The Rakess

Society of Sirens #1

by Scarlett Peckham, Sienna Frances (Narrator)

Meet the SOCIETY OF SIRENS—three radical, libertine ladies determined to weaponize their scandalous reputations to fight for justice and the love they deserve…

She's a Rakess on a quest for women's rights…

Seraphina Arden's passions include equality, amorous affairs, and wild, wine-soaked nights. To raise funds for her cause, she's set to publish explosive memoirs exposing the powerful man who ruined her. Her ideals are her purpose, her friends are her family, and her paramours are forbidden to linger in the morning.

He's not looking for a summer lover…

Adam Anderson is a wholesome, handsome, widowed Scottish architect, with two young children, a business to protect, and an aversion to scandal. He could never, ever afford to fall for Seraphina. But her indecent proposal—one month, no strings, no future—proves too tempting for a man who strains to keep his passions buried with the losses of his past.

But one night changes everything...

What began as a fling soon forces them to confront painful secrets—and yearnings they thought they'd never have again. But when Seraphina discovers Adam's future depends on the man she's about to destroy, she must decide what to protect…her desire for justice, or her heart.

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Adult

Audio CD

First published April 28, 2020

About the author

Scarlett Peckham writes sexy, gothic, feminist historical romances about alpha heroines. She splits her time between Los Angeles and the spooky cliffs of Coastal Oregon.

For a taste at her critically acclaimed Secrets of Charlotte Street series, download her free novelette, The Emerald Widow: https://geni.us/EmeraldWidow

To be the first to hear about her new releases and cat photos, sign up for her legendary newsletter: https://geni.us/TheScarlettLetter

Reviews

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

i would let Seraphina step on me

[Lacey (laceybooklovers) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had such high hopes for The Rakess as soon as I saw the title, blurb, AND cover. I mean, just look at that gorgeous, old-school vibes cover! And a female rake heroine? YES, please. I'm all for heroines in historical romances (and romances in general) who are feminist and love sex. I was also excited to be reading my very first Scarlett Peckham book – her historical romances have been on my radar since so many have raved about them. And while the concept of The Rakess is great and exactly up my alley, I had a tough time... reading it. The first half was so boring, it was a struggle to get through. The second half did get a lot better, but I’m so sad this book didn’t live up to my expectations.

Seraphina is as liberal, radical, and scandalous as you can imagine a woman who is feminist, fights for women's rights, and has lovers and affairs left and right is in the 19th century. And I truly loved her for all of that. She's on a quest to help women in need, while also taking down the powerful man who ruined and smeared her reputation. While in the countryside to write her exposé, she meets Adam Anderson, a gorgeous, Scottish single father she'd love nothing more to spend her nights with. Instead, this rakess falls for him and his two young children.

The idea behind The Rakess is fantastic. It just wasn’t executed well enough for me. There was barely any romance until 60% of the way through the book. The hero is an absolute Nice Guy and while I loved the gender flipping of the rake into a rakess, I never grew to love Seraphina’s character. She spends most of the story drinking/drunk and barely contributing to the romance. I wouldn't have minded that if she were focusing on the feminist movement instead of the romance, but that also doesn't progress until halfway through the book. It's only in the last 40% did I get the kind of story I was expecting when I went into The Rakess, and the book became so much more enjoyable.

Despite not fully loving The Rakess, I'm still very much looking forward to the other books in the series. We have two of Seraphina's friends who will be getting their romances, who are just as scandalous as this heroine, and I can't wait to see how they will turn out. Plus, I did enjoy Scarlett Peckham's writing – hopefully I'll enjoy her other series more than this book.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

TW for loss of a loved one, miscarriage, and loss of a child.

THIS BOOK WAS SO FABULOUS. I know a lot of people didn't love this book, but I absolutely loved how it was a realistic portrayal of a rakess in society. Sure, we'd love a sex-positive heroine who lived like as a rake would during this time period. But that's not what Seraphina can do. At a young age, she was taken advantage of and exposed, and society immediately condemned her. Sera took control of her life and embraced the role of a rakess, which means that people absolutely detest her and often threaten her because of her reputation. It sucks, but that's the reality of how people viewed women versus men in that time period. I loved how much Sera was fighting for women's rights and I loved getting to know her more as she wrote her memoir about her past.

But let's get to the real reason I loved this book. ADAM. He lost his wife and felt like it was his fault, so he's very hard on himself and takes his job as a father to his two children very seriously. I just loved how sweet he was and how much he genuinely wanted to be there for Sera. Ugh. Adorable!

I really loved this book and am so happy I ended up picking this up. I cannot wait for the second book!

[JenReadsRomance]

DNF at 20%

I probably should have known at the author's note that this book wouldn't be for me. Upending the rake trope has been the work of romancelandia for decades, and the rake / ruined woman characters she described in her author's note at the beginning? Honestly, I haven't seen that in romance since the 90s. However, when authors put their manifesto at the beginning, there's really no mistaking what they're hunting.

Sera isn't taking lots of lovers because she loves sex, she's doing it to forget. She's harming herself: Given the grip that anxiety had on her, to partake in intercourse at all was a kind of mental torture. As much as she enjoyed the act, every lover was a finger poised along the blade of a knife sharp enough to cut her.

