The Rake

The Rake follows Reginald Davenport, a man written off by his own family as a drunk and a wastrel, who is given an unexpected chance at redemption when he inherits Strickland, his family's long-lost estate. Determined to prove himself, he sets out to run it properly — only to find the estate already has a highly capable manager: Alys Weston, who has been living disguised as a man to escape a past defined by mistrust and betrayal.

As Reginald works to control his drinking and rebuild the estate, and Alys is drawn out of the protective distance she's kept from everyone, the two form a partnership that neither expected to become something more. Mary Jo Putney treats Reginald's alcoholism and Alys's trauma with more weight than was typical for Regency romance at the time, making their mutual recovery central to the story rather than incidental to it.

Originally published as The Rake and the Reformer, it won the RITA Award for Best Regency Romance and is considered a genre landmark for its honest handling of addiction.