The Rake | Book Review

SYNOPSIS

Boston’s most infamous femme fatale meets her match in a dangerously mild Englishman who has vowed to never marry in this romantic standalone from Washington Post bestselling author L.J. Shen

Emmabelle Penrose has cruised through life never needing a man, a plan that has worked stunningly well until about five minutes ago, when she decided she must have a baby.

Devon Whitehall is 6’2” of premium DNA, financial security, and British royal titles. Best of all, he fears the one thing she dreads the most: getting hitched.

Emmabelle figures it’s a no-brainer when Devon offers his services—sperm and involvement in her future child’s life.

What begins as an innocent, modern-family arrangement, quickly erodes into a web of lies, dark pasts, and unfurled secrets.

Inside this chaos, Emmabelle and Devon are forced to face the awful truth—they are capable of love.

Even worse, they might feel it toward each other.

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REVIEW

Thank you to Social Butterfly PR and the author, L.J. Shen, for providing me with an advanced copy of The Rake.

The Boston Belles series has definitely been one of my of my favorite series from L.J. Shen! The Rake has been high on my list of most anticipated books since the Boston Belle series started and we got a list of the titles for the four books in the series. As the series has gone on and we’ve gotten small snippets of Devon Whitehall, I grew to anticipate this book even more!

The Rake is definitely a darker book than I would say most people would expect from L.J. Shen if you’ve read books by her before. The book mentions child abuse and grooming as the trigger warnings, but I think it should also be known that The Rake includes a rape scene as well as a miscarriage. These are two things I wish I could have been a little more prepared for going into the book.

I loved so much about this book, but I especially loved the banter between Emmabelle and Devon. It was some of the best I’ve read and it alone could have kept me completely hooked on the book.

I absolutely loved this book and can definitely see myself rereading this soon! The Rake is angsty, emotional, and one of L.J. Shen’s best in my opinion. I’m sad the Boston Belles series is over, but I definitely think this was the best book to end them!

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