Ok, let me get my title rant out of the way, right up front. The hero of The Rake’s Proposal, Benjamin Sinclair, is the son of a viscount and is referred to as “Lord Benjamin” and “Lord Sinclair” throughout the book. He is neither. He is “Benjamin” or “Mr. Sinclair” – if he must be given an honorific, it is “the Honorable Benjamin Sinclair.” Why, oh why, are authors still getting titles wrong? It is so easy to check and get right. Okay. Moving on.

Katherine Sutcliff is in London for the Season to find a complacent husband. Her family owns a shipbuilding enterprise and, as her brother is not at all interested in it and she is, Kate learned the business and even ran it through an intermediary during her father’s long illness. He left her the business, but she needs to marry. Company director Andrew Hilton thinks he would be the perfect candidate and has been pressuring Kate into marriage or else he will expose her role in the company, ruining her socially and putting the business in jeopardy. This is out of the question, hence the husband hunt.

Unfortunately the only man who piques her interest is Benjamin Sinclair, her brother’s best friend. She hasn’t seen him since they were children, but each remembers the other well, for Benjamin teased the lanky Kate unmercifully and she dumped a pitcher of water over his head. He is still teasing her, but now it is because he is quite taken with how well she has grown up. Benjamin has a reputation as a rake, but he has also found his calling in running a shipping business. They are a match made in heaven, but neither will see it.

When Benjamin saves Kate from an attempted kidnapping, rumors about them fly around London, but Robert, Kate’s brother, refuses to even think about them marrying. He knows his rakish friend too well and doesn’t want his sister hurt. Besides, it skeeves him out enough knowing that Benjamin is attracted to his sister – the thought of them having sex would do him in. When Kate and Benjamin are both subsequently kidnapped and then escape, they have no choice but to marry, but not before Robert lands a few good punches.

There are some enjoyable moments in The Rake’s Proposal; Kate and Benjamin are likable, though I almost liked brother Robert and his fiancée even more. What I didn’t like was the narrative’s disjointedness. Five months pass between the first and the second kidnapping attempts, five months in which Kate and Benjamin stay away from each other, and five months in which there are no further attempts. It just felt like these two storylines were put on hold for no apparent reason, except perhaps to show that the Season had ended without Kate finding a husband.

When they do come together again, they make love that very night, on the same night they are kidnapped. After the wedding, more time, and more separations occur – which add to the story’s episodic nature. While Kate and Benjamin spend relatively little time together, both believe themselves in love, but refuse to talk to the other about their feelings. This was frustrating to read and bordered on the dreaded Big Misunderstanding.

This certainly isn’t a horrible book. It isn’t a great one either. It is your basic, average, run-of-the-mill Regency-set historical, and so receives your basic, average, run-of-the-mill grade: a C.