It isn't sexy; It's sad. I was hoping it would feel sex positive, but it felt puritanical. The reason I stopped reading LitFic is because of the way pain and suffering is seen as having more weight and gravitas than the hope and promise of the HEA. And given the set-up of the first 20% is almost pure misery, with the promise of more to come?

I decided to stop reading. YMMV.

[Capt. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the grim realities of womanhood, and the danger of addressing them when one lacked power beyond rage, were so heavy it silenced all discussion. One did not need to name the feeling. One simply felt the weight.

Seraphina Arden is so heartbreakingly human 🥺

This 3 stars is all for her and her alone since for me the romance is the weaker aspect but individual characteristic of the fmc, mmc and even the side characters undoubtedly carried this book along with the camaraderie of the womenfolks.

Not many will appreciate her because I noticed that readers lately are narrow-minded when it comes to understanding and accepting sexually experienced, abrasive, very flawed and prickly FMCs the way they can accept cruel and cheating MMCs 💔


Plot:
Sera is on a quest to help women in society take control of their place by fighting for their rights as well as giving them opportunities to have the same resources the same as men.

In the beginning we met her as she’s writing her memoir about her past, hoping that this scandal of hers would gain momentum for people to notice and hear their (Sera, Cornelia, Thaïs and Elinor) movement. She met Adam (MMC) who’s an architect and father of two and whose wife has died years ago.

Eventually, they formed a bond, and Sera is determined to put a boundary at their relationship for she had been hurt so much in the past. Adam is good for her, really good. He is determined to be her friend and lover, and he believes in what Sera is fighting for even supports her in little things like promising that his architectural firm would hire female apprentices and teach them the same way they teach men.
BUT he’s also just a simple member of the ton.
He has to earn his keep by commissioning with rich people totally opposed with Sera’s radical views, to help keep his family afloat to not tarnish the future reputation of his children if he continued to associate himself with a radical and rakess. This contention is the main conflict of their relationship.


Main characters:
• Sera
she’s feisty. No better word can describe her than that. Sera is a complex, feisty and damaged character done right. What she says she’s going to do is what she IS going to do.
Her flaws are unquestionably present and fit the kind of damaged woman who would not seize to remark barb and hurtful words just to protect herself that’s also why she concocted this peevish, irritable “bitchy” front but she’s VULNERABLE when she needs to be and she REFLECTS on her mistake and always always RESOLVES to do better. A very much complex woman. I simply love her 🫂💜

And Sera oh Sera is not for someone uncomfortable reading a woman acting like a man and treating a man like a man would a woman 🤧 Sera is not created for the male-centered readers 🥺💜

“Yes, I am upset,” she shouted. “I have every right to be upset. My friend was made a prisoner by her own husband. My neighbors are killing birds to threaten me. And yet I am the one considered dangerous to the social order? What have I done? What on earth have I done?” She pounded the grass with her palms.

Oh Sera 🥺🥺🥺

• Adam
is the definition of a gentleman. He is nice, too nice on some occasions specially when dealing with Sera, but don’t mistake his nice man™️ to mean that he doesn’t have a backbone. Oh he does. He sets boundaries when Sera is becoming too much, and even then, he is not deliberately cruel. He makes sure she understands why he’s doing what he’s about to do and always thinks about her well-being and the best of his children.


So why 3 stars?
Well it has so many of my pet peeve. For one, dead wife trope. That will always get a deduction from me no matter how good it was handled 🥲
Second, the most annoying part surprise pregnancy sigh I’m tired of reading a plot where pregnancy is used as a way to reconcile the characters after they parted ways. I want them to solve their issues all by themselves BEFORE bringing a baby between them.



Safety:
OW: Adam is a single father of 2 who lost his dear wife Catriona to childbed along with their child. He loved her since he was 12 years old.

“James,” Adam said quietly, “you know that Catriona meant the world to me. I still mourn her every day. But the truth is that I’ve fallen in love with Seraphina Arden. And even if nothing comes of it, I want to do what’s right by her.”

OM: Sera has been in love in her youth with Trewlnany ,a man of much higher power and station and he denied of ever being with her once she became pregnant because of that affair but she lost the baby. That whole scene was so heartbreaking and REAL I wanted to hug her after that.

“Of becoming who I was before. I loved Trewlnany, Adam. I loved him the way only a girl can love. And after everything that happened, I swore to myself I would never ever feel that way again(…)”

[Hannah B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It just…sparked no joy. Not even the mushroom dildo up his ass. The bird sacrifice and forced institutionalization helped tho!

Also what the FUCK kind of epilogue was that?? Just when I started to care smh. Like why do I need to be confronted with another shitty man doing another shitty thing to a woman? Even with the premise, this book still felt so centered around men it was exhausting. I love revenge but I don’t think she played many people besides herself. And then to circle back to the epilogue?? The next book isn’t even about that so idk

There’s the one good sex scene but the rest are over SO quickly and it’s all just Seraphina trying to shock the reader I felt like. A lot of this book felt super heavy handed. Idk they climaxed SO FAST like beep beep touch touch SPAPSPSPSPPASP 💥 I have no clue why the author thought multiple of those super quick low detail scenes would be hotter than a few really good ones? Not a clue. Also minus 10million stars for using puss (not pussy) and OOZE.

Also his kids seemed like an afterthought and I wanted more cute moments between them.

