Product Description

With both of her parents gone, Patience Debbington is accustomed to managing her own affairs, and those of her teenage brother Gerrard. To her love is dangerous, men uninteresting and faithless. Gerrard needs a suitable mentor, but when tall elegant Vane Cynster rides into her life, Patience sees nothing but an arrogant, presumptuous dandy -- a man who drinks in her very soul like a fine wine and intoxicates her in the bargain.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33108 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-01
• Released on: 1998-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.com Review
To this second book of her Bar Cynster series, Stephanie Laurens brings a thorough command of Regency style, as well as graphic, uninhibited love scenes. Elegant, commanding Vane Cynster graciously bows to fate when he seeks shelter from a storm and meets the woman he realizes he's destined to marry--Patience Debbington, the spinster niece of Vane's kindhearted godmother. Although her attraction to Vane is immediate and electrifying, Patience distrusts "elegant gentlemen" like her father, who broke her mother's heart by failing to return her love. To pursue Patience, Vane settles into his godmother's household, which consists of various poor relatives and assorted hangers-on, and is caught up in the search for a petty thief and occasional "Spectre" who is harassing them. It requires all of Vane's investigative abilities to catch the criminal, and all of his considerable powers of persuasion--as well as many ardent couplings with Patience--to convince her that family, loyalty, and love come first for him. Laurens is especially skillful at capturing Regency males, aristocrats whose refined restraint barely masks their powerful underlying urges. Appearances by others of the extended, devoted Cynster family ensures that readers will become increasing attached to this ongoing series. --Ellen Edwards

About the Author
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens began writing as an escape from the dry world of professional science. Her hobby quickly became a career, and her series about the masterful Cynster cousins has captivated readers, making her one of the romance world's most beloved and popular authors. She currently lives in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, with her husband and two teenage daughters.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

October 1819
Northamptonshire

"You want to get a move on. Looks like the Hounds of Hell are on our heels."

"What?" Jerked from uneasy contemplation, Vane Cynster lifted his gaze from his leader's ears and glanced around, bringing Duggan, his groom, into view-along with the bank of lowering thunderheads sweeping down on them from behind. "Blast!" Vane looked forward and flicked the reins. The pair of matched greys harnessed to his curricle stepped out powerfully. He glanced over his shoulder. "Think we can outrun it?"

Considering the storm clouds, Duggan shook his head. "We got three miles on it, maybe five. Not enough to turn back to Kettering, nor yet to make Northampton."

Vane swore. It wasn't the thought of a drenching that exercised his mind. Desperation dug in its spurs; his eyes on the road as the greys swept on, he searched for some option, some route of escape.

Only minutes before, he'd been thinking of Devil, Duke of St. Ives, his cousin, boyhood companion, and closest friend--and of the wife fate had handed him. Honoria, now Duchess of St. Ives. She who had ordered Vane and the other four as-yet-unmarried members of the Bar Cynster not only to pay for but attend the dedication service for the roof of the church in Somersham. village, close by the ducal seat. Admittedly, the money she'd decreed they surrender had been ill-gotten gains, their winnings from a wager of which neither she nor their mothers had approved. The ageold adage that the only women Cynster males need be wary of were Cynster wives still held true for this generation as it had for those past. The reason why was not something any male Cynster liked to dwell on.

Which was why he felt such a driving need to get out of the path of the storm. Fate, in the guise of a storm, had arranged for Honoria and Devil to meet, in circumstances that had all but ensured their subsequent marriage. Vane wasn't about to take unnecessary chances.

"Bellamy Hall." He clung to the idea like a drowning man. "Minnie will give us shelter."

"That's a thought." Duggan sounded more hopeful. "The turnoff should be close."

It was around the next bend; Vane took the turn at speed, then cursed and slowed his cattle. The narrow lane was not as well surfaced as the road they'd left. Too fond of his high-stepping horses to risk injuring them, he concentrated, easing them along as fast as he dared, grimly conscious of the deepening gloom of an unnatural, too-early twilight and the rising whine of the wind.

