Customer Reviews

A Rake's Vow (Bar Cynster)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Vane Cynster, Devil's cousin and closest friend, has his turn at meeting his match in this book. An enforced stay at his godmother's house brings him into contact with her niece, Patience Debbington, and a mystery: who is the magpie thief stealing all and sundry, and who is the Spectre who appears at night, in shadow, and appears to haunt the place? The primary suspect is Patience's young brother Gerrard, but Vane doesn't believe that for an instant. His godmother begs him to stay and sort it out, and as he is already very intrigued by Patience he agrees.

Patience is alarmed by Vane and does her best to avoid him; she's also worried about the effect he's having on Gerrard. ...

The plot of this book follows exactly the same direction as Devil's Bride. Vane - determined not to marry - encounters a woman and knows that he's met his fate. He wants to marry her. He proposes; she refuses him. He determines to persuade her through sensuality and at the same time find out why she won't marry him. And in the background there is a (not very interesting and pretty transparent) mystery plot - again, I'd worked out who was behind it pretty early on; ... Maybe Laurens wanted him to be seen as an idiot?

I found Vane's approach to Patience unconvincing; in one scene - when he'd just met her - he was aware that she had the power to attract him in a way no woman had before. And he was determined to resist that: he didn't *want* to marry. And yet barely a half-dozen pages later, with nothing having happened in the meantime, he was suddenly reconciled to his fate and determined to marry her. ...

And Patience's antipathy to Vane in the beginning was simply not explained until some way in the book. I can accept her stereotyping him as a certain type of man - and not being told what she meant by an `elegant gentleman' until almost halfway through the book did not help! - but we need to know *what* stereotype she's using, and why it bothers her. That took some time to convey.

Again, a lot of detailed sex scenes, which is fine if you like that kind of thing; they're too numerous and technical - as well as lengthy - for my preference. I prefer my lovemaking scenes to focus on the emotions rather than descriptions of sex organs. Of course the extent and locations of Vane and Patience's amorous encounters are all wrong for the period, and I'm not sure why Laurens seems to assume that engaged, or near-engaged, couples of the - quite Puritanic, remember! - Regency period would naturally have sex. This has come across in three of her books now; her heroes seem to make an automatic assumption that an engagement means free sex. ...

I do have the rest of the Cynster series and will keep reading - Laurens has a readable style, even if I do skim some scenes - but I do hope that she varies her plots for later books.

This was the first book I read of Stepjanie's Lauren's or the Cynster series. I am hooked!! Vane was so refreshing, and so real in his reactions. I thought Patience was wonderful!! I was surprised to read that the majority of the other reader reveiws found her boring. I have a very busy day with work and family, and found this book to be fun, engrosiing, a wonderful story, and not at all insulting of my intelligence. I loved this book, the story line, the characters, Vane, and the incredible love scenes. Maybe because this was the first of the Ms. Lauren's books, I was not set up for diappointment. I have since purchased "Scandals' Bride" and LOVED it am now ordering Devil's Bride. These Cynster Men are awe-inspiring!! Let me say that I would like to thank Ms. Lauren's for doing more for the lovelife in my 11 year marriage than anything else - Stephanie Lauren's writing is the most wonderful aphrodesiac!!

Okay, for those of you who are Bar Cynster fans, here me out, not that I need to defend my opinion in anyway.

I believe Stephanie Laurens has exceptional writing skills, especially when it comes to her love scenes. I really believe that in that particular case, she's at the top of her class in this area.

But what I find typical of her stories is that her love scenes usual sizzles while her surrounding story/mystery-line fizzles.

The characers and mainly the plot surrounding the love story appears either uninspired, half-hearted and lagging. In fact, the only sure-fire thing you can look foward to (and never be disappointed in)is the love scenes themselves.

Unfortunately, I find it to be the very case with "A Rake's Vow". For one, she tries to convince us that Vane is this alpha-male, ladies' man that does as he pleases. He, just like all the Cynster males, vow that they shall never marry.

I don't know if its just me, but I truly would like know why they were so against the martial state in the first place. This was never made clear, so you never knew the real motives behind the "Bar Cynster" get-togeter to begin with....

