The Passionate Love of a Rake by Jane Lark

 The only woman who had power over notorious rake Robert Marlow was now walking away from him, again.

He'd heard Sutton had died, and known Jane was free, but he'd always thought his desire would only be for revenge, not her. Yet here he was, unable to deny what he felt for her…what he’d never felt for any other woman before…

I read Illicit Love by this author and found it rather interesting since I am not a fan of historical romances.  With that in mind I decided to give this one a chance and realized I am not a fan of LONG historical romances that leave me wondering what is going on for over 100 pages.  The story starts out okay for me, I see the condition Jane Grey, the Dowager Duchess of Sutton has lived in and what she wants out of life, but after that the story really became slow and a lot of push and pull with emotions that I felt drew the story out to long. 

Jane finally had her freedom after her husband the Duke died.  He was so much older than her and didn’t love her; she was just a trophy wife for him.  She was left with a large fortune but the Duke’s son was not going to allow that money to go to her.  He was threatening, abusive and pushed Jane to the point she felt she had to run to save her own life. 

While during her escape she runs into Robert.  Jane and Robert had known each other during their childhood and there were feelings still there for them, but this was when the boring pushes and pull part of the story happened. Roberts’s character was rather difficult for me to understand.  It wasn’t until the author made it clear that he had been deeply hurt by Jane leaving years ago that the stuffy, arrogant attitude wasn’t really him, more of a defense move towards Jane.  Jane was a proud and stubborn woman and wouldn’t talk to Robert and express the truth for a long time.  They carry secrets that need to be exposed; Robert needs to know the real Jane not the image that he created in his head when she left the first time.  So many times I thought to myself can we stop playing the games and just be honest and get back to the plot.

Once the truth was out and Jane and Robert allowed themselves to explore their love it became a better read again.  The love story was wonderful once we got there.  I am sure if you love to read historical romances and can enjoy the prim and proper conduct of a woman in those times.  For me, I wanted the constant flow like I read in her first book where the plot was a constant and it didn’t feel like we were taking a side trip to get to the truth these two harbored deep inside their hearts.