The Rakess
RECOMMENDED: The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham is $1.99! Carrie read this one and have it an A-:
The combination of personal catnip with descriptive language and complex characterization is spot on. I recommend this for fans of vocal feminism, found family, angst, and explicit sex in their historicals. I plan to read my copy many, many times!
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.
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RECOMMENDED: The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen is $1.99! Allen is an auto-buy author for me and I just love the way she adds in some fabulism to her women’s fiction. Some readers felt that this book and its characters weren’t as great as Allen’s other novels. While others say that if you’re looking for something heartfelt and cozy, this should hit the spot.
In her latest enchanting novel, New York Times bestselling author Sarah Addison Allen invites you to a quirky little Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon. Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world—no matter how out of place they feel.
Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew—a reclusive, real-life gentle giant—she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.
Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes—which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar . . . Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past?
Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.
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Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is $2.99! This is a highly recommended YA title that was everywhere when it first came out, probably because of that kickass cover. Readers say the first half of the book is a bit of a slog, while others loved all the plot twists. It has a 4-star rating on Goodreads. I think my roommate was meh on it though.
Graceling meets The Selection in debut novelist Victoria Aveyard’s sweeping tale of seventeen-year-old Mare, a common girl whose once-latent magical power draws her into the dangerous intrigue of the king’s palace. Will her power save her or condemn her?
Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.
To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion—even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.
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Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay is $1.99! This is an Austen-esque retelling with a slight romantic subplot, though I believe this is more contemporary fiction. Readers really loved the heroine in this one, but it seems like this has some inspirational elements. It has a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads.
Samantha Moore has always hidden behind the words of others—namely, her favorite characters in literature. Now, she will learn to write her own story—by giving that story to a complete stranger.
Sam is, to say the least, bookish. An English major of the highest order, her diet has always been Austen, Dickens, and Shakespeare. The problem is, both her prose and conversation tend to be more Elizabeth Bennet than Samantha Moore.
But life for the twenty-three-year-old orphan is about to get stranger than fiction. An anonymous, Dickensian benefactor (calling himself Mr. Knightley) offers to put Sam through Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism. There is only one catch: Sam must write frequent letters to the mysterious donor, detailing her progress.
As Sam’s dark memory mingles with that of eligible novelist Alex Powell, her letters to Mr. Knightley become increasingly confessional. While Alex draws Sam into a world of warmth and literature that feels like it’s straight out of a book, old secrets are drawn to light. And as Sam learns to love and trust Alex and herself, she learns once again how quickly trust can be broken.
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Dear Mr. Knightley is a retelling of Daddy Longlegs. I felt it didn’t really add anything new to the story, and the inspirational sections felt awkwardly shoehorned in rather than being an organic part of the story.
That said, I should probably admit that I rarely like retellings or inspirationals, so YMMV.
Anais Nin’s LITTLE BIRDS—a collection of 13 erotic short stories—is a $1.99 KDD today.
Yeah, Dear Mr. Knightley isn’t based on Austen – it’s a retelling of a Jean Webster YA book. I prefer Daddy Long Legs!
I haven’t read Dear Mr Knightley (which sounds like a cross between Daddy-Long-Legs and Austen fan fiction) but I have read another Reay — and she definitely writes Christian inspirational novels (albeit those themes are somewhat subtly introduced). I didn’t know about the inspirational aspect going into the Reay I read (which was described as a modern retelling of Jane and Elizabeth Bennett’s relationship). That the books are inspirationals is not played up in the blurbs for some reason so I thought it should mention that.
For what it’s worth I did finish that book, but thought it was bit meandering and the characters not fully thought out. As a result not interested in reading another of her books.
The Rakess is absolutely my pick today!
The Girl Who Chased the Moon is a lovely read.
Heads up: He’s Not My Boyfriend by Jackie Lau is currently 99 cents. Her books have been consistently well reviewed here and she’s becoming an auto-buy author for me (I like humour and meddling families in my contemporaries).
The Rakess is one of my favourite recent reads – one of those ones that if I were able to be at work at the library I would be squeeing at my historical romance patrons and saying okay, try to plan your reading time or it’s gonna be a bad decisions book club night.
Can someone tell me if the Rakess also addresses the issue of avoiding both pregnancy and venereal disease? Because those concerns always seem to be glossed over along in a lot of romances and I’m getting thrown out of a lot of stories because the sexual mores are hugely contemporary and the economics are just wrong (relative cost of travel to wages, cost of clothing….).
@Jean C: I don’t remember about preventing STDs off the top of my head, but preventing pregnancy definitely played a huge role in The Rakess.
Personally, while I thought The Rakess was well written and that the author did some interesting things with this story, the ending, while very fitting, was a little too unconventional for my historical romance tastes. Obviously, that’s very much a case of YMMV and I’m sure many readers feel very differently than I!
Has The Rakess ever been on cover snark?