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Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean book cover
Reader guide
First-hand reader guide · Full read-through · Mood, heat & trope verified

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake

by Sarah MacLean · Love by Numbers #1 · 384 pages · Published February 2010
Spoiler-light guide Series order included Similar books included
3.91 / 5 across 30K ratings
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (3/5)

A witty, steamy Adult historical romance built around wallflower, rake, list of rules. 384 pages with moderate to high-heat romance and a satisfying conclusion.

Best for readers who want…

Witty. Steamy. Fun.

Witty Steamy Fun

Mood Match

Witty Steamy Fun
Sort By Cravings match based on mood, pacing, romance weight, and trope density.

Skip this book if…

  • You prefer completely clean, fade-to-black romance
  • You prefer standalone novels with no series commitment

Content notes

Sexual Content
Wallflower
Rake
List of Rules
Book profile

Mood, trope, and intensity breakdown

How this book actually feels — based on mood analysis, not publisher blurbs.

Mood profile
Romance
70%
Fantasy
0%
Pacing
3/5
Darkness
1/5
Spice
3/5
Core elements
Genre
Historical Romance
Moods
Witty
Steamy
Fun
Key Tropes
Wallflower
Rake
List of Rules
Ending
Satisfying
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FAQ

Quick answers readers search for

How spicy is Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake?

Moderate (3/5) — explicit content present but not dominant.

Do I need to read Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake in order?

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake is book 1 in the Love by Numbers series. Start here.

Who would enjoy Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake?

Readers who love witty and steamy stories with wallflower and rake. Best suited for Adult readers and up.

What kind of read is Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake?

A witty, steamy Adult historical romance built around wallflower, rake, list of rules. 384 pages with moderate to high-heat romance and a satisfying conclusion.

What are the content warnings for Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake?

Content notes include: sexual content. Sort By Cravings always flags these so you can make informed choices.

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How this guide was built

Every Sort By Cravings guide is written after a full read-through — not scraped from publisher blurbs or Amazon summaries. We map tropes directly from the text, cross-reference BookTok and Goodreads reader reactions across 500+ community posts, and calibrate heat ratings against reader consensus before publishing. Mood tags, spice numbers, and “skip if” notes reflect actual reading experience. Read our editorial standards.

📚 Last reviewed: March 2026 Guide verified against current edition
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