When Rebecca Russellâs brother marries, she finally has the opportunity she has been dreaming of: to leave the seclusion of her reclusive grandfatherâs home and enter into society. But when her inexperience has her making blunders and courting embarrassment, help comes from an unexpected source: the brooding, irritable brother of her chaperone. Valentine Donovan is a rake, mountains of gaming debt and all. With his only hope for financial relief tied up in the Admiralty Court, he must temporarily rely on his fatherâs charityâand all the strings attached to it. His father demands Valentine show evidence that he is changing his ways, so when the engaging but naĂŻve young woman living with his sister presents a plan, he canât refuse the opportunity to fulfill some of his fatherâs requirements, albeit reluctantly. But Valentine is unprepared for Rebeccaâs guileless optimism and how impossible he finds it to say no to her increasingly onerous requestsârequests that put both their hearts and reputations in danger. A Confirmed Rake is the second in Martha Keyes's The Donovans regency-set romance series. Each book can be treated as a standalone.