- Paperback
- Publisher: Signet (Jan 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0451186664
- ISBN-13: 978-0451186669
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.7 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,089,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Rake's Rainbow
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mannering, the novel's supposed hero, is so unappealing and thickheaded that it defies even romance novel logic that are spunky heroine should fall in love with him. Mannering spends the entire novel in love with another woman and treats the loveable heroine, who is his wife, so badly that you actually hope the author kills him so our heroine could find a worthy mate. Not a noteworthy book.
Format:Paperback
Another Allison Lane winner! The hero takes forever to realize the errors of his misplaced passion (all the way to the next-to-last chapter), but the rest of the story is well worth reading. Caroline's development is well-paced and rather enchanting, the lesser characters interesting, and the anti-heroine rather amazing to watch. Particularly enjoyable is Caroline's level-headedness; she understands that she must become 'her own woman' in many ways, and so comes off as a strong person. And Thomas's turnaround, when it finally comes, is very thorough but also believeable. You'll cheer too!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Portrait of a disfunctional marriage
19 Dec 2001
Format:Paperback
My first experience with Allison Lane (The Beleaguered Earl) was a disappointment for the book was so full of flaws that I was reluctant to try again. I am pleased to say that I was very much surprised with The Rake's Rainbow and recommend it highly.
The story of The Hon Thomas Mannering and Miss Caroline Cummings is not an easy read. If you like your regencies lite 'n' fluffy, then this book is not for you. It is dark, distressing and depressing but, ultimately, full of hope and triumph against what seem to be pretty overwhelming odds.
Thomas and Caroline marry in order to escape - for her poverty and governessing and for him in order to gain an inheritance. Thomas had become ensnared by Alicia - a heartless, fickle nymphomaniac who strings him along never intending to marry an earl's mere second son. He slips into a deep depression, drinking and gambling and nearly slipping over the edge into madness.
Caroline is the stronger of the two for, with astute insight into human nature, she is able to save him by letting matters run their course, never giving up hope that the man she sees beneath the hopeless despair is worth nurturing and loving. Some might say she is a bit of a sacrificial lamb but, within the social context of the times, she did what she had to in times when divorce was virtually impossible. The descriptions of her meeting Thomas's family for the first time and finding her way through the Season were excellent for she does it without the support of her husband who, by this time, is so depressed that he ignores her completely.
I liked the way the author developed Thomas's family; each member, particularly his father, the Earl of Marchgate and his foppish but sweet elder brother, had a significant role to play in the development of the story.
There is a great deal of pain, angst and high emotion in this story. Tempers flare, characters sometimes act against their own best intentions and the hero is flawed but honourable. The heroine is strong but tender and loving. Sometimes the reader will want to point a pistol at Thomas and at others will want to love him - for this story is a real emotional roller coaster.
I will read another of Allison Lane's books to see if my first experience was atypical. It's just too bad she did not meet in The Beleaguered Earl the exceptionally high standards that she set with The Rake's Rainbow. It was very well done; polished prose and obvious careful research gives it a very authentic air. Her depiction of the Season, the Ton and marriage and family life in the Regency era were very good and most realistic.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Wonderfully written, even if the hero *is* maddening.
2 Feb 1999
Format:Paperback
Another Allison Lane winner! The hero takes forever to realize the errors of his misplaced passion (all the way to the next-to-last chapter), but the rest of the story is well worth reading. Caroline's development is well-paced and rather enchanting, the lesser characters interesting, and the anti-heroine rather amazing to watch. Particularly enjoyable is Caroline's level-headedness; she understands that she must become 'her own woman' in many ways, and so comes off as a strong person. And Thomas's turnaround, when it finally comes, is very thorough but also believeable. You'll cheer too!
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Heroine is too good for undeserving hero
13 July 1998
Format:Paperback
Mannering, the novel's supposed hero, is so unappealing and thickheaded that it defies even romance novel logic that are spunky heroine should fall in love with him. Mannering spends the entire novel in love with another woman and treats the loveable heroine, who is his wife, so badly that you actually hope the author kills him so our heroine could find a worthy mate. Not a noteworthy book.
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