My book club read this book last week, so I'm a bit late to the party (the party having started...oh, twenty years ago, when THE RAKE AND THE REFORMER was originally released :). I really loved reading it, and it was a great book for book club because it prompted a lot of discussion about the characters' journeys and emotional arcs. I highly recommend this book, particularly if you like unconventional heroines (which I do) and reformed rakes (who doesn't?). All of the characters are wonderful, and the hero's development ranks in the very top of all the heroes I've read in recent memory. 
 However, my one teensy little issue with it, and the reason my 5-star rating is probably more like 4.5, is because the hero's emotional journey is so intense and so wonderful and so almost life-affirming that the love story and the heroine's growth feels like a secondary plot. After finishing, I wasn't even sure that the heroine *did* grow all that much. 
 I lied -- my second issue with it (not so teensy) is that her barriers to growth/old emotional wounds were resolved pretty neatly. (minor not really spoiler: (view spoiler)[ I think she was a strong enough character that she didn't *need* to have every single bad thing that had ever happened to her neatly explained away, which frustrated me a little at the end. (hide spoiler)]) 
 But Reggie's wounds, and particularly his alcoholism, were rough and messy and complicated, with lots of small steps forward and back - all of which made my heart break for him, but also made him stand out as the sole main character when I recall the book a couple of weeks later. 
 So...if you like to read romance because you like breaking your heart over/falling in love with the hero, this one is perfect. If you like to see your heroine struggle through major issues, this isn't quite as satisfying...but together, they make a compelling couple, and I love that they build a friendship before falling into instalust. And if you're looking for a romance to read for a book club, this one is great -- not all of my book club reads romance, but they all enjoyed this one and it was a good 'gateway drug' for some of them :)