Review: Her Rake Fiancé (Dukes and Secrets #2) by Mariah Stone

              

Print Length:  298 pages

Publisher:  Stone Publishing (August 29, 2023)

From Goodreads.com:  Lord Richard Seaton will do anything to find his missing brother—even confront criminal lord Thorne Blackmore. Thorne’s price for information? Something Richard’s wounded heart vowed never to marriage. And not to one of the stunning debutantes chasing him but to Thorne’s bluestocking sister, Jane.

Shunned by the ton thanks to her scandalous brother, Miss Jane Grant runs a school that saves Whitechapel children from the gallows. Unwilling to abandon her students for marriage, a fake engagement is her only escape.

Jane offers to dig up the information Richard needs before the wedding. But they must keep their deal a secret or endanger Richard’s family and face Thorne’s wrath.

Braving society to convince the ton of their love, Richard protects Jane from judging matrons. And from elegant soirees to glamorous balls, Jane casts aside her gray dresses for vibrant silks and transforms into the lady she was born to be.

Soon, the reforming rake is falling under his blossoming wallflower’s spell…and into her bed.
But when Thorne learns of their deception, will Richard live to marry the fake fiancé who has become his true love?

                                                         *******************

My Rating: 2 stars out of 5 

Right off the bat, even though this is labeled as the second book in the series (technically it IS the second full-length novel, however, there is also a prequel novella that ties into these events), it can absolutely be read as a standalone. There are naturally a few ongoing storylines that carry over (most notably what happened to Spencer), but the author provides enough background that this one can be easily enjoyed even without having read them.

Unfortunately, my biggest issues weren't with following the story. They were with the story itself... and the characters. Sadly, both proved to be equally frustrating.

The novel centers around Jane, the daughter of a baron whose father did something virtually unheard of for the time by raising his illegitimate son alongside his legitimate daughter. At some point, father and son had a falling out, though we're never actually told why. When Jane's father dies, she has nowhere else to go and ends up living with her half-brother, Thorn, who has somehow become a notorious... something. Honestly, I'm still not entirely sure what Thorn's establishment was supposed to be. It wasn't exactly a gaming hell, but it wasn't quite a brothel either. It seemed to exist somewhat awkwardly between the two.

Naturally, polite society completely ostracizes Jane because of her association with him. Yet Thorn simultaneously insists she belongs in that very same society and deserves to reclaim her place within it. The frustrating part is that when Jane actually starts making progress toward that goal, Thorn is the very person who swoops in and destroys it.

Which brings me neatly to the characters.

Thorn was aptly named because he was an absolute thorn in my side for most of the novel. First, he withholds valuable information about the disappearance of Spencer (the missing duke from the previous books) from Spencer's own family. Then he attempts to blackmail Spencer's brother, Richard, into marrying Jane. Oddly enough, despite Richard agreeing to the arrangement and the two of them gradually developing genuine feelings for one another, Thorn somehow decides that he's the injured party. After discovering Jane and Richard have slept together, he storms into a society ball with several of his henchmen, at the very moment Jane is finally beginning to regain acceptance within society, and drags her back to Whitechapel nearly by force.

He refuses to listen to Richard, then has the audacity to accuse Richard of ruining Jane's reputation.

No, sir.

Richard did not ruin your sister's reputation.

You did the moment you burst into that ballroom like an uncivilized brute and publicly hauled your engaged sister away in front of everyone. Especially considering society already knew she and Richard were to be married.

Jane wasn't much easier for me to connect with.

I admired her loyalty to both her brother and the school she devoted herself to, but there were also several moments where she became incredibly difficult to sympathize with. I understand why she was upset that Richard secretly searched Thorn's office and discovered the note concerning Spencer's disappearance. But considering exposing that information was supposed to be the very thing that ended the engagement neither of them originally wanted, her outrage felt wildly disproportionate.

I was equally puzzled that she never confronted her maid for immediately running to Thorn after discovering she and Richard had spent the night together. Especially because the maid's interference ended up producing the exact opposite outcome of what she'd hoped to achieve.

Then there's Richard.

I genuinely admired his devotion to his family, but if I had to hear one more speech about how his former fiancée was his "first and only love," I was prepared to throw my Kindle across the room. Sir... you're trying to convince Jane that your feelings for her are genuine. Continuously reminiscing about another woman is perhaps not the best strategy.

Although, to be fair, I probably shouldn't have been surprised considering how thoroughly he allowed Thorn to push him around for much of the story instead of standing up for either himself or Jane.

Despite my frustrations, I am still curious to find out what actually happened to Spencer. That mystery has been the one thread consistently pulling me through these books, so I'll probably pick up the next installment at some point. Who knows? Maybe that'll finally be the one where this series and I finally click.