[Becky (romantic_pursuing_feels) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 3.5 but rounding to 4

Safety warnings attached at end.

Wow this book has been totally different than anything I've read...ever. This is my first Scarlett Peckham and I will be trying her again for sure. I think she's a great writer. Explicit sex, language, borderline offensive in some parts, just the rawness of real life people – the wonderful parts, the loving parts, and sometimes the true ugliness we can show. This was not an easy read. It's not light and fluffy. It's heavy. It's emotional. It's filled with angst and heart break. Parts were wonderful. Parts were horrible. It's definitely a memorable story.

So many stories about the rake. Oh he's so handsome with his flirtations, his sexual conquests, his ability to walk away from those nights emotionally unscathed. But, there is another side to these stories sometimes. The woman that is ruined. The woman who has no options in life anymore except what she scrape by with from the generosity of others. The woman who people run to other side of the street to get away from, laugh at, yell slurs to, threaten...the woman who is utterly broken by the choice made by two people yet only she is held accountable. This story is about such a girl, Seraphina.

I loved and hated Sera. When she was honest about her feelings she was beautiful. Her memoirs broke my heart and were by far my favorite part of this story. So strong. Unflappable in the face of the cruelty of society. I cannot help but admire her. But her full recovery is far from complete. And while she is learning how to heal from all of her past hurts, she can be rather ugly. It's all completely understandable. I do not blame her for her choices even though I do not like them. But that's the draw of this story, its powerful realness. She's a radical, a woman's rights acitvist, fighting to give her sex the tiniest bit of freedom and rights. It definitely made me feel the inequality in this story. It made me fear living in this time as a woman. It brought life to those movements in a way I haven't read before.

Adam is the hero. Born a bastard, a widower with 2 children. He works with his in laws in an architect firm when his true passion is art. I liked Adam, but Sera's story so overshadowed him and their relationship, my feelings could only grow to lukewarm. I loved that he had truly loved his wife. So many books have to make something wrong with the previous spouse, like it always must be a once in a lifetime love and I just don't think that's true. While I prefer first love stories instead of second chance, I believe in loving multiple people and it was refreshing seeing someone recovering from that pain and moving forward. Enough time was spent on his feelings that it was acknowledged and gave him depth but it didn't overshadow Sera and Adam's relationship.

This book is probably a bit more just the story of Sera. Her life. Her choices. Her recovery. Her healing. The relationship of Adam and Sera to me got a bit lost in it all. Took the back seat of the plot of the book. And this might work for some people but it made me like the book a bit less than otherwise probably. There's a lot of sex in the book and it's NAUGHTY. The words...they are all used. So ye who offend easily begone. But the sex happened so fast to me and I kept waiting for more relationship, more friendship, more connection but it was soooo slow going. It made me care about the sex less. I also wish I had more time in Adam's head (from the book in general), or more feelings from the sex. Very explicit, mostly hot, but almost mechanical in some scenes. So all these things, couple with quite a few spots of boredom in the story (I felt like the non sex scenes with the hero and heroine were a very small part of the book) lead me to 3.5 stars.

I got this book from netgalley as an ARC. As always these feelings are completely my own opinions.

Safety warnings: alcoholism, animal abuse, child bearing death, miscarriage

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the headnote, the author explains that she was so inspired by Wollstonecraft's "Vindication of the Rights of Women" that she wanted to write a book (or series, I suppose) of novels featuring womens' rights activists. Secondarily, she wanted to invert the classic "rake" trope by allowing a woman to occupy the role instead. (It's worth noting she says this like it's never been done before, which...seems to me that Peckham might not be as well read in the romance genre as she claims.)

And yet despite these grandiose assertions, this book reads like a 90s romance novel that substitutes trauma for character growth and punishes its characters for transgressiveness rather than actually pushing the narrative in a feminist-forward trajectory. Here's basically what happens:

1) The main character, Seraphina, flagellates herself for being ruined as a girl. While trauma is real, her sexual exploits are destructive rather than progressive. She's a "rakess" because sex is how she deals with her pain, not because it's a healthy, natural indulgence for women both in and out of wedlock.

2) Her earlier transgression is punished AGAIN through traumatic child loss. Seraphina loses everything because of her youthful indiscretion. Because OF COURSE she has to go through the meat grinder again — being used, ruined, and cast off by her family isn't enough.

3) Seraphina's redemption comes through motherhood. This has long been the narrative of patriarchy: the way for women to be whole is through the transition from woman to mother.

The fact that the author finds these ideas "progressive" isn't necessarily a complete slight against her so much as it's indicative of how ingrained patriarchal structures are in the ways we think about womanhood and what women deserve. In fact, part of me thinks that the trauma included in this book is to make it a more "literary" read, which...okay, I guess.

But here's the core of the problem: the anger/hate/condemnation Seraphina suffers as a result of her actions isn't just social, it's largely internal. Seraphina hates herself because of her ruin and subsequent losses. And that's not an example of trauma — it's indicative of internalized misogyny, and Peckham never acknowledges that in any meaningful way outside of lip service-y epigraphs.

This is complicated by the fact that Peckham has SO many balls in the air that she can't juggle them all in a way that is both sincere and effective. Seraphina is a drunk, using sex to self-destruct, has lost a child, was kicked out by her family, is being harassed by the locals, and has to also rescue a friend from an insane asylum...all while writing a trauma-exploiting memoir to fund a home for wayward girls. Adam, our hero, thinks sex and pregnancy will kill women and has tons of hang-ups that miraculously resolve by the book's conclusion. There's just so, so much going on here that it's impossible to manage all the plot points while still building narrative authenticity.

