Customer Reviews

Taming Rafe (The Bancroft Brothers)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is only the second book I read by Suzanne Enoch. I wasn't sure if she was a flash in the pan when I read "Reforming A Rake." To my relief, she wasn't because I loved "Taming Rafe" as much "RAR." Her characters show a great deal of vulnerability and the story is told in the eyes of both hero and heroine which I enjoy...too many of the romance books are told through the eyes of the heroine only. I am going to find more of her books since I enjoyed these two so much.

I really loved the characters in this book. Rafe is the ultimate rake in this story. He is a wandering second son who doesn't do anything to make anyone happy, but himself of course. So Rafe is sitting in a gaming hall and wins Forton Hall. His big plan is to go sell the estate as soon as he can can get out of England, maybe China? When he gets to Forton Hall he find the estate sadly lacking (totally run to the ground) and what he believes to be thieves. Enter Lis (Felicity) and May who clobbers him over the head with a tea kettle. From there the fireworks start of fly between Lis and Rafe. All you need now is the villian, enter James stage right. This was my only problem with the book ..... we know why James wants Forton Hall, which unfortunately makes the story kind of boring (hence the four stars instead of five).....but all in all this book was great and the passion between Rafe and Lis is incredible.

This tale is a bit far-fetched, but I enjoyed it very much. Suzanne Enoch writes with much humor and charm!

Rafael Bancroft introduced in "Love Undone" is a Rake! The original 'love um and leave um --- adventurer, world traveller and insistent upon making his own way without help from this father - the Duke!. When he wins an estate, Forten Hall, from Nigel Harrington in a game of chance, he is thrilled - for here is his ticket to more adventures and travel. All he has to do is find a buyer and he's on his way.

Unfortunately, when Rafe travels to Chesire to inspect his newly won property, not only has it fallen into ruin, but he is attacked and knocked senseless by the two remaining Harringtons -- Felicity and eight year old May - the sisters of Nigel Harrington. When Rafe finally comes to - it is to see the face of an angel - an angel that is going to throw a monkey wrench into his travel plans. How can he leave these two lovely ladies on their own with a roof about to cave in on them? His sense of honor (?) keeps him there - or is it something else - maybe attraction?

This has delightful characters, wonderful dialog - fast moving and quite funny. Loved it!

Since I love Regency romance, I decided to give this author a try. After all, she appears to be one of the "big names" in the business, and has a loyal following.

But I will not be counted among that number. This book started off well. It was funny and really grabbed my attention. While it's a well-used plot device, we all find the idea that the heroine, believing that the hero is bent on attack, beans him over the head, only to fall in love with him later, to be an interesting one. I was eagerly reading when the entertainment value of this book just started to fade out to nothing.

After over 100 pages, I felt that I didn't know any more about the characters than I'd learned from the first ten. I find this annoying. Characters (especially the main ones) should become more and more real to the reader, so that by the end of the book, they feel like old friends. That wasn't happening here.

Also, some of the things in the book just didn't seem to make sense to me. Like, how on earth does a woman alone manage to take care of all that livestock and manage the household tasks of cooking, cleaning and mending all by herself? Wow, she must be superwoman or something. Why on earth did she think that Rafe was insane? I didn't see anything in his behaviour that would have led me to think that he was nuts, yet the heroine decided that he was from the moment she met him, then hung on to that view. This got to be really annoying.

I tried to get past all this and keep reading, but the book just couldn't hold my interest. I didn't feel like the characters were falling in love. It just felt like they were gripped in the throes of lust. While sexual attraction is necessary for a good romance, it needs to be handled more delicately than this for it to be satisfying to the reader. In other words, I like it to be a bit more on the back burner, while the relationship develops with tender feelings. Physical attraction should be present between hero and heroine, but it can't ben the only thing drawing them together. That was the case here.

I couldn't make myself finish this, as my eyes kept glazing over as I read it and my mind kept wandering. I might read another of this author's books, but only if I don't have to pay any money for it. If you want really satisfying Regency romances that are keepers, I suggest the works of Sabrina Jeffries, Jacquie D'Alessandro, Mary Balogh, and Teresa Medeiros.

When my language arts teacher recommended Suzannne Enoch to me as a romance author, I immediately ran to the bookstore to buy her books. I read By Love Undone first and I loved it, so I eagerly picked up Taming Rafe right afterwards. I loved the character of Rafe, who is still the embodiment of the perfect rake for me. He's so charming, noble, caring, funny, and charismatic that I just fell in love with him. However, in my opinion, the plot was boring and I got tired of the storyline pretty quickly. Even Rafe couldn't speed it along. The characters are quite lovable, including little May and Beeks, the butler. But the heroine, Felicity, didn't appeal to me all that much, perhaps because the story centered around Rafe so much. All in all, the book had great characters, but the plot just plain bored me.

I don't usually read Regencies but I absolutely love Suzanne Enoch's books. I've read her Sam/Rick series and enjoyed them so much I decided to try her other books. I picked this up yesterday morning and read it in one day. It was very enjoyable. I loved the characters and found myself smiling through out most of the book. May was my favorite! I immediately went out and picked up her other ones and look forward to reading them. I don't think this will totally turn me on to other Regency authors, but I know I will be buying and reading anything the Suzanne Enoch continues to write.

Julia Quinn, I think it was, wrote that you weren't alive if you didn't fall in love with Rafe Bancroft. Guess I'm living. I wasn't 1/4 of the way through the book before the delicious and delightful Rafe had captured my heart.

Felicity is an excellent match for him, who quickly shows his natural talents as a father with her 8-year-old sister Meg, who's a splendid secondary character.

The plot did not bore me, despite moments of feeling that we ought to get on with it, because it was so intertwined with the ups and downs of the romantic relationship. The villain's increasing villainy also helped to keep the tension up.