Anyway, Vane then suddenly meets his match -all of a sudden- when he meets this 26 year old spinster who has nothing to claim to her name but an annoying younger brother and a cat.

For all we hear of how dashing these Cynster males are, Vane's love interest, with the way she was described as this spinster who never really got out much, doesn't really suit his tastes, in my opinion. I just feel that Patience (the herione's name)could have had a lot more going on for her than was described in her side of the story. Compared to all the other heriones in the Bar Cynster series, she's the most boring!

Besides the characters not being overly consistent with their viewpoints, the mystery just plain as hell, sucked. After reading 4 of her books, I am convinced more than ever that S. Laurens lacks the talent to write a decent plot/mystery line to hold together the romance that helps build her characters and push the story along.

I find that it is not so much the characters that lack depth so much, but the plot itself and with this book - like most of her books- I get bored easily after reading only 10 pages or less, despite the well-detailed, page-scorching sex scenes.

I am one of those people who appreciate a well-thought out, engaging mystery, if there is to BE one, along with the tittilating sex..... But if I had to choose ONE aspect over another, I'd choose a good plot/mystery over steamy love scenes all the time.

A "Rake's Vow" could do no justice for me, I am sorry to say...

Caught up in a bad weather, Vane Cynster decides to pass the night at Bellamy Hall, his godmother's place. Upon arrival, he meets Patience Debbington, who immediately catches his rakish eyes. When Vane learns from his godmother that there has been a series of theft (with Gerard Debbington being the main suspect) and that a spectre is haunting the grounds, he agrees to stay on and help solve the mystery, much to the dismay of Patience, who has taken an instant dislike of him on the grounds that he is an 'elegant gentleman' and the possible influence he may have on her brother, Gerard.

The plot follows that of Devil's Bride, which would have been fine had it been written in a more convincing way and supported by memorable secondary characters. But the mystery was too weak, and some of the secondary characters were boring and plain annoying, to the point of being ridiculous. And I found it hard to relate to Patience and really like her compared to Honoria. She just lacks depth and is rather boring in my opinion. Her dislike for 'elegant gentlemen' in particular should have been explained earlier in the book to make her dislike of him a little easier to understand. At times, I felt like she wasn't being totally honest with Vane. As for Vane, he wasn't really portrayed as well as Devil and his character just wasn't fully realized.

After reading Devil's story, I was quite disappointed with this novel. Since Vane was the other Bar Cynster member who featured the most in the first book, I was eager to read his story but sadly, this didn't live up to my expectations. I think that this is the weakest of the 6 Bar Cynster novels, and I actually skipped a lot of pages just to get to the end. But still, I think that this would probably be enjoyable to those who haven't read Devil's Bride.

Just when you thought Stephanie Laurens couldn't get any better, she writes another stunning novel.

Following Devil's Bride as the second book in the Bar Cynster series by Laurens, this book manages to top the first.

Vane Cynster makes a mad run for it after his cousin Devil's wedding, as he refuses to be caught in the parson's mousetrap as well, but leave it to a thunderstorm to force him to take cover at his godmother's house, and introduce him to Miss Patience Debington.

When Patience gets trapped in the intrigue surrounding a petty thief at the house party she's attending, things begin to look up for her and her brother Gerrard when Vane shows up and puts his investigating skills to good use.

Though Patience hates the idea of getting tied to an "elegant gentleman" for life, she finds herself falling in love with the handsome cynster.

Laurens continues to amaze with her talent for writing. Hopefully she'll continue to pull off these wonderful romance novels for many years to come.

I enjoyed the character of 'Vane' in Devil's Bride and decided to pick up the book with Vane's story. Although he is still very bit as attractive, he somehow lacked the excitment of a hero in this story. I failed to understand how the two of them felt in love. The relationship between the hero and heroine were not well developed leaving me only understanding the lust between the two.

The story moved so so slowly starting from the middle. It was truely painful to get through. The thiefs sub-plot was not exciting in any way and the mystery not well developed in the book. I only finished the book because I bought it and refuse to waste money/book.

After a few Stephanie Laurens' books, I almost gave up but someone told me about her first Cynster book - Devil's Bride. When I saw a good deal on the Devil's Bride/A Rake's Vow combo, I bought it.

Devil's Bride did not disappoint me but A Rake's Vow did.

