A review by agrippinaes
Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas

5.0

I thought this was a good, solid historical romance book. The plot is quite simple but the book is well-paced; I thought the use of time skips allowed for things to move on more realistically. I liked both main characters and I thought they had really strong chemistry. Some of their scenes together were filled with sexual tension

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such as the one where she accidentally catches him bathing

, whilst others were just lovely and sweet

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such as him helping her when she cries for the first time in years, or when he sees her holding a baby.

Their dynamic was really interesting to me and I enjoyed watching their feelings for each other develop and unfold. Their backstories influenced the story in a way that never felt too heavy or too imposing and in both cases, felt perfectly matched with the tone of the rest of the book.

There were also some great side characters - I loved Quincy and Mr. Bloom, as examples of more minor characters, and I ended up becoming ever so slightly obsessed with West (I didn’t think I was till I read the notes I’d made whilst reading and the majority of them were observations about his character -

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such as him developing brotherly feelings for the girls so quickly, him throwing himself into work on the land, the fact he saved a pig, the moment where Devon and Kathleen are having their big argument and he’s sighing in the middle of it saying “I don’t think I should be here” - they all made him really endearing and really enjoyable as a side character.

Also - I couldn’t finish the review without mentioning Helen and Winterbourne.

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I’m not usually a fan of a secondary romance in novels, and there were a couple of points where I felt it was in danger of taking over from the actual plot, but their scenes together were lovely. I loved her caring for him, reading to him, his first sighting of her and wanting to buy her gifts, the whole thing with the orchid that he did look after...I was distressed when their relationship fell apart even though I knew it was coming because they’re the main characters in the second book. I thought it as done well.

If I had any complaint, the ending was a bit blunt. I know that this was because a lot of the final conflict between them was wrapped up in the couple featuring in the next book, but still - there wasn’t really any

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discussion about their relationship going forwards beyond them loving each other and so on. I also wasn’t convinced by the pregnancy thing - I didn’t really understand how she could have ‘misled’ him about her courses starting just because she got her dates wrong. Like I know some women are really regular but unless she’d actually seen menstrual blood...why did she think she’d started her period? It just didn’t make any sense to me and it felt a bit too neat at the end.

Unrelated note, but I wasn’t a fan of

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Winterbourne’s behaviour towards Kathleen in that one scene. I sort of got why it was there - but it felt really unnecessary. I didn’t think it was needed.

Overall though this was a really enjoyable read and I loved every minute of it - until the ending which was maybe a little short and quick for my tastes.

I would recommend it if you want a solid historical romance story featuring a reforming rake and a young widow with some enemies-to-lovers vibes.

Content Warnings:

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Train accident, death on page, violence, sexual threat.