This is a definitive feel-good book. It's witty and charming and romantic. And Rafe?...Ah, go ahead and fall in love with him. Everyone else has.

Taming Rafe is the second of Suzanne Enoch's Bancroft Brothers books, the sequel to By Love Undone. I really enjoyed it, but I would also highly recommend reading the prequel - it's the better of the two and one of Enoch's best IMO.

SUMMARY:
Rafael Bancroft (28), the younger brother of Quin Bancroft (hero in By Love Undone) and the son of the Duke of Highbarrow is the "bad boy" of his family. They despair of him ever settling down or taking on any responsibilities (though this isn't really accurate, since he spent 7 years in the military). Rafe, wanting to cut his dependency on his family and find his own funding for his latest adventure - which he'll start in either China or India - is ecstatic when he unexpectedly wins an estate in a card game, figuring he'll quickly sell it and use the money to finance his travels. Unfortunately, upon his arrival he doesn't find what he expected, but instead ... a rundown estate with a house that is falling apart (and a west wing that has literally caved in), along with the two sisters of the man who gambled away Forton Hall who are completely unaware that their home is no longer theirs.

To his great surprise, Rafe is inexplicably drawn to Forton Hall - and it's lovely residents, Felicity (22-23) and May (8) Harrington. Before he knows what he's about, he's making plans to tear down the stable and then building a new one, designing a new west wing and trying very hard to get rid of Felicity's far-too-friendly neighbor and would-be-suitor. A delightful hero and heroine with pretty good chemistry (isn't Enoch's best), interesting relationship development with obstacles to overcome that are realistic and well portrayed, *utterly charming* younger sister, and a bad-guy subplot involving a secret loan combine to make Taming Rafe an enjoyable read.

CHARACTERS:
Felicity is strong and independent; she's only 22 but has a great deal of responsibility, in charge of Forton Hall and raising her younger sister, Meg (one of the *best* characters of the book!). Her twin brother, Nigel, is basically good-for-nothing and only does harm to the family's finances and situation. When the book starts, part of the house has collapsed, they're buying everything on credit in the local village, and Felicity and Meg take care of all of the cooking, cleaning, etc. because they've had to let go of all of the servants.

Rafe is a great "soon-to-be-reformed rake" hero (scar and all); he's intelligent, charming, friendly, and can be deliciously possessive and jealous. As Felicity points out at one point in the book, his problem isn't so much that he's not interested in anything or never has goals, but rather he is never allowed by his family to get fully involved with anything, because they're always dragging him back home, making him feel that everything he does is insignificant (his father didn't want him in the military). His relationship with Meg is absolutely adorable and one of the highlights of the book; she's so entertaining - especially when she's using slang and later starts imitating Rafe and using curse words.

COMPLAINT:
The living arrangement of the hero and heroine throughout the book is *completely* unrealistic - it's bad enough when Rafe, a complete stranger, sleeps in the stable (while the unmarried and unchaperoned Felicity and her younger sister are living alone right next door in the house), but when he then moves into the house with them ... Yes, there is some (very little!) gossip/eyebrows raised, but not really, which doesn't fit at all with the times. It's not even like Felicity is "firmly on the shelf" - she's only 22! However, I think slightly unbelievable plot aspects can be overlooked if the book is good enough and Taming Rafe is on the whole a great read.

Lovely book, however I am torn between a 3 and a 4 rating. Let me explain.

Rafe is a rakish, dissolute, second son of a duke who is at 28 still rebelling against his daddy. Leaving England frequently on "adventures" but truely he is really lost for all life fulfilling purpose.

Felicity is stunned to find out that not only did her brother leave her destitute in a crumbling estate but he also gambled it from underneath her and the new owner is said devil above.

Ok good premise. It is funny, and the younger sister remindes me Diana in The Philadelphia Story. The story takes on mostly the view of Rafe and you get to hear about how he melts everytime our Heroine smiles...which is so very romantic.

I have to say that perhaps I read to much into books of this type but I believe that people should have some accountablility for their writing otherwise it shouldn't be written. So here our my examples of things that should be accounted for...

#1: In the beginning of the story Felicity sends Rafe out to sleep in the stable. From the previous descriptions of rain and delapidation, and that the entire estate, duties and all repairs are managed by only one woman...who is always mending stockings and such... I can imagine that the stable has no fresh hay to lay upon. It just rained and the stable leaks badly. Do you know what kind of infestations live there? Rotten hay isn't sweet...when was the last time it was even mucked out?

#2: In order to fell their attacker (Rafe) May hits him upon the head with a tea kettle and that causes him to bleed. A lot. But next day his about town after sleeping in said stable, totally bloody. YUCK!! He doesn't even bathe til the next day.

#3: Rafe lives with her unchaperoned in her own house. Everyone knows they are lovers and besides some gossip that is all that happens. She should be ruined by the mere innuendo.

#4: Why the hell doesn't he leap to marriage the moment he took her virginity? He totally ruined her. What if she was pregnant? What a cad...I don't get the rest of the discussion in the entire book, he should marry her ASAP. The loss of her virginity goes completely unnoticed. Perhaps he feels that she is so lowly it doesn't matter to someone of her class.

#5: How does one woman keep care of all those cows and sheep? We know of at least 42 cows...some are about to deliver. They need things, how does one woman do it? It just isn't explained and therefore should never be brought up.

I am convinced that Enoch is so thrilled by her characters, which are good, that she just types mindlessly until her story is completely with little thought to these practicalities. I liked her book but I am aggrivated at these problems. I had the same problem with the other book Sin and Sensibility...it just wasn't thought out very well beyond what would happen to the characters.

You won't be disappointed if you read this book...but may be you will see what I mean and can imagine a bit less vividly that I can.