of the people, lands, house, etc. Devon, through some quirk of fate, wound up taking over the earldom from his cousin.

But his cousin’s widow is not as welcoming as he’d thought she’d be, even though she’d only been married for a few days. In fact she’s furious when she overhears that Devon will be selling off the parts of the property that aren’t entailed. Devon does nothing to ease her fears, instead he compounds them saying he not only will sell it, but that it’s a huge indebted money pit, and he doesn’t really care what happens to her and his cousins-the previous earl’s younger sisters.

But he changes his mind.

And I loved it. I think I enjoyed Devon a lot, once he stopped being an asshat. West, I loved. Katherine, the heroine? I really didn’t like her. She was…stuffy and overbearing, and always knew what was right for everyone else. I had a hard time relating to her. No one likes a know-it-all.

I do believe she had everyone’s best interests at heart, however, she was only a couple of years older than her cousins-in-law, yet she acted as if she were their mother. It was too much for me. I wanted to grab her and shout, you’ve known these girls for mere months, how dare you, madam!

I didn’t have the same problem with this book as many other readers had (I saw a lot of comments about how she tried to set up the whole series here, and she did, but it worked out well for me). I just didn’t enjoy Katherine, and it’s hard to like a book when you don’t care for the hero or the heroine.

I did however feel the absolute need to buy Marrying Winterborne immediately to find out what happens next with one of the cousins (I’ve started that one already lol).