He'd left Sornersham Place, Devil's principal residence, soon after luncheon, having spent the morning at church, at the dedication service for the roof he and his cousins had paid for. Intending to visit friends near Leamington, he'd left Devil to enjoy his wife and son and headed west. He'd expected to reach Northampton and the comfort of the Blue Angel with ease. instead, thanks to fate, he would be spending the night with Minnie and her inmates.

At least he would be safe.

Through the hedges to their left, Vane glimpsed distant water, leaden grey beneath the darkening sky. The River Nene, which meant Bellamy Hall was close; it stood on a long, sloping rise looking down on the river.

It had been years since he'd visited--he couldn't offhand remember how many, but of his welcome he had not a doubt. Araminta, Lady Bellamy, eccentric relict of a wealthy man, was his godmother. Unblessed with children, Minnie had never treated him as a child; over the years, she'd become a good friend. A sometimes too-shrewd friend uninhibited in her lectures, but a friend nonetheless.

Daughter of a viscount, Minnie had been born to a place in the ton. After her husband, Sir Humphrey Bellamy, died, she'd retired from socializing, preferring to remain at Bellamy Hall, presiding over a varying household of impecunious, relatives and worthy charity cases.

Once, when he'd asked why she surrounded herself with such hangers-on, Minnie had replied that, at her age, human nature was her main source of entertainment. Sir Humphrey had left her wealthy enough to stand the nonsense, and Bellamy Hall, grotesquely gargantuan, was large enough to house her odd menage. As a sop to sanity, she and her companion, Mrs. Timms, indulged in the occasional bolt to the capital, leaving the rest of the household in Northamptonshire. Vane always called on Minnie whenever she was in town.

Gothic turrets rose out of the trees ahead, then brick gateposts appeared, the heavy wrought-iron gates left ajar. With a grimly satisfied smile, Vane turned his horses through; they'd beaten the storm-fate had not caught him napping. He set the greys trotting down the straight drive. Huge bushes crowded close, shivering in the wind; ancient trees shrouded the gravel in shifting shadows.

Dark and somber, its multitude of windows, dull in the encroaching gloom, watching like so many flat eyes, Bellamy Hall filled the end of the tunnel-like drive. A sprawling Gothic monstrosity, with countless architectural elements added cheek by jowl, all recently embellished with Georgian lavishness, it ought to have looked hideous, yet, in the overgrown park with the circular courtyard before it, the Hall managed to escape outright ugliness.

It was, Vane thought, as he swept about the courtyard and headed for the stables, a suitably esoteric dwelling for an eccentric old woman and her odd household. As he rounded the side of the house, he saw no sign of life.

There was, however, activity in the stables, grooms hurriedly settling horses in preparation for the storm. Leaving Duggan and Minnie's stableman, Grisham, to deal with the greys. . .

Customer Reviews

Same plot as Devil�s Bride...
Vane Cynster, Devil's cousin and closest friend, has his turn at meeting his match in this book. An enforced stay at his godmother's house brings him into contact with her niece, Patience Debbington, and a mystery: who is the magpie thief stealing all and sundry, and who is the Spectre who appears at night, in shadow, and appears to haunt the place? The primary suspect is Patience's young brother Gerrard, but Vane doesn't believe that for an instant. His godmother begs him to stay and sort it out, and as he is already very intrigued by Patience he agrees.

Patience is alarmed by Vane and does her best to avoid him; she's also worried about the effect he's having on Gerrard. ...

The plot of this book follows exactly the same direction as Devil's Bride. Vane - determined not to marry - encounters a woman and knows that he's met his fate. He wants to marry her. He proposes; she refuses him. He determines to persuade her through sensuality and at the same time find out why she won't marry him. And in the background there is a (not very interesting and pretty transparent) mystery plot - again, I'd worked out who was behind it pretty early on; ... Maybe Laurens wanted him to be seen as an idiot?

I found Vane's approach to Patience unconvincing; in one scene - when he'd just met her - he was aware that she had the power to attract him in a way no woman had before. And he was determined to resist that: he didn't *want* to marry. And yet barely a half-dozen pages later, with nothing having happened in the meantime, he was suddenly reconciled to his fate and determined to marry her. ...

