Customer Reviews

The Rake's Rainbow

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My first experience with Allison Lane (The Beleaguered Earl) was a disappointment for the book was so full of flaws that I was reluctant to try again. I am pleased to say that I was very much surprised with The Rake's Rainbow and recommend it highly.

The story of The Hon Thomas Mannering and Miss Caroline Cummings is not an easy read. If you like your regencies lite 'n' fluffy, then this book is not for you. It is dark, distressing and depressing but, ultimately, full of hope and triumph against what seem to be pretty overwhelming odds.

Thomas and Caroline marry in order to escape - for her poverty and governessing and for him in order to gain an inheritance. Thomas had become ensnared by Alicia - a heartless, fickle nymphomaniac who strings him along never intending to marry an earl's mere second son. He slips into a deep depression, drinking and gambling and nearly slipping over the edge into madness.

Caroline is the stronger of the two for, with astute insight into human nature, she is able to save him by letting matters run their course, never giving up hope that the man she sees beneath the hopeless despair is worth nurturing and loving. Some might say she is a bit of a sacrificial lamb but, within the social context of the times, she did what she had to in times when divorce was virtually impossible. The descriptions of her meeting Thomas's family for the first time and finding her way through the Season were excellent for she does it without the support of her husband who, by this time, is so depressed that he ignores her completely.

I liked the way the author developed Thomas's family; each member, particularly his father, the Earl of Marchgate and his foppish but sweet elder brother, had a significant role to play in the development of the story.

There is a great deal of pain, angst and high emotion in this story. Tempers flare, characters sometimes act against their own best intentions and the hero is flawed but honourable. The heroine is strong but tender and loving. Sometimes the reader will want to point a pistol at Thomas and at others will want to love him - for this story is a real emotional roller coaster.

I will read another of Allison Lane's books to see if my first experience was atypical. It's just too bad she did not meet in The Beleaguered Earl the exceptionally high standards that she set with The Rake's Rainbow. It was very well done; polished prose and obvious careful research gives it a very authentic air. Her depiction of the Season, the Ton and marriage and family life in the Regency era were very good and most realistic.

Mannering, the novel's supposed hero, is so unappealing and thickheaded that it defies even romance novel logic that are spunky heroine should fall in love with him. Mannering spends the entire novel in love with another woman and treats the loveable heroine, who is his wife, so badly that you actually hope the author kills him so our heroine could find a worthy mate. Not a noteworthy book.

Another Allison Lane winner! The hero takes forever to realize the errors of his misplaced passion (all the way to the next-to-last chapter), but the rest of the story is well worth reading. Caroline's development is well-paced and rather enchanting, the lesser characters interesting, and the anti-heroine rather amazing to watch. Particularly enjoyable is Caroline's level-headedness; she understands that she must become 'her own woman' in many ways, and so comes off as a strong person. And Thomas's turnaround, when it finally comes, is very thorough but also believeable. You'll cheer too!

What kind of hero barfs on you after a night of debauchery? What kind of hero neglects his estates till it's ruined and it takes the heroine to set it to rights again and then he hates her because she bested him? What kind of hero is in love with the whorish OW to the point that his eye moistens with tears for her? What kind of hero doesn't see that the OW is a female dog that sleeps around with everyone even when he hears people talking about it? What kind of hero cheats with said OW? Here is the biggest one of all..... WHAT KIND OF HERO WISHES THAT THE HEROINE WOULD DIE IN AN ACCIDENT SO HE COULD BE WITH THE OW 50 PAGES BEFORE THE BOOK IS FINISHED????? Why, no other than the hero in this sweet looking regency romance that is!

When I first started reading this book a few months ago and came up on the scene in which the hero vomits all over the heroine, I instantly stopped reading it and relegated it to my DNF will try again later shelf- I doubted the "will try again later" part but still. A few days ago I listened in on a discussion over at AMI about the hero in this book and how he was the worst hero ever, so of course the sick and twisted part of me yearned for more abuse at that point in time and I decided to pick it back up again. The torture was endless. He was definitely one of the worst heroes. Don't get me wrong, I had a bit of fun reading it because the hero shocked the heck out of me so therefore I was not bored (that's a good thing no matter what) but MAN this dude was a horrible hero and I didn't buy into him loving the heroine in the end for nothing!

The "hero": selfish, mean, cheater, weak in character, whiny, self-pity (why is my life so bad, woe is me - let me abuse someone else because I'm too lazy and selfish to care of my own life).

The heroine - liked her for the most part but she put up with his abuse (verbal and emotional) and then when he did have his about-face she made it too easy on him. She didn't require he do anything to atone for his abuse of her.

While I love Allison Lane's work, due to her high quality of writing and her excellent ability to move a story along at a well done pace, I have to agree with an earlier reviewer and say that this book left me ultimately unhappy due to the pure stupidity of the hero. The heroine was a fine character, and while I understand and accept that within the society she lived, she had little choice but to stay married to her husband, I still found the hero so undeserving of her love and affection that it made me want to scream when they finally ended up together happily.

Why then, the four star review? Because, Lane's writing is really just that good and her ability to tell a story is beyond so many other writers of Regency romances. She is able to go beyond the stereotypes that most other such writers use and she does something I find admirable -- she points out the good AND bad in the minor characters. There is something to both like and dislike about many of them. I ended up adoring many of the minor characters and the heroine. While this is something of a over-used plot in Regencies, Lane does her best to make it refreshing and interesting. Truly, she's one of the three romance writers that I ever pick up without questioning the fact that I will get a decent read.

I would highly suggest this book and Lane's other books, but, at least for this one, I would not recommend that you expect to much of the main male character.

The heroine Caroline is wonderful, but I agree with another reviewer that her love interest Mannerling, is exceptionally unappealing. Throughout almost the entire book he in love with another woman, even though everyone else in London knows her to be evil. He treats Caroline terribly, and the turn-around ending wasn't enough of a "reward" for this reader.

It's true the hero was 'thick as a plank' as someone mentioned, but he had some redeeming qualities such as stopping his rakehell life and restoring his country estate and starting a business. He was basically honorable but for the obsession. I liked the way he 'owned up' to himself when he learned the truth and how he cringed when he realized how society and his family must have felt by his foolish behavior in constantly defending her (the lost love). My rating is for the book overall. Foolish of me to start reading at bedtime; sigh, I was up until 5:30 a.m.

Not the fluffy historicals written these days. All the characters engaged my interest, especially the hero's older brother. The writing flowed smoothly; I never got bored, felt the need to skim over or skip ahead. I liked the representation of the times, the plight of returning soldiers and the 'slang' of the day. I appreciated that the 'oh so perfect and innocent' other woman got hers in the end. Lots of things I liked, most of which have been mentioned by other reviewers. What can I say? In spite of the hero's idiocy and temporary insanity, I loved the book.