“The Rakess” positives are far less than the negatives, leaving me torn on how I feel about the overall read. Starting off with the positive, I liked the strong sensual heroine Seraphina who wasn’t ashamed to showcased her attraction towards the architect, Adam, who did everything in his power to fight the urge to submit to her wild ways. It was a constant (and shall I say tiring?) back and forth between the two throughout the entire novel. I say about ⅓ I was already done and over it, and the repetitiveness allowed the story to draaaaaag on. Despite the 380 pages, there were far more tedious scenes that could have been cut out to make it a smooth sailing ride. I can’t even tell you how many times I check the % of the book to see if I was making any progress. It seem like I was just stuck and that's something no reader wants to experience.

In spite of the scenes that I found redundant, it wasn’t a complete terror to read. It was easy to see and feel the connection between Adam and Sera, and despite their social standing, I did quite enjoy how their relationship came to be. Moreso, I think the author did a decent job touching sensitive topics such as grieve, death, loss of pregnancy, addiction/alcoholism, animal cruelty, kidnapping and false imprisonment.

“The Rakess” left me caught between a rock and a hard place, and can easily be a hit or miss for readers.

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This is my first book from this author, I liked the idea of reading about a Rakess for a change, but otherwise I didn't know what to expect. It ended up being quite interesting and engaging. The heroine was much more than *just* a rake, and it gave the hero the opportunity to stand out from the crowd as well. Their relationship was steamy and complicated and sweet, and I really enjoyed it. I loved her friendship with the other rogue ladies as well, (strong female relationships are underrepresented in every genre), and I'm looking forward to reading their stories. ( )

I was pretty excited about this book after reading reviews. I mean, a historical romance where the heroine is not a "oh my god THAT goes in WHERE" virgin, or even a "actually I'm secretly not a virgin because I had bad sex once or twice and tbh I'm ashamed about it SO DON'T ASK" kinda gal, but actually a woman straight up Doing The Do left and right in a not sure it quite makes it to, but almost sex positive way? Hecka yeah! Sign me up.

And let me tell you, the sex scenes? A babey! Maybe I've read too many historical romances, but the sex scenes start to... I don't want to say follow a formula per se... but they get a little predictable. Start with (in the words of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito) "necking," move on to some base rounding, finally get some p in the v (as a treat), and then—if we're all lucky—someone puts their mouth someplace SHAMEFUL but DELIGHTFUL.

But this book? Fuck off with that vanilla shit, Deborah, because we start with oral and I think that's great. Temper your expectations: it's still just two cis hets having a good time without restraints, pain play, or (too many) toys. But I still found it a little refreshing after reading so many heroines who had to have a man tell her to "just let go" when she was confused by her impending orgasm.

There was also a story here, which I don't want to sell short. The characters were complicated and their problems were real. Probably because of that, I did have a hard time picking this book back up, which shouldn't be taken lightly. The amount of guilt I feel each day I have a book with holds checked out of the library will force me to read when I otherwise don't want to. This book probably has the most holds of any book I've checked out so far, and still that guilt wasn't enough to make me want to keep subjecting myself to the train wreck I saw coming.

But even train wreck romances are enjoyable if the resolution is, I don't know, clever enough? Like, there's no deus ex machina, and the problems aren't hand-waved away, but instead they're resolved through some clever maneuvering by the protagonists. But the ending of this one seemed to be that they just decided that they didn't care about the problems, and they were going to Make It Work Somehow. And I guess the most pressing problem does end up working out, but all the other incredibly valid concerns (all of them his, coincidentally) are just... not addressed? I don't want to give specifics, because spoilers, but I promise, I'm thinking of very specific concerns he had that are just straight up ignored in the resolution and epilogue. And I'm not a fan!

So, points for complicated characters with real hurdles to a successful relationship and (relatively!) imaginative sex scenes, but demerits for the hand wave-y, we're-just-not-going-to-address-these-problems-we-brought-up-in-the-first-place resolution. ( )

Absolutely loved this romance. The heroine and hero both had wonderful depth, and I enjoyed how the typical “rake” trope was flipped. I especially love late-18th-century feminists and look forward to continuing the series as it comes out. ( )

ok I read the blurb and said yup I like this, however I started reading and did not agree with that. why well it bored me, and it is supposed to be a romance book and I didn't feel we got that til way later, more than half a book later. Seraphina, I was wishing she was the type of heroine I liked, but she wasn't she was drunk and it seemed that is what she was always gonna do, I tried to remember that the tables were turned which it would be something that a Rake would do but I dont know it didn't sell it well to me. She meets Adam who is actually a really nice guy and has 2 kids, but would he really want Seraphina around..

rcvd an ARC at no cost to author..(netgalley) voluntarily reviewed with my own thoughts and opinions ( )