REVIEW: The Notorious Rake by Mary Balogh

The Noto­ri­ous Rake by Mary Balogh (1992) attracted my atten­tion when it was listed in the Top 100 Romances at All About Romance for 2007. A com­mu­nity of romance read­ers ranked this par­tic­u­lar title by Ms. Balogh #98 despite the fact that the book is sadly out of print and will cost you at least $20 to obtain a copy online. Well, my fel­low romance read­ers, you made the right call on this one. The Noto­ri­ous Rake was very good and it had been sit­ting in my TBR pile for years.

Do you enjoy themes where the hero is the pur­suer? Or where you have oppo­sites attracted to each other? How about a story that starts off as a light romance then becomes a much more seri­ous story about a wounded soul who has lost his way? Or a story about two peo­ple wear­ing masks in pub­lic and true love allow­ing each to take a glimpse behind that mask? I know it is hor­ri­ble of me to rave about this book when it is OOP but this book is good. This book was writ­ten back in 1992 but the story, the writ­ing and the char­ac­ters gripped me and engaged me until the last page was turned. It is one of the best romances I’ve read this year. By no means is The Noto­ri­ous Rake a per­fect book but it man­aged to enter­tain me despite a few com­plaints I had which you’ll read later.

Lady Morn­ing­ton aka Mary Gregg has a ter­ri­ble fear of thun­der­storms and rightly so. Four men in her husband’s reg­i­ment were killed when their tent was struck by light­ning. Unlike many women in that time, Mary trav­eled with her hus­band while he was with Wellington’s army. After her husband’s death, Mary took up res­i­dence in Lon­don and started host­ing weekly “lit­er­ary evenings” where the ton are invited to dis­cuss pol­i­tics and the like. Despite being a widow for seven years and being rumored to be the pur­ported “mis­tress” to a mar­ried man, Mary has been able to sus­tain a decent rep­u­ta­tion with the ton. Her lit­er­ary salons are famously pop­u­lar dur­ing the Lon­don sea­son. Poets and politi­cians often accept her invites to pro­vide inter­est­ing com­men­tary and enter­tain­ment for her guests.

Lord Edmond Waite is a gen­tle­man of ill-repute. Like the title sug­gests– a noto­ri­ous rake that the ton shuns. Only wealth and title has allowed Waite to not be com­pletely ostra­cized. Instead of chang­ing the opin­ion of the ton, Waite pretty much plays up to it by giv­ing polite soci­ety the vul­gar­ity that they expect from him. It is at Vaux­hall Gar­dens that Edmond first meets Mary Gregg and after one night in her com­pany, he finds that he can’t stop think­ing of her.  

Mary accepts an invi­ta­tion to her friends party at Vaux­hall Gar­dens and learns that Lord Edmond will be in atten­dance. Like the rest of the ton, she has heard all about Lord Waite’s rep­u­ta­tion. She would like noth­ing more than to avoid him. How­ever it is he who com­forts her dur­ing the thun­der­storm. It is he who calms her fears and helps her through bad mem­o­ries. It is dur­ing the thun­der­storm that the two become lovers.

After Lord Edmond makes love to Mary — he actively and relent­lessly pur­sues her. Per­cep­tions of her being plain and ordi­nary has van­ished. How­ever, Mary wants no more to do with Lord Waite and she tries to shake off his advances to no avail. The two spar with each other often, with Mary giv­ing most of the set-downs and Edmond play­ing up to his vul­gar reputation.

How­ever, Edmond is not as cold as Mary might think. Her barbs have teeth that draws blood. Her shun­ning him in polite soci­ety wounds him. He plays the cad while secretly his heart is break­ing. Even­tu­ally, Edmond becomes so des­per­ate to have her like him and respect him that he is will­ing to let her go if that is her desire. He ratio­nal­izes his attrac­tion to her over and over, say­ing it is more” lust” than any­thing. How­ever, he soon fig­ures out that it is more than lust that attracts him to her.