I honestly don't know why I've spent so much time writing this up...except to say that I was particularly irked to have this book billed as some feminist manifesto inspired by Wollstonecraft when it's just echoing many patriarchally inscribed traumas. I do believe that romance is a genre capable of incredible feminist work and insight! But this book sets up ambitious goalposts in its headnote that it just doesn't reach.

[aphrodite · Rating 4 out of 5]

a hot female seductress & a sexy scotsman have a FWB relationship turned romance.

this is a historical romance loving bisexual’s wet dream.

it’s me, I’m the historical romance loving bisexual.

[fatma · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 reasons why you should read The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham:

#1: It's a romance that plays with the tropes of romance
I don't mean to make this novel sound like it's Not Like Other Romance Novels, but I just love the way that it flips the more conventional gender dynamics of the male rake who learns to let go of his of rakish ways because he falls in love with the female love interest. In this novel it is our female lead, Seraphina the rakess, who is A Lot: oftentimes prickly and defensive, loath to let anyone in too close to her--a "rakess" precisely because she doesn't want to let anyone in too close. In contrast to Seraphina, we have the ever patient and understanding male lead, Adam, who is emotionally open where Seraphina is closed. Which leads me to my next point...

#2: Its male lead isn't an emotionally repressed alpha type
THIS. I've been reading a lot of historical romances lately, and I've just become so deeply, deeply bored by emotionally repressed alpha male leads. I never much cared for them to begin with, and the fact that they seem to be everywhere in the historical romances I've been reading has pretty much reduced my tolerance for them to zero. I want male leads who are nice and kind and soft!!! Maybe it sounds dumb to say that I just want male characters who are Nice, but they've been so rare to find lately that I feel like it needs saying. The Rakess has exactly that--a male lead who is Nice--and let me tell you, it is an absolute breath of fresh air. I love how honest and kind Adam is; he cares so deeply for Seraphina, and his actions always show that. She pushes him away, and he holds himself back from her, but even through all that, Adam is never cruel, never careless with Seraphina and her emotions. He is good and decent all the way through, and I just want to underscore how much I loved and appreciated that.

#3: It examines the role of being a woman, especially in a historical romance setting
Even though The Rakess is, by definition, a romance with a HEA, it also really deeply engages with what it's like to be a woman in its historical time period (the late 1700s). I wouldn't say it's a depressing novel, but still, it manages to drive home how hard it is for Seraphina to inhabit her world as a woman, the way her choices are limited, and the way that she makes her own choices anyway, bearing the consequences. Peckham does an excellent job depicting this reality of Seraphina's without making the novel feel too too morose or bogged down in misery. The novel is certainly not flippant in the way that it deals with these issues, but I really appreciated that there was that sense of gravity to lend the story, and especially Seraphina's character, real stakes and depth.

#4: Its characters have fleshed out backstories
The two leads of The Rakess have such developed and complex backstories. Seraphina has gone through a lot, and we hear about the ways in which she's been hurt and grown over the years. Adam also has a history of his own, one which has informed the way that he has chosen to raise his family now. Both of them come with a lot of emotional baggage, and I love the way that, in coming together, they're able to open up to each other and talk about the ways in which their histories have made them the people that they are now.

#5: IT'S SO ANGSTY
This is probably why this book is one of my favourite romances ever. (THE ANGST, Y'ALL!!!!) The reason The Rakess is so angsty--the reason its angst works so extraordinarily well and hits you so hard--is because the conflict in it feels real and believable. Romance readers everywhere know by now about the dreaded Third Act Conflict--everything will be going great in a romance until the third act rolls around, at which point the characters proceed to make the most idiotic, nonsensical decisions possible. What I love about The Rakess, and what makes it so deliciously angsty, is that its conflict is absolutely solid. There are real obstacles--both internal and external--that these characters have to deal with to be together, and they stumble on those obstacles, and those obstacles keep them apart and complicate their relationship. But you're there the whole way because you believe in that conflict, because Scarlett Peckham crafts it so that it makes sense for these characters and their world--and because you want to see these characters deal with their conflicts and come out the other side together. I just adored it all--I will choose an angsty romance over a fluffy one any day, and the angstiness of this one was executed to perfection.

#6: It's structurally interesting
I love the way this book is structured. We have our main present narrative, with Seraphina and Adam, which is interspersed with snippets of a book that Seraphina has written. But then, the narrative stops, takes a short break, and we return again to Seraphina and Adam, this time in a different place (I don't want to get too spoilery). The way that Scarlett Peckham has structured this story is why, I think, its romance ends up feeling so believable: you get the sense that these characters have spent a considerable amount of time together, and have grown close over that time, just as you have spent time with and grown close to them. It's also why the novel's conflict feels so solid; the characters are given time to grow close, but also to be apart, to miss each other, to want to come together again.

