Review: Previously Published
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 5, 2012
"To Wed a Rake was previously published as A Proper Englishwoman in the anthology Talk of the Ton. "As far as novellas go, this was a good one but not a great one.The  Earl of Kerr and Miss Emma Loudan have been engaged since Emma was about 5 years old.  The Earl has been doing his best to be a dissolute rake and Miss Emma is tired of waiting.  She decides she is going to fight fire with fire and sets out to 'hook' the Earl by acting like a French woman. Unfortunately that doesn't work out so well for her since she simply falls in love with the Earl.  But does the Earl fall in love with her masquerade?I love everything Ms James usually writes and was surprised that this story seemed so sluggish to me.  The Earl was portrayed as a rake and it was difficult to see him as anything else.  What Emma does just seems foolish for a lady of that time period.It is not a horrible story, but it isn't one of the most amusing ones or at least it isn't until you get to the very end of it.  The ending does make the whole thing worth while.