The Noto­ri­ous Rake is vin­tage Mary Balogh and it has plenty of pas­sion and angst. Char­ac­ters were well devel­oped and there is actual char­ac­ter growth within the story. For exam­ple, when Edmond feels the need to impress Mary, he stops drink­ing and whor­ing. He feels a need to reform him­self for her, to be wor­thy of her love. Also, his per­cep­tions of her has changed: instead of being plain and ordi­nary as he had orig­i­nally thought, Edmond sees Mary with fresh eyes and finds her beau­ti­ful even if he is the only one to think so.

Mary and Edmond have great pas­sion and chem­istry together. The author gives read­ers a cou­ple of explicit love scenes that added to her character’s depth and were a nec­es­sary part of the character’s devel­op­ment and emo­tional growth. I found the pro­tag­o­nists con­fronta­tional exchanges quite engag­ing. How­ever, Mary’s set downs were quite cringe wor­thy. Edmond stole my heart from the start. His need for her was so touch­ing. God, I loved Edmond. He is a lost soul look­ing for a way back and it is through Mary that he finds him­self and is able to be him­self again. Mary essen­tially brings him back to life again.

I thought I had the plot pretty much fig­ured out but I didn’t. The author sur­prised me a time or two espe­cially when the thread turned to Edmond’s past and how his rep­u­ta­tion was ruined. So he jilted a lover for another to the hor­ror of the ton, how­ever, it is his guilt about a par­tic­u­lar “fam­ily acci­dent” that has eaten inside him for 15 years.

Read­ers learn that Edmond has been estranged from his fam­ily because of that “acci­dent”. Thank­fully, Mary is able to see past Edmond’s mask, his façade, but I felt it took her too long to get there. She helps him find the courage he needs to reach out to his fam­ily. Edmond’s aunt, Lady Eleanor tells Mary that Edmond hadn’t always been a bad per­son. She learns from friends that Edmond was attend­ing Oxford and want­ing to be a cler­gy­man. He was “book­ish”, quiet and a “seri­ous” stu­dent before the acci­dent. An intel­li­gent fel­low. It is through his aunt’s eyes, Mary is able to see that Edmond is redeemable (at last!).

I enjoyed The Noto­ri­ous Rake very much and would list it in a top 100 romance list, too. It’s on par as far as inten­sity is con­cerned with my other favorite Balogh titles like The Tem­po­rary Wife and Snow Angel to name a few. If I had any com­plaints with the story, it was with Mary’s char­ac­ter. I felt she was too harsh and so uncom­pro­mis­ing to the hero. I did not enjoy being in Mary’s head at all know­ing how she despised Edmond. Thank good­ness, Balogh does give us both pro­tag­o­nists POV. I liked being inside Edmond’s head, know­ing his thoughts and feel­ings that go well past the veneer. He is truly a wounded soul who hated him­self and needed healing.

The ton is quite wrong in their view of Edmond for he is quite intel­li­gent and very per­cep­tive. Sen­si­tive and thought­ful, too. Of course, there is a rival for Mary’s affec­tions to make things even more inter­est­ing where con­flict is con­cerned. How­ever, I think I’ve elab­o­rated enough on the plot.  Any­way, after a week or so, the mem­ory of this lovely story will fade and then I’ll find some­thing else to rave about. The Noto­ri­ous Rake was a very good, intense read with great pac­ing. I hope many of you can locate a copy. I wish I had one to give away but I don’t. My grade, A. Now, I’m going to go see what other Balogh titles I own that are just as good as this one (fin­gers crossed).

Tech­no­rati Tags: The Noto­ri­ous Rake, Mary Balogh, Regency Romance

For Fur­ther Reading

• The Black Duke’s Prize, Suzanne Enoch
• Seduc­ing an Angel (Huxtable Series), Mary Balogh
• At Last Comes Love (Huxtable Series), Mary Balogh
• Guest Review: ‘Then Comes Seduc­tion’ by Mary Balogh
• REVIEW: The Amer­i­can Duchess by Joan Wolf
• REVIEW: Mars, vol.1 by Fuyumi Soryo
• Hun­dreds of Years to Reform a Rake by Lau­rie Brown

Tagged as: false facade, Mary Balogh, Opposites Attract, Regency Romance