Early Review of The Taming of the Rake (Blackthorn Brothers, #1) by Kasey Michaels

• Title: The Taming of the Rake 
• Classification: Adult Fiction
• Genre: Historical Romance
• Format: Paperback, 384 pages
• Publisher: HQN Books; Original edition (July 26, 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0373775911
• ISBN-13: 978-0373775910

Oliver Le Beau Blackthorne fell in love seven years ago. The object of his affection was Lady Madelyn Mills-Beckman. After working up the nerve to inquire if she'd be open to his asking her father for her hand, she struck him down rather crushingly.

"You're a joke, Beau Blackthorn, a laughingstock to everyone in Mayfair, and you're the only one who doesn't know it. As if I or any female of decency in the ton would deign to align herself with a-a bastard like you."

 Additionally, her brother saw his inquiry as a slight to the family and beat him with a horsewhip. From that day on he vowed to never make a fool of himself again by falling in love. He also vowed to one day have his revenge. He never dreamed, however, that the perfect revenge would come in quite so lovely a package, or that it'd fall right into his lap.

Lady Chelsea Mills-Beckman had had enough of her numskull brother. His plan to marry her off to Reverend Francis Flotley was the last straw. Reverend Flotley thought "a woman's role is to obey, and her greatest gift her compliance with the superior wisdom of men. Let her gently be led in her inferior intellect, like the sheep in the field..."

Chelsea was no fool and she definitely was not fooled by the likes of the Reverend Francis Flotley. If he truly was a Reverend, which she highly doubted. With limited options, she decided the situation called for drastic measures, and she knew just the method to use....

I truly loved watching the relationship between Chelsea and Oliver grow from a mutual attraction into something beautiful. The main characters were lovable, and we got introduced to all three of the Blackthorn brothers. I enjoyed the fact the brothers were named by their mother after characters in Shakespearean plays. Oliver Le Beau was named for a character from 'As You Like It', Don John (aka Jack) was named after a character in 'Much ado About Nothing', and, Robin Goodfellow (aka Puck) is named for a character from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Our meeting of Jack, the middle brother, was rather brief and seemed like it was just thrown in to introduce him, but as this is part of a trilogy, I suspect we will later learn more of what was truly going on. I gave this book a rating of 4 out of 5 roses. I look forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.