Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 Everybody calm down. Calm down. I know you're all losing your shit because Lisa Kleypas released her first historical in five years. My shit, too, has been lost. I am here to answer all your questions, which I suspect are: 
 Is it good? Yes, it is very, very good. I stayed up all night reading it even though I was so tired that I'd been craving sleep all day the way an addict craves heroin. When I came home and that book was in the mail, I knew any plans I had to do anything else except read were fucked. 
 Okay, but is it as good as the Wallflowers series? No, it's not. It's still really, really good, but doesn't quite meet the perfection that was The Devil in Winter or It Happened One Autumn. 
 Here's the thing: Kleypas is an amazing writer. In my opinion, she might be the most technically skilled historical romance author out there. So when I say "This book by Kleypas is really good but not as good as other Kleypases," that's kind of like saying, "that was a really great orgasm but not the best orgasm I've ever had." It's so good you have to create a frame of reference to measure it against itself. 
 The whole rake/rogue trope involves (typically) a sexually proficient hero who "corrupts" the heroine according to the standards of the day. The heroine is an enthusiastic participant, and her distress isn't from being coerced into sexual activity but from her anxiety of how society would perceive her own sexual agency. 
 So if I haven't convinced you to buy Cold-Hearted Rake yet, I probably never will. And if I have, you're probably not even reading this right now because you skipped down to the buy links below. I'm going to attempt to actually get some sleep now and recover from my book hangover. Happy reading! 
 - Elyse