#7: Its romance feels EARNED
This one ties into points #6 and #7, but I wanted to talk about it separately because it's the reason why this novel is one of my all time favourite romances. So let me say it again: the relationship in The Rakess feels SO earned. The characters go through a lot, and while their struggles and traumas are not treated lightly, the novel also allows them to find comfort in each other, to heal together--they go through a lot, but that only makes their romance feel that much stronger when they do actively decide to be together. Peckham lays out the foundation for their relationship slowly and organically over the course of the novel, so that by the end what you're left with is a romance that's fully formed, one that feels so strong and grounded that you can't help but root for and be invested in it.

#8: Its main characters have cool jobs!!!
This one is kind of a small bonus thing that I liked and wanted to mention because it adds a really cool element to the story. Seraphina is a writer and an activist for women's rights (and in general), and those things are very much at the heart of her character in the novel. And Adam! Adam is an architect, which I just found so interesting and a nice change of pace from all the dukes and earls and marquesses. His work ends up playing into Seraphina's project, too, and also really informs the decisions he makes throughout the course of the novel.

Anyway, I absolutely adored this novel. It's my favourite historical romance ever, and I can't wait to see where this series goes next.

------
reread: april 14-16, 2022

just as good the second time around, if not even better. im going to write a whole review for this soon because it's genuinely one of the most well executed and well crafted romances ive ever read.

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first read: june 18-19, 2021

4.5 stars

this was honestly one of the best romances i've ever read.

i don't tend to enjoy romance books that have a lot of plot, because frankly, i'm not here for the plot, i'm here for the romance. but The Rakess is such a well-crafted novel. every one of its elements just FLOWS so smoothly. the characters are well-drawn, the dialogue feels organic but still "historical," the romance is of course great, and the ANGST is perfect. there is so much angst in this book, but it's the kind that makes the romance feel so much more earned rather than melodramatic. I absolutely loved this, and it's one of those rare romances that i read and then keep thinking about even after i finish them.

[Joanna Loves Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was totally different than any other HR I have ever read. The heroine is certainly what the title infers, and she paves her own way in life. It was dramatic but also heartfelt. I thought it did an excellent job of working this theme within the constraints of the time period. The intimate scenes were a bit more descriptive than most I read, which was fine with me, but FYI if it matters. While I enjoyed this and thought it an interesting story with a good emotional journey, I suspect Peckham may be too much for me at times as this book was A LOT.

[Miranda · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was awful. Not in relation to every other historical romance but in the utter abuse that this bitch subjects this guy too. She uses him and then discards him and yet he keeps coming back as if any normal person would do such a thing. And then they make it out as if she realised she was a bad person but not for ow terribly she treated him. It was totally unjustified. This book shoves 'feminist' values down your throat while she is clearly treating him with misogyny and disrespect. He did nothing to her and yet she is just as bad if not worse than her antagonist. She isn't someone who I ever want to stand behind. I genuinely felt awful for the poor guy because he didn't deserve that shit.

[Antonella · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf @ch 11

[Sheena ☆ Book Sheenanigans · Rating 3 out of 5]

“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.

[aarya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discussed in twitter thread: https://twitter.com/ardentlyaarya/sta...

My friend b.andherbooks graciously allowed me to copy/paste her thorough list of content notes. Thanks, B! Her review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Content Notes: Past miscarriage described on page, past death from pregnancy and a bad delivery, grief, alcoholism, addiction, gas lighting (not by hero or heroine), animal cruelty (birds killed and maimed and left for heroine to find to scare her), forced kidnapping and imprisonment of a secondary female character in an asylum, described torture in said asylum

“Sirens, you see, are not born thirsting for justice. Sirens are made.”

Wow. Okay. So the content warnings are a lot. I would not recommend this book to folks if they dislike any mentions of those CWs. I honestly did not think I’d love THE RAKESS as it utilizes certain tropes/plot decisions that I normally dislike. That plus early polarizing reviews made me wary. So I wasn’t expecting to love it and was on the fence for most of the book.

In the end, when I took a step back and analyzed the experience.... yeah, I loved it. I think there are some aspects that are flawed or not interrogated enough for my liking, but my overall experience was deeply enjoyable. Despite certain qualms, it’s going to stick with me for a while. I adore those kind of books. I look forward to discussing THE RAKESS with folks who both love and loathe it.

Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Fadwa]

CW: talk of death of a new born, talk of death in childbirth, miscarriage scare, grief, harassment, threats, trauma, alcoholism, mental breakdown

I had this one on my radar for a few months but then a few days ago, I picked this one up on a whim and so thoroughly enjoyed it. Things I really loved about it:
- A rakess and her "depraved" friends make a feminist club where they stand up to the patriarchy and call out the unfair treatment of women in society at the time in all ways that they can.
- The central part mental health takes in this as both MCs struggle with different things to variant degrees, but I especially appreciated the portrayal of depression and alcoholism and how insidious they can be through the heroine's POV.
- Absolutely adored the group of friends and how huge of a support they are of each other.
- Okay fine I like the romance too. The sexual tension and chemistry are palpable and the sex scenes are STEAMY.
- Really liked the talk of contraception especially for the time period

[Retsel Koko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very important question:
How to insert myself as Seraphina’s bottom? 🙏🏽😚🫦

Everything good about this book has already been said by my good friends Capt. and Lena. Go read their wonderful reviews! 😍

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Katrina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was this a romance novel or a textbook?

[b.andherbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am going to have a whole slew of content warnings for this romance, one of my most anticipated of 2020. You can find them behind the spoiler.