How many times can Vane "arrogantly raised his brows", or "coolly arrogant, raised a brow", or "quirked a brow", or "a brow arogantly quirked"? I counted, in one instance, 5 in 2 pages. I attempted to say: "Stop raising your eyebrows or you will stick with a surprised expression forever" - just like my mother always said.

Vane was my favorite of all Devil's cousins and Ms. Laurens did not do him justice in this book. Why did he feel that Patience is "The One"? There was no indication or explanation for the way he felt - just that it was "fate".

I think I am done with Ms. Laurens. Her style of writing is not to my liking. I like Mary Balogh or Jo Beverley better. Their books are not trenched with sex scenes and you know why the couples fall in love.

Even though this is the second book in the series, I read it last and found it just as satisfying as all the others. Nobody is doing Regency romances better today than Stephanie Laurens. The plot of this book focused almost exclusively on the relationship between the two leads. There was some sort of mystery plot surrounding the whole thing, but frankly I couldn't keep the cast of characters straight and didn't find it very interesting. Not that it mattered. The core relationship was more than enough to keep me entertained. Unlike some of Laurens novels, the heroine in this book is a very level-headed, smart young woman. As always, the Cynster lead was devastatingly sexy. If we can't clone them in real life, at least Laurens has given us the next best thing - Cynster after Cynster.

A RAKE'S VOW picks up where DEVIL'S BRIDE left off. After attending the dedication of a chapel roof Honoria Cynster strong-armed the single Cynster cousins into funding, Spencer "Vane" Cynster flees the realm of matchmaking mamas and marriage-minded debutantes, only to be done in by a storm. The erratic weather forces him to break his journey at his godmother Minnie's estate, and the first sight that greets his eyes upon his arrival is the too-fetching form of Patience Debbington, Minnie's niece, bent over a flower bed.

Vane is the last person Patience wants to see - not that they've met before, but she knows the type. Her father was a consummate rake, leaving her mother languishing in the country while he conquered town and ignored his family. Patience is alarmed when she learns Vane has decided to stay; she does not need someone as tempting as him in her life, and she certainly doesn't want him corruptly influencing her impressionable younger brother, Gerrard. Vane has agreed to stay and track down the mysterious "magpie" thief that has been plaguing the household, taking bric-a-brac which appears to have only sentimental value. On top of the thief, there also appears to be a specter haunting the ruins of the abbey on which the estate was built. The house's mismatched occupants - guests Minnie shelters to keep her from being lonely - appear to be united in their choice for a suspect: Gerrard.

Vane and Patience join forces to clear Gerrard's name, and on the way, they succumb to their strong mutual attraction. There's only one problem: Vane is metaphorically driving for the nearest church and Patience is running as far and as fast as she can in the other direction! Can Vane convince Patience of his sincere belief in love and family without having to grovel or humble himself? Will Patience learn to believe in love as a strength rather than a weakness? Given the Cynster history, readers know there will be a happily-ever-after, but only when both parties learn to give a little, guaranteeing that the way to true love is an interesting (and sometimes steamy) read.

Patience's doubts and fears of marriage without love are made vivid and real, and Vane, being the wonderful and sensitive man that he is, does a very complete job of convincing Patience to see the truth of his feelings for her. Patience, in turn, is just the right heroine to teach Vane that humbling himself to admit his love is not a bad thing when the rewards are so plentiful. Laurens has nailed the chemistry between these two very likable characters. The suspense is still a little lacking, although the mystery is a great deal less transparent than the one presented in DEVIL'S BRIDE - but keep in mind, this is not a mystery novel. A RAKE'S VOW is a great relationship story, and any fan of the Cynsters or Regency romances will appreciate it. Personally, I just may be hooked on Cynsters for life!

This book let me down. I enjoyed Devil's Bride so much that my expectations for Vane's story was really high. This did not turn out the way I thought. The characters were still in the style of Stephanie Laurens - strong heros and heroines - but there just was something missing in the storyline. The pace was a lot slower and Vane came off a little desperate towards the middle of the book. This would not have been a huge let-down if it were not for the wonderfulness of Devil's story. I will still look forward to the rest of the Cynsters though and hope that they're up to the standards of book 1.