Caroline Lee: May the Best Rake Win

Caroline Lee by Caroline Lee
Series: The Rake Review #5
on August 4, 1971
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy
Pages: 202
Format: eBook
Buy on Amazon

A spy posing as a rake. A wallflower who knows too much. One wager that blows his cover wide open.

Sir Kenneth Fraser is London's most notorious Scottish rake — and that reputation is the only thing standing between him and exposure as a Crown agent. When he's nearly caught rifling through an earl's study, he needs a distraction. Fast.

His solution: a wager. Court Miss Barbara Fokette, the Ton's most stubborn wallflower, and no one will question his motives. May the best rake win.

Miss Barbara Fokette has spent years turning her twisted foot and razor-sharp intellect into the perfect excuse to avoid Society entirely — and spend her time where she belongs, among her collection of Egyptian antiquities. She is not interested in being courted, charmed, or won.

She is, however, very good at spotting a forgery.

When Kenneth realizes that Barbara's expertise is the missing piece of his case, the wager stops being a cover story. But he started this pursuit for all the wrong reasons — and the smartest woman in London is going to figure that out.

Warning: This hot, hilarious historical rom-com features a rake with a secret, a bluestocking with a truly unusual family, a scandalous wager, and one very improper use of a chaise longue.

This one came as a recommendation because I do love an academic MC, and it didn’t disappoint (although comes with some flags).

I hadn’t read Caroline Lee before, and of course jumped right into the middle of a series, but this worked great as a standalone.  It’s an action-packed romantic comedy leaning romance with an unlikely pairing of rake and wallflower.

My flags are twofold. First,  the comedy is very modern reference-based (nods to TED talk and A.F., as an example) which can either enhance a reader’s enjoyment or pull a reader out of the story. It pulled me out of immersion, but I can see it as a great bridge to new historical/Regency romance readers who want the cadence and snappiness of a contemporary rom com — but with skirts and top hats.  Not that I do not think this book is well researched or grounded in the Regency, I just think the sense of humor/wit is based on modern references — much the way Bridgerton’s score is orchestral versions of modern pop hits.

This leads me to my second flag.  The premise centers on a heroine and a family of collectors.  Two of the collectors are students of antiquities.  There are also a whole bunch of other peer and upper-class collectors, including a list of owners of canopic jars — some of which are pretty unique.  This is all relevant to the plot, so I don’t want to go into too much depth and spoil it.  But though there was an Eyptomania craze in England after Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt and subsequent discoveries, a writer of a Regency romance with a modern slant should have given some thought to having an MC be essentially a grave robber.  And Caroline Lee knows this, because she addresses it in the Author’s note, but in a comedic, lol kind of way that for me made it worse than had she said nothing at all.

Authors who infuse their Regency romance with modern references and humor, pacing, etc should, in my opinion, also grapple with modern ideas like wealthy collectors hoarding artifacts from other cultures.  Here is an article from a modern Egyptologist who grappled with some of the criticisms of his field as a primer of some of the historical problems: https://chrisnaunton.com/2020/07/23/decolonising-egyptology-the-dirty-little-secret/

No, I am not suggesting the MC should have been anachronistic, fighting to return all artifacts to the Egyptian people or government.   Her ownership of some priceless artifacts is relevant to the plot.  But I do think some tweaks, especially with the modern jokes, would have made me less likely to cheer for the villain of the story.

Beside these flags, I really did enjoy the book.  It was engaging, well written, with a lovable pairing, some hot spicy scenes, and good banter.  There is some on page violence, mature themes, and intimate scenes, so its not great for a kisses only audience. I recommend for newer readers to historical romance who will not be troubled by some of the implications I have laid out above.

There is also some disability rep which I thought was handled well.

A Scottish rake falling first for a spinsterish wallflower delivers many of the tropes readers love, and the adventure component is really fun and keeps the pace at a good clip.  I will definitely check out other titles by this new to me author.