#kakinota : Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas

8⭐/10

"There are times in life when all of us have to bear the unbearable."

When their cousin, Theo died in an accident, the title Earl of Treneor went to Devon Ravenel. One of the two last people left in the lineage. His brother, Weston is next in line.

He unwillingly inherited an old estate saddled with huge debts, 20,000 farm lands with 200 tenants farms, three beautiful cousins that never been in the society and a widow.

Lady Treneor, Kathreen felt responsible to take care of her sister-in-laws. She knew how difficult their position will be to find suitors - a title without dowry. Being  raised in a strict family and just married Theo few days earlier, she blamed herself for the accident. She had kept a secret related to the incident. Kathreen is aware the curse running in the Ravenel bloodline including Devon and Weston.

When both of them arrived from London to visit the estate with intention to sell and pay off debts, Kathreen decided to stand up against them for the sake of her sister-in-laws, the workers and tenants. An incident happened before Devon and West went back to London, had made him think twice about his decision to sell the old estate much to West dismay.

While Devon struggling to find ways to pay off debts, West went to oversee works done in the estate. The only way to finance was to rent a land for a railway route. Some sacrifices needed to be made. While  a negotiation persued, a shocking discovery was made on the land. Something was hidden in that rented land. Did Devon made a mistake? Or is there an escape clause in the deal?

At the same time relationships blossomed into something more meaningful that nobody could denied the connection between two people.

"I can't think about failure. If I do, I'll be doomed from the start."

That was the word that struck me. It is true when change happened, one feel intimidated and one first reaction is to say big NO especially when needs to move out from comfort zone. But if one takes the opportunity and try very hard, something beautiful might happen.

Even though the story focus about two people but I find that the supporting characters are far more interesting. I hope there will be a story about each of them soon.