Romance Novel Sluts

I’m so excited to be here at Romance Novel Sluts blogging about my favorite romances . . .

Sarah gave me carte blanche and so, of course, I chose the wallflower-rake romance—my very favorite kind of historical romance. There’s something remarkable about wallflowers and rakes—a powerful combination of still waters that run deep and bold, brash personalities that are just asking for trouble.

We all have our favorites . . . mine include Lisa Kleypas’s Devil in Winter, Eloisa James’s Pleasure for Pleasure, Suzanne Enoch’s The Care and Taming of a Rogue, Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me and Anne Mallory’s What Isabella Desires . . . but no matter which rake you have a big crush on or which wallflower you want to hang out with, the fact is, there are some fundamental truths about Wallflower/Rake romances—and these are the things that keep us coming back for more.

So, in homage to these, the very best of all romances, I give you: Nine Rules for Wallflower/Rake Romances:

1. Wallflowers are excellent at two things: standing on the edge of ballrooms and taking note of everything (especially the scandalous activities of rakes).
2. While they’re debauched and impossible, the truth is that the very best of rakes know quality females when they see them.
3. The story really gets rolling when rakes see the potential in the nearest wallflower.
4. Every wallflower has a quiet rake inside her, just waiting to be let out.
5. There will come a moment where the wallflower will find her voice and wreak some serious havoc.
6. Every rake is shocked that every wallflower has a quiet rake inside her.

7. At that moment, when the wallflower has found her voice, the rake will not know what to do with himself.  His confusion and uncertainty will make the book awesome.
8. There is nothing quite so wonderful as a rake smacked in the head by love.
9. It’s an oldie, but a goodie . . . Reformed rakes make the best husbands.

So . . . I guess it’s no surprise that when I finally sat down and wrote a romance novel, I wrote a wallflower/rake romance.  My wallflower, Lady Calpurnia Hartwell, has been pining after her rake (Gabriel, Marquess of Ralston) for a decade . . . until one night, she decides that she’s had enough with being a wallflower, and takes matters into her own hands.

A lady does not smoke cheroot. She does not ride astride. She does not fence or attend duels. She does not fire a pistol, and she never gambles at a gentlemen’s club.

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has always followed the rules, rules that have left her unmarried—and more than a little unsatisfied. And so she’s vowed to break the rules and live the life of pleasure she’s been missing.

But to dance every dance, to steal a midnight kiss—to do those things, Callie will need a willing partner. Someone who knows everything about rule-breaking. Someone like Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston—charming and devastatingly handsome, his wicked reputation matched only by his sinful smile.

If she’s not careful, she’ll break the most important rule of all—the one that says that pleasure-seekers should never fall hopelessly, desperately in love…

-Sarah MacLean
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Watch for Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord, the follow-up to Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, in October!

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