Book Review: Nine Rules to Brake when Romancing a Rake (Love By Numbers #1) by Sarah MacLean

Title: Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake

Author: Sarah MacLean

Series: Love by Numbers #1

Release Date: March 30th, 2010

Publisher: Avon

Age: Adult

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...

I'm new to historical romance genre but Love by Numbers is already my favorite series. I already read the next two books, Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord and Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart, I just couldn't wait until I wrote a review. But let's focus on this book...

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell is unmarried. She definitely has the status and the money to be an eligible wife, but she's old and not as beautiful as the others. But now that her little sister is getting married, she feels so unsatisfied waiting for someone to notice her that she wants to do something else in her life. She wants to break the rules.

It has been a while since I loved a female character as Callie. She isn't young and isn't going to be engaged any time soon. She was innocent, insecure, but at the same time brave. She thought very low about herself, but I loved the way she evolved into a full secure woman.

Gabriel is a dream come true. Really, he is sexy and totally the bad boy. I was crazy about him. He is wicked and naughty and when he sees Callie, he just can't believe someone as her is wanting to break the rules. So they make a deal, he will help her does what she wants, while she teaches his sister the rules of London's society.

Sarah MacLean definitely knows how to write romance. I felt excited with their relationship (stomach butterflies and all), it was romantic but with the right amount of sexiness. They are definitely one of my favorite couples, I was desperate for them to be together and was mad every time one of them misinterpreted the other.

Overall, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake is an excellent first book for the Love by Numbers series. I just started reading it and couldn't stop. If you are wanting to read historical romance but aren't sure where to start, I recommend it to you.

More about this book at macleanspace.com, Goodreads, Amazon, The Book Depository.