CW: miscarriage described on page, death from pregnancy and a bad delivery, grief, alcoholism, addiction, gas lighting (not by hero or heroine), animal cruelty (birds killed and maimed and left for heroine to find to scare her), forced kidnapping and imprisonment of a secondary female character in an asylum, described torture in said asylum, may be more but these stood out to me

This trope flipping romance has much to love for those seeking dark, soul wrenching stories. Peckham's master of words and language is in full effect her, making you feel every lash of wind and rain on the Cornish cliffs and every dramatic pulse of lust and romance. Adam and Sera's characters are well drawn and the moments they are together shine. I loved how brittle and prickly Sera is, how she strives to embrace her rejection by society and revel in her freedom from expectation, yet how lonely she is and how she longs for love and friendship. Thank god for her friends, who's books I'm also dying for.

Adam is a stuffy, uptight, and grief stricken hero who is both blushingly stern in the streets and domineering and hot in the sheets. I loved that he adored and grieved for his wife. They had a love and lust match which is rare to find in romance novels.

What kept me from loving this story has a lot to do with the CWs listed above involving pregnancy. I'll write a better review closer to publication date, but feel free to reach out to me if you have questions!

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC!

[Em (semi-hiatus) · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise was interesting but the delivery fell flat, the characters were forgettable, and the ending seemed more invested in the sequel than the book I just sat through.

[Brigid]

about radical, libertine ladies—the first featuring a female rake—who weaponize their scandalous reputations to fight for justice and the love they deserve along the way

You had me at female rake but my head exploded at the idea of female rakes fighting for justice. Oh look head stuff on the carpet.....

[Lauren Reads Romance · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF@ 33%. I had high hopes and was intrigued by the twist of this story—a reversal of the reformed rake trope—where Seraphina, the heroine is the notorious Rakess and feminist fighting the patriarchy. Unfortunately, the writing and characters didn’t grab me. I felt restless and bored and just couldn’t get into it.

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Earl I Ruined, and I was interested to read more of Peckham's work. However, the synopses of her other books just didn't call out to me, so I didn't. Then I felt the need to read something on my Kindle, preferably a romance to give me a reprieve from all the dark thrillers I've been devouring. So I downloaded this, since it was already on my radar and the concept of a true female rake was interesting.

Well, I really liked Seraphina, the rakess in question. Her destructive behavior, loyalty to her friends, and moving back story grabbed me. I loved that she actually drank and smoked and slept with men (in the book, she sleeps with one man in the beginning before sleeping only with the hero). Sidenote: Not that I'm a fan of alcoholism, but I kind of wish Sera hadn't been made to go through rehab basically (her friends help dry her out), when male rakes never get that treatment.

I had a harder time liking Adam, the hero, and never really warmed to him. He was SO nice, but that's not really my thing, and although he stepped up, there were times he didn't do it to my satisfaction, or did it too late. Also, his POV was him constantly thinking about Sera and his architecture plans. Not very exciting! It was also EXTREMELY tedious how focused he was on having "killed" his wife with his lust, aka having sex with her and then she died in childbirth.

There were some words used in the sex scenes that don't appeal to me in that context, namely "hungry" and "oozing." Also, not a lot of P-in-V action here (see: hero is afraid his penis is murder). I do give props to the author to making the leads do other things that showed how much in lust they were (however, this was a very insta-lusty book, and I don't like that).

This ended up feeling really long, and I didn't enjoy it the way I did EARL. I'll still keep an eye on Peckham's future work, and I may even check out the rest of the Society of Sirens series when it comes out.

2.5 stars.

[melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

She wept for herself, for her unbearable sadness, her own capacity for cruelty, the terrible force of her rage.

I spent a lot of this book crying to the point of a headache (and finished it in one sitting)– out of sadness, out of recognition, out of the pure joy of reading a romance novel that delivered on what I've wanted for a long time. Seraphina is a very rare heroine in romance, allowed to be truly flawed but still loved and deserving and capable of love despite those flaws. Having your heroine deal with the very real hurt of alcoholism and sobriety in text as a central plot point is something I only remember seeing in Mary Jo Putney's THE RAKE (though there it’s the hero); Sera's struggle/guilt over her excessive drinking was so, so real and heartbreaking. Most authors have their hero cut themselves off alcohol in a book prior to their own, so that when they are the hero, their struggle is (mostly) over. What a blessing for Sera to have such a band of friends to take care of her because they love her so much. It's as almost palpable a romance as the one between Sera and Adam. Adam feels, in comparison, not as deep as Sera, but his fears cage him in as much as hers, and I adored his relationship with his children.

I've compared Scarlett Peckham to Laura Kinsale before, and here the comparison is apt, as both authors have heroines who do cruel things but still get their happy endings (here I am mostly thinking of Kinsale's FOR MY LADY'S HEART). What a raw, wonderful romance. Christ. More heroines who are likely to piss off readers expecting perfection! I want them all! Tangentially, another thing Peckham does well, which most historical romance authors are very bad at (even the ones I love), is that even if women are virgins at whatever age (Sera is very much not, but in general), they’ve probably masturbated. Like. Women get themselves off. They do not orgasm for the first time with some pnv sex.

I loved Seraphina and Adam and his family and her friends, and I cannot wait to read the next books in this series.

