Wicked Rakes Who Break Their Own Rules
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- Sarah MacLean's A Rogue by Any Other Name (2012) is the first installment in her Rules of Scoundrels series, set in a London gambling hell.
- Tessa Dare's Twice Tempted by a Rogue (2010) won the RT Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Historical Romance.
- Cara Elliott's Lords of London series includes To Tempt a Rake (2010) and To Surrender to a Rogue (2011), both anchored by the same aristocratic circle.
- Katharine Ashe's How a Lady Weds a Rogue (2013) is the third book in the Falcon Club series, following a network of spies and gamblers in Regency London.
- Amelia Grey's Cavaliers & Rogues series launched in 2012; Rogue Steals a Bride is the fifth installment.
- Jane Ashford's Duke's Daughters series (2017–2020) reimagines the Regency with heroines who refuse aristocratic convention.
A Rogue by Any Other Name — Sarah MacLean
The hero loses everything in one hand of cards and spends a decade clawing back ruthless revenge — until he's forced to marry the girl next door who still believes in him.
MacLean's Michael Lawler is the rake as capitalist wolf: he builds a gambling empire to reclaim what was stolen, and he's prepared to ruin everyone who stood by while he fell. The slow-burn marriage-of-convenience plot lets the heroine, Penelope, dismantle his armor without ever losing her own agency. If you want a rake who earns redemption rather than receiving it as narrative gift, this is the template. MacLean's prose is sharp, economical, and unapologetically feminist — the Regency as arena for modern consent politics.
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Twice Tempted by a Rogue — Tessa Dare
A scarred, bankrupt former soldier returns to reclaim his crumbling estate — only to discover the woman who once spurned him now owns the village's only profitable business.
Dare's Rhys St. Maur is the rake as wounded warrior: emotionally guarded, physically damaged, convinced he's unworthy of love. The heroine, innkeeper Meredith Maddox, is practical, sexually confident, and unwilling to be rescued. The tension lives in the question of who's saving whom. Dare writes dialogue that crackles — her banter is as precise as Austen's, but the bedroom scenes are 21st-century explicit. This won the RT Reviewers' Choice Award in 2010 for good reason: it's the Regency rake novel for readers who want heat and heart in equal measure.
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How a Lady Weds a Rogue — Katharine Ashe
A vicar's daughter hunting her sister's seducer infiltrates London's gambling underworld and collides with a self-made rogue who's running cons of his own.
Ashe writes the rake as class traitor: Wyn Yale clawed his way up from nothing and refuses aristocratic rules. The heroine, Diantha, is every bit his match in stubborn intelligence — she's not interested in being tamed or saved. The Falcon Club series leans into espionage and secrets; this installment is all moral ambiguity and high-stakes negotiation. If you like your Regency romance with a side of actual plot (blackmail, coded messages, double-crosses), Ashe delivers. The emotional payoff feels earned because both characters sacrifice certainty to get there.
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To Tempt a Rake — Cara Elliott
A disgraced duke's daughter and a jaded rake form a reluctant alliance to solve a scandal — and discover they're each other's worst-kept secret.
Elliott's Connor Linsley is the rake as cynic: he's seen too much, trusted too rarely, and weaponized charm to keep the world at arm's length. The heroine, Alexa, carries her own scandal and refuses to apologize for surviving it. The Lords of London series thrives on ensemble chemistry — secondary characters orbit the central romance without overwhelming it. Elliott's prose is clean and brisk; she trusts her readers to infer subtext rather than spelling it out. This is comfort-read territory, but it's never lazy — the emotional arcs are genuine, and the consent framework is contemporary without anachronism.
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To Surrender to a Rogue — Cara Elliott
A widowed antiquarian has rebuilt her life on respectability — until the one man who knows her scandalous past shows up at an archaeological dig and refuses to leave.
This is Elliott's second Lords of London installment, and it's the quieter sibling to To Tempt a Rake. The hero, Connor Linsley (yes, same Connor — this is his book), is the rake reformed by proximity: he doesn't seduce so much as steadily dismantle the heroine's defenses by actually listening. Alexa's backstory — widowhood, scandal, academic ambition — gives her agency beyond "woman waiting to be saved." The archaeological dig setting is a nice structural choice; it literalizes the excavation metaphor without hammering it. If you prefer slow-burn emotional intimacy to high-stakes drama, this one's your pick.