And Patience's antipathy to Vane in the beginning was simply not explained until some way in the book. I can accept her stereotyping him as a certain type of man - and not being told what she meant by an `elegant gentleman' until almost halfway through the book did not help! - but we need to know *what* stereotype she's using, and why it bothers her. That took some time to convey.

Again, a lot of detailed sex scenes, which is fine if you like that kind of thing; they're too numerous and technical - as well as lengthy - for my preference. I prefer my lovemaking scenes to focus on the emotions rather than descriptions of sex organs. Of course the extent and locations of Vane and Patience's amorous encounters are all wrong for the period, and I'm not sure why Laurens seems to assume that engaged, or near-engaged, couples of the - quite Puritanic, remember! - Regency period would naturally have sex. This has come across in three of her books now; her heroes seem to make an automatic assumption that an engagement means free sex. ...

I do have the rest of the Cynster series and will keep reading - Laurens has a readable style, even if I do skim some scenes - but I do hope that she varies her plots for later books.

Keep introducing me to the Cynster men!!!
This was the first book I read of Stepjanie's Lauren's or the Cynster series. I am hooked!! Vane was so refreshing, and so real in his reactions. I thought Patience was wonderful!! I was surprised to read that the majority of the other reader reveiws found her boring. I have a very busy day with work and family, and found this book to be fun, engrosiing, a wonderful story, and not at all insulting of my intelligence. I loved this book, the story line, the characters, Vane, and the incredible love scenes. Maybe because this was the first of the Ms. Lauren's books, I was not set up for diappointment. I have since purchased "Scandals' Bride" and LOVED it am now ordering Devil's Bride. These Cynster Men are awe-inspiring!! Let me say that I would like to thank Ms. Lauren's for doing more for the lovelife in my 11 year marriage than anything else - Stephanie Lauren's writing is the most wonderful aphrodesiac!!

A Real Drag
Okay, for those of you who are Bar Cynster fans, here me out, not that I need to defend my opinion in anyway.

I believe Stephanie Laurens has exceptional writing skills, especially when it comes to her love scenes. I really believe that in that particular case, she's at the top of her class in this area.

But what I find typical of her stories is that her love scenes usual sizzles while her surrounding story/mystery-line fizzles.

The characers and mainly the plot surrounding the love story appears either uninspired, half-hearted and lagging. In fact, the only sure-fire thing you can look foward to (and never be disappointed in)is the love scenes themselves.


Unfortunately, I find it to be the very case with "A Rake's Vow". For one, she tries to convince us that Vane is this alpha-male, ladies' man that does as he pleases. He, just like all the Cynster males, vow that they shall never marry.

I don't know if its just me, but I truly would like know why they were so against the martial state in the first place. This was never made clear, so you never knew the real motives behind the "Bar Cynster" get-togeter to begin with....

Anyway, Vane then suddenly meets his match -all of a sudden- when he meets this 26 year old spinster who has nothing to claim to her name but an annoying younger brother and a cat.

For all we hear of how dashing these Cynster males are, Vane's love interest, with the way she was described as this spinster who never really got out much, doesn't really suit his tastes, in my opinion. I just feel that Patience (the herione's name)could have had a lot more going on for her than was described in her side of the story. Compared to all the other heriones in the Bar Cynster series, she's the most boring!

Besides the characters not being overly consistent with their viewpoints, the mystery just plain as hell, sucked. After reading 4 of her books, I am convinced more than ever that S. Laurens lacks the talent to write a decent plot/mystery line to hold together the romance that helps build her characters and push the story along.

I find that it is not so much the characters that lack depth so much, but the plot itself and with this book - like most of her books- I get bored easily after reading only 10 pages or less, despite the well-detailed, page-scorching sex scenes.

I am one of those people who appreciate a well-thought out, engaging mystery, if there is to BE one, along with the tittilating sex..... But if I had to choose ONE aspect over another, I'd choose a good plot/mystery over steamy love scenes all the time.

A "Rake's Vow" could do no justice for me, I am sorry to say...