[Christi (christireadsalot) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a powerful story. The author’s note at the beginning of the book with an ode to Mary Wollstonecraft pulled me in and gave me all the feels; that alone was worthy of all the stars and really prepared me for what was in store with this read. This is a very powerful feminist historical romance read. It’s dark and moody and broody and heartbreaking and sweet and just filled with so many emotional pulls. This is definitely not the read for everyone, it is a heavy historical romance and if you’re looking for something light/fluffy/romcom funny, this isn’t it. But wow was I so impressed with the author’s writing and this story.

The Rakess is a gender reverse role for the classic “rake” trope. The story takes place in the late 1790s in England and follows Seraphina, a forward-thinking feminist fighting for women’s rights. She is in Cornwall for the summer at her family’s home as she works on her memoir and an expose to fight the patriarchy. Seraphina gets a lot of hate because of her radical ideas about women’s rights and her openness with sex and taking lovers. One evening she meets Adam, an architect who’s also there for work for the summer and Seraphina approaches him to spend their summer nights together. Adam is a single father and really trying to focus on his career when Seraphina offers up these nights spent with her.

This story isn’t just about the romance though as it heavily deals with how women were unfairly treated at the time and the unequal ways women and men’s actions were looked at. This book deals with a lot of heavy topics: alcohol abuse, a wife wrongly committed to an asylum on the whim of her husband, an mental/emotional breakdown, depression, heartbreak, loss/grief, death. I really adored Adam’s character, he was a genuinely nice guy and his 2 children were a nice addition to the story. I really liked Seraphina’s character as well, her strength through her hardships and reading her memoir snippets provided throughout the story was just so powerful. And while the romance isn’t the main part of this story, the steamy parts are STEAMY!

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me: Okay, I think I've read enough feminist historical romance for now and I have a million other books to read.

Me: *immediately picks up entire book about subverting rigid patriarchal norms around institutions of romance*

Scarlett Peckham's goal with this book is an honorable one: Take one of historical romance's most time-honored tropes, the rake, and give it a gender flip to show that we don't necessarily see the role in the same way. She had an incredibly thorough and thoughtful author's note at the start, and that really did center the whole story. I'm intrigued to check out her other work and keep reading the Society of Sirens series.

That said, something never quite worked for me with Sera and Adam's love story, but I didn't dislike it either. I just didn't find myself hurling my iPad across the room when I read the moments where they were fighting, or yelling "YESSSS LEGENDS!!!" when they were back together. I'm not exactly sure if I like on-and-off couples in books, but again, I didn't hate it here. And I really enjoyed the utter drama in the last third of the novel.

You've also been warned: On the steaminess scale, this book is a solid "wait, she's doing what with HUH?"

[Stacee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything about this book excited me: the cover, the title, the synopsis. I could not wait to get to this story and sadly, I’m quite disappointed.

I liked Sera and Adam well enough. They’re both good people with good intentions. Adam’s children were adorable and I did like Sera’s friends who make up the Society.

Plot wise, it was a bit of a struggle. The first half of the story was boring. It was all bluster with copious use of the c-word, and Sera being drunk nearly the entire time. The second half was more promising with the fight for equality showing up on the page, meaningful conversations, and Sera getting sober.

Overall, I had high hopes for this story and while the execution didn’t completely work for me, I am intrigued to see what happens in the next book.

**Huge thanks to Avon Books for providing the arc free of charge**

[Diane Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly unusual and fascinating book. The author modeled the heroine after Mary Wollstonecraft and the strong feminist views come through clearly. The hero is a perfect antithesis for the heroine -- he is kind and accepting. Their situations cause both of them to question assumptions about themselves.

The writing is excellent, a notch above the usual. I thought this book was compelling and it caused me to tear up several times. I will watch anxiously for the next book due to a little cliffhanger at the end of this one. The Rakess was written with great sympathy for the plight of women, but offers hope at the same time. I loved it.

ARC provided through Edelweiss

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I get why this is a divisive book and I'm a little surprised at myself as to how much I liked it? The heroine is definitely what would be called, in some quarters, difficult. But as with any character that is difficult, I believe that it is the author's job to make us understand why the character is that way and I did think that was done well. Did I think that she often treated the hero very badly and that if I were him I might be reluctant to keep going back for more? Sure. But I also got why he did and that's what I need most to have a romance work for me. Very curious to try the rest of the series.

Read for The Ripped Bodice Bingo 2020 square: Suffragettes

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw Serendipity in 2001 (the movie with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, one of our last pre-9/11 rom coms. it was released two days after, so obviously produced and promoted completely before) and the proceeded to watch it probably once a week for three years. Incidentally the woman who tells John Cusack at the beginning of the movie that they don't have a backroom or basement played Marian the Librarian in my dad's high school production of The Music Man. This combination of forced exposure to John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale leaving their perfectly nice fiances for each other based on nothing other than coincidence and the coincidence of Ann Talman's presence in the film has me bought into the dual/mirror/opposing concepts of serendipity and fate, especially in relationship to my consumption of media.

I also recognize that some of this is a cognitive distortion and a human impulse to narrativize things that happen to us, even if they are actually random.

I have a Sagittarius stellium (sun, mercury, mars) which suggests forward movement, to the detriment of assessing the present, which can manifest in a lack of self-awareness. But it is also a fifth house stellium, the house of the creative mark and the inner child, the house of self-lore. I think some of my self-narrativizing, externalized through reading meaning into the serendipity of my media consumption, comes from this.