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Rogue Steals a Bride — Amelia Grey
A duke crashes a wedding to kidnap the bride — not for love, but for a fake engagement scheme that spirals into something neither of them planned.
Grey's Matson Brentwood is the rake as opportunist: he needs a temporary fiancée to dodge his own unwanted match, so he hijacks someone else's ceremony. The heroine, Gretchen, is marrying for duty, not desire — the kidnapping is a gift disguised as chaos. The Cavaliers & Rogues series leans into plot mechanics; Grey writes brisk, competent scenes that move fast and trust the reader to keep up. This isn't high literature, but it's high-functioning genre work: the emotional beats land, the consent is clear, and the banter earns the heat. It's the rake novel for readers who want efficient pleasure.
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When You Give a Rogue a Rebel — Jane Ashford
A duke's daughter with radical politics meets a viscount perfecting his rakish reputation — she thinks marriage is a trap; he thinks love is a performance; they're both wrong.
Ashford's Duke's Daughters series (2017–2020) reimagines the Regency as a space where women claim intellectual and sexual agency without apology. The heroine here is passionate about reform — actual social reform, not vague "helping the poor" gestures. The hero's rakishness is armor; underneath, he's uncertain and desperate to be seen. The negotiation between their worldviews is the romance. Ashford writes with warmth and wit; her dialogue feels lived-in, not performed. As of April 2026, this is one of the more recent titles in Patina's Regency rake collection, and it shows: the consent framework is explicit, the gender politics are contemporary, and the emotional intelligence is high.
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The rake who breaks his own rules is the Regency romance's most enduring archetype because the fantasy isn't about taming the dangerous man — it's about meeting someone who rewrites the rules alongside you. These seven novels span MacLean's ruthless capitalism, Dare's wounded warriors, Ashe's con artists, Elliott's quiet intimacy, Grey's brisk competence, and Ashford's radical feminism. They're proof that a single trope can hold infinite variation. Shop all Romance books at Patina Paperbacks →
Where can I buy secondhand Regency rake romances in Sydney's Inner West?
Patina Paperbacks is an online preloved bookshop based in Sydney that ships Australia-wide. As of April 2026, our Romance collection includes rotating stock of Sarah MacLean, Tessa Dare, Cara Elliott, and other Regency authors. Free shipping over $29 means you can grab a few titles without the postage sting.
What's the difference between a rake and a rogue in Regency romance?
Honestly, the terms are mostly interchangeable — both describe charming, emotionally guarded aristocratic men with scandalous reputations. "Rake" leans libertine (think sexual libertinism, gambling, duels); "rogue" often implies working-class origins or a refusal to play by aristocratic rules. Sarah MacLean's Michael Lawler is a rake; Katharine Ashe's Wyn Yale is more rogue. The emotional arc is the same: defensive walls, slow trust, hard-won intimacy.
Which Sarah MacLean Regency romance should I start with?
A Rogue by Any Other Name (2012) is the first in her Rules of Scoundrels series and the strongest entry point — it sets up the gambling hell setting, introduces the ensemble cast, and delivers MacLean's signature mix of feminist consent politics and sharp banter. The series continues with One Good Earl Deserves a Lover, No Good Duke Goes Unpunished, and Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover. All four are anchored by the same London club.
Are Cara Elliott's To Tempt a Rake and To Surrender to a Rogue connected?
Yes — both are part of the Lords of London series, and the hero of To Surrender to a Rogue (Connor Linsley) appears as a secondary character in To Tempt a Rake. Elliott writes ensemble casts where previous couples reappear, so reading in order (To Tempt a Rake first, then To Surrender to a Rogue) gives you the full arc. That said, each novel stands alone; you won't be lost if you start with the second.
What makes Tessa Dare's Regency romances stand out?
Dare writes heroines with agency and heroes who earn redemption through actual emotional labor, not grand gestures. Her dialogue is witty without feeling performed, and she integrates explicit bedroom scenes that advance character development rather than stalling the plot. Twice Tempted by a Rogue won the RT Reviewers' Choice Award in 2010; it's part of the Stud Club trilogy, which also includes One Dance with a Duke and A Night to Surrender. If you want smart, sexy, emotionally grounded Regency romance, Dare's your author.