The Rake

By: Mary Jo Putney

Narrated by: Mark Meadows

Known as the despair of the Davenports, Reginald is a disinherited, disgraced alcoholic who is headed for a bad end - that is until the new Earl of Wargrave gives him one last chance at redemption by letting him take his place as the heir of Strickland, his lost ancestral estate.

Masquerading as a man in order to obtain a position as estate manager of Strickland, Lady Alys Weston came to Strickland after having fled her home, her wealth, and her title due to betrayal and despair. She vowed never to trust another man, but when the new owner appears, his dangerous masculinity threatens everything Alys holds dear, awakening a passion that she thought she would never feel again - a passion that will doom or save them both.

©1998 Mary Jo Putney (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC

what a great story

I am so glad I happened upon this story. I have found a new author to follow and of course the narrator was brilliant.. enjoy

the best of Putney!

I have read over 12 of Miss putney's books and this is by far my favorite by far. The different characters and the obstacles they are confronted with meld together very well. And Ms. Putney ties it all up in a beautifully sweet bow. thank you so much for happy endings! if I wanted something else I would have watched the evening news.

Wonderfully intricate story!

What I love about Ms Putney's books are the richness of the characters, and the well-developed intricacies of the storyline. I also appreciate the fact that her stories are not inundated with a barrage of fowl, irreverent language and fraudulently placed gratuitous physical encounters for the sake of having them; rather they are appropriate, meaningful and captivating.
This story was wonderfully narrated in a way that made you feel the characters were alive and right in front of you.
Hurry!! We need more!

The Rake deserves a chance

Loved the book! Reginald Davenport was a debaucher a rake. When his cousin gives him back the estate he was born on Reginald gladly accepts it. Lady Alys Weston is the Stewart of Strickland the the ward to 3 orphans. She has brought Strickland back in the past 4 years to where it is producing income. When she finds out Strickland has a new owner she wonders how he will feel when he learns his steward is female. A great read and story with a wonderful ending. The narrator Mark Meadows was fabulous.

At Last: A Worthy Narrator for this MJP Classic!

Fabulous. If you like this book, I highly recommend this audio version by Mark Meadows. If you haven't yet read this book, ditto. It's one of the classic historical romances of all time.

Alys Weston is running from her past, and Reggie Davenport is fleeing his future. Fate brings them together on Reggie’s Dorset estate, Strickland.

It’s uncommon, to say the least, for a woman to be an estate steward, yet Alys has been able to pull off that job for four years, communicating with the absentee owner in writing. When Reggie’s cousin, the new owner, gives the estate over to Reggie, Alys sees her idyll coming to an end. Yet, when the so-called despair of the Davenports arrives at Strickland, he proves to be surprisingly open-minded and impressed by Alys’s success; he keeps her on as the steward.

Reggie is a rake of the first order, but more than that, he’s a drunkard who, at the age of thirty-seven, has begun to suffer blackouts. Even he has become convinced that his life is on a dangerous trajectory; a voice in his head keeps telling him, “This way of life is killing you.” He believes that Strickland may be his salvation.

Alys and Reggie gradually become friends, and though they are attracted to one another, nothing more than a few kisses are exchanged. When a fire destroys the steward’s house, Alys and her three young wards move into the main house, and Reggie begins to know the joys of a family for the first time in his life.

But Reggie’s real problem is his drinking, and a great deal of this story revolves around his efforts to first get it under control and later to stop altogether. It’s heartbreaking to watch him try and fail and try again.

Mary Jo Putney does an excellent job portraying the inner demons that plague Reggie, and at the same time, she doesn’t succumb to the temptation that some writers might feel to make his recovery all about his love for Alys. Reggie is getting sober for himself, not for someone else. And while Putney does lapse into a bit of AA one-day-at-a-time-speak occasionally, she is able to keep the story from sounding too modern.

Although Reggie is the star of the book, Alys makes a wonderful heroine. She is intelligent, capable, and a fierce guardian of her young wards. Indeed, she’s so busy running things that she doesn’t even realize how attractive she is. But Reggie does, from the first moment they meet when she is wearing breeches whose close fit drives him to distraction.

There are plenty of humorous moments, an engaging cast of secondary characters, and a couple of secondary romances. And I particularly enjoyed how Putney handles the epilogue: after Reggie and Alys marry, the other characters are shown reacting to the news, wrapping the whole story up quite nicely.

I first read this book several years ago, when I was new to historical romance, picking it because of its high Goodreads ratings, its having won the RITA in 1990, and its ranking in All About Romance’s Top 100 romances of all time. All these accolades are well and truly deserved.

Now, at long last, an audio version has been released, read by a veteran but new-to-me narrator, Mark Meadows. I had been told that he is in the Nicholas Boulton/Alex Wyndham league, and those of you who regularly read my reviews know what that means. He is really good! Meadows perfectly captures Reggie's weariness with life, as well as his growing feelings of hope as his demons recede. Meadows also is excellent with female and children’s voices, as well as the Dorset dialects. His performance is so good, it’s easy for the listener to forget that there is only one person performing all of the parts. He has more than seventy audio titles to his credit, but this is the only historical romance. I can only hope that other romance authors use him for their books in future.

Whether reading or listening, this book is one that all historical romance aficionados should experience. I would give it ten stars if I could.

An Enjoyable Book

This is my first book by MJP. There is a lot going on in this book, so many different characters. Once I was able to keep up with whose who, then the book became more enjoyable. I must say to do this, I had to back up several times and listen to certain parts again. I appreciate how she showed the struggles different ones had, and what they had to do to get past them.

Mark Meadows was wonderful.

A classic in romance literature

This story has layers of emotions that are peeled expertly by the author in a HEA romance that is beautifully narratives.

It was alright

The lost star for the story rests on the fact that for as much as this story dragged, some things that should have taken time, happened rather quickly like revelations and getting over a decade worth of self-image and self-worth issues. It was also pretty heavy handed with specific themes. So if you're looking for something that really gets into issues and addresses them and wraps them up nicely by the end of the book, you might like this novel for that.

The two lost stars for performance were for the nasally accent for the hero. I like a good nasally accent for someone I want to dislike, and I get the character is supposed to be snooty and dry sometimes, but it was a bit much to hear all the time. The inflection on several portions also seemed to be off and the reading got pretty monotonous at times. I ended up reading the end of the book on the kindle version and saw I would have just had a different interpretation of vocal emphasis. So maybe it will work for you!

Over all, I like the story, and I thought the narration was tolerable enough to read most of it.

Wonderful!!

I loved it! Mary Jo Puntney proves again her ability to compose a unforgettable and deeply moving story. Her ability to write about taboo subject matter (this one about an alcoholic -In vino veritas, truly captures the intimate struggle and the tortured depths those with the addiction and how the disease ravishes the soul and how those close are also affected by the disease. She captures true essence of how one fights & struggle with it daily bases and beautifully writes about all the steps Reggie's takes to overcome this demon and finds love. ) for the era and her exemplary way she writes about the heartaching, haunting demons in her characters and brings to life the struggles they face and overcome to bring them together, takes her novels to a completely different level then the average romance novel. I recommend all her books but I definitely identified with this one. Really terrific you will love it! Dark sexy chevalier, strong beautiful unique heroine, kids, a dog, cat and bad guy from the past and a fire, a rescue, and terrific heart stopping fight scene! All makes a funny, sexy, heartaching tale that's a page turner! Truly unforgettable!

Perfect.

One of the best historical romances that I’ve read. Utter perfection. First class writing and narration.