This is all to explain: I think there is great meaning that I read The Rakess immediately after Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed, a book I hated. I think there is meaning that Beth made a TikTok saying "just read The Rakess instead" in an unfavorable review of another book, spurring me to finally read this, though I have had it on my TBR for so long.

Seven Nights pushed me to dislike something that I had never really paid much attention to in HR because I think it would alienate me from most books: the discussion of safer sex. I know this is often a hard line for contemporary readers! But what is HR without pregnancy plot? But in Seven Nights, the heroine really really does not want to get married, so she really really does not want to get pregnant. She *suggests* pregnancy prevention devices and the hero dismisses them as ineffective. She is a virgin and he is not. They have penetrative sex without coitus interruptus almost exclusively.

This annoyed me! As trite and patronizing as the Kleypas move of "I'll make sure you're still a virgin on your wedding day" can be, at least it demonstrates a 1. knowledge of how sex works 2. an interest in protecting a woman's interests from the more knowledgeable party.

The Rakess was totally counter to this and went even beyond that and really encouraged me to rethink what I expect from sex scenes and discussion in romance novels.

Sera Arden has adopted the title The Rakess and leaned into her notoriety as a fallen woman to help her book sales for her philosophical works about the rights of women. There are maybe a dozen little moments that demonstrate her knowledge of sex as a human function: she tracks her period, she can tell when men are attracted to her, she teaches the hero about some sex acts. Despite all the historicals that I read, my impulse is always to question when the baseline of some behavior is a book is "well women just didn't DO that" or "didn't KNOW that." What is more innate of an interest than awareness of your body? Just because a world is conservative does not mean women were somehow totally sequestered from this information all the time. And especially in historical romance, I think we can question how much of our sense of propriety is historical and how much of it comes from Georgette Heyer's conservative world view.

One of the reasons that I was so excited for this book is the amount of reviews who hated Sera: her cruelty, her drunkenness, her casual relationship to sex. These opinions aren't announcing themselves as misogyny, but Peckham addresses this her introduction (which I also loved!) that the idea of a Rakess has built into it different reactions than a Rake. Romance novel readers love a rake who reforms. One of the most popular characters of all time is Sebastian from Devil in Winter, who kidnaps! a heroine to marry her in the previous book.

Sera's not afforded the same chance at reformation, in-universe or as a character. But as much as she takes the title of Rakess, what she need to reform? It isn't her seduction of innocents (all of her affairs involve enthusiastic participants it seems). Her primary change is centered on her alcoholism, which many a rake deals with, but often the alcohol is strongly connected to carousing and they stop the moment they meet the right woman. Meeting Adam does not spur Sera's sobriety, her being really cruel to him does and the level of embarrassment she suffers when she realizes what she has done. I loved that her decision was separate from Adam's familial history with alcohol.

Related to Sera's knowledge as the Rakess and the discussion of sexual health, the sex in this is great! I joke about the perfunctory moments of sex in so many historical romances novels, where there are predictable beats of the order of the sex acts ("oh, well he went down on her last time, so now she is going to independently invent the idea of a blow job.") Nothing about Sera and Adam's sex life is perfunctory--it is perfectly suited for them and is different than anything else I have ever read.

Something else I loved was Peckham lack of distinction between other sex acts and penetrative PIV sex as sex. I'm not actually sure of the historicity of this distinction, but I don't really care? I think the holdover of holding up PIV sex as "real sex" is 1. homophobic 2. antiquated. And just because you are writing set in the 1790s, you are writing a book in 2020 for 2020 readers. You don't have to replicate harmful notions about sex for your book to feel historical. So brava to Peckham for that.

The books that this reminded me of the most were Sherry Thomas, mostly for the focus on the abject and bodily function, but surprisingly, I also thought a lot about Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas.

Kleypas would never ever write a heroine like Sera (Aline in Again the Magic is maybe her cruelest heroine. the only one I would consider a bitchy heroine). Kleypas heroines are sassy and cheeky and spirited and they can give as good as they get. But they aren't really ever bitchy.

But the discussion of Sera's adoption of the Rakess title reminded not for one of her heroines, but Cousin West. Cousin West Ravenel is my favorite Kleypas hero (probably my favorite HR hero ever) and is the reason I can't quite quit Kleypas as my baseline, as much as I think the most interesting things happen when HR as a genre pushes past where Kleypas got us. But Cousin West is NOT really a rake. I always imagine him as a Chris Farley type. Making jokes at his own expense, to the detriment of his health and self-image. West characterizes his time pre-Ravenels series as one of buffoonery, where he was too drunk to ever keep a mistress. Also his cruelest moments comes when he is drunk (to Kathleen in Cold-Hearted Rake).

Sera and West are both on the edges of the rake-trope/type. Neither is a member of the aristocracy, both struggle with substance abuse. They experience some of the rakishness and the pleasure of that, but also feel the consequences of it more acutely than say, someone like Sebastian in Devil in Winter.

I loved this book--I am thrilled to have found an author who is CURRENTLY PUBLISHING BOOKS that I adored. I need everyone to read this one, get hyped for The Portrait of a Duchess because if we run her out into high fantasy, I'll perish.