Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has spent her life at the margins of the ton, dutifully following every rule society sets for an unmarried woman on the shelf. Tired of being overlooked, she writes a list of nine things she has always wanted to do — smoke a cheroot, attend a duel, gamble in a men's club among them — and asks the notorious rake Gabriel St. John, Marquess of Ralston, to be her guide.

As Callie ticks items off her list, she and Ralston grow closer than either intended, and she finds herself further from the marriage her family expects and closer to a man with no interest in settling down. The deepest rule she breaks turns out to be her own: pleasure-seekers are never supposed to fall in love.

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake is Sarah MacLean's Regency-era debut novel and the first book in her Love By Numbers series.