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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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A Cruel Thirst
A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya is $1.99! I mentioned this one on Hide Your Wallet and fully admit I bought it for that gorgeous cover. Have any of you read this one?
A fledgling vampire and a headstrong vampire huntress must work together–against their better judgment–to rid the world of monsters in this irresistible romantic fantasy.
Carolina Fuentes wants to join her family in hunting the bloodthirsty vampiros that plague her pueblo. Her father, however, wishes to marry her off to a husband of his choosing, someone who’ll take her away from danger.
Determined to prove she’d make a better slayer than wife, Carolina vows to take down a monster herself. But when she runs into un vampiro that is somehow extremely attractive and kind, her plan crumbles.
Lalo Villalobos was content leading a perfectly dull life until un vampiro turned him. Now forced to flee his city, he heads to the pueblo where he believes the first vampiro was made. Surely its residents must know how to reverse this dreadful curse. Instead of finding salvation, Lalo collides with a beautiful young woman who’d gladly drive a dagger through his heart.
Fortunately, Lalo and Carolina share a common enemy. They can wipe out this evil. Together. If his fangs and her fists can stay focused, they might just triumph and discover what it feels like to take a bite out of love.
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Playmaker
Playmaker by Deanna Faison is $2.99! This is a New Adult sports romance with a friends with benefits arrangement. This is book one in the Hidden Attractions series. The next book in the series is out this August.
Spring Break is about having fun–and a steamy friends with benefits relationship for Maddie and Cameron until they realize they might be falling in love. This BookTok sensation is perfect for fans of Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker and Tessa Bailey’s spicy rom-coms.
What started as a game just got serious.
Cameron’s a hot NFL prospect, and a total player on and off the field. But his moves don’t seem to work on Maddie. While she once crushed on him hard, that crush has since faded. She’s got big plans of her own and they don’t include him.
Then Spring Break turns their plans, and their feelings, upside down. Maddie and Cameron start a steamy affair, sneaking around behind their families’ backs. But there’s one big Maddie’s WAY overprotective brother–who happens to be Cameron’s BFF.
Will Cam be able to admit he’s got real feelings? Will Maddie ever be able to stand up to her brother and make her own decisions?
One thing’s for sure, their choices will change their life playbooks for good.
Based on the smash Webnovel, MY BROTHER’S BEST FRIEND, this spicy sports romance is sure to give readers a thrill.
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This book is on sale at:
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A Problem Princess
A Problem Princess by Anna Harrington is $1.99! This is book six in the Lords of Armory series and features a bodyguard/princess romance. Are you a fan of this series?
Enter into a steamy, forbidden romance between a princess destined to marry a duke and her bodyguard—the one person she is sure she can trust and the man she’s passionately falling for.
General Clayton Elliott, Home Office Undersecretary and new viscount, gets suspicious when London is too quiet. Everyone says that the anarchist group he’s been fighting died along with its leader, but his instincts say just the opposite.
Then he meets Her Serene Highness Princess Cordelia of Monrovia. Resigned to doing her duty for her country, she is in London to make a match with a royal duke—whichever duke wants her. But when she is shockingly attacked at a party, Clayton becomes her bodyguard. Is there a connection between the evil group Scepter and whoever apparently wants the princess dead? While Clayton and Cordelia evade her enemies and pursue their individual missions, the more they realize they can depend only on each other…
Fans of Sarah MacLean, Elizabeth Hoyt, and Bridgerton won’t want to miss this adventurous, danger-filled Regency romance.
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I liked the premise of THE RAKESS, but the execution didn’t totally work for me—I never really liked either of the MCs and the secondary characters were underdeveloped for my taste. There were some important plot points that could make the book so much more interesting but they lack suspense. I actually much preferred the second half—more action and more conflict to drive the plot forward.
I will say though, Peckham is pretty brave about what she’s going for with her books—I didn’t love all of her Secrets of Charlotte Street series, but she definitely commits to the bit.
I read and enjoyed A Cruel Thirst. It does *feel* like YA, to the extent that a lot of the heroine’s thoughts are flip-flops between “My mortal enemy, los vampiros!” and “Except for this one whom I want to make out with”.
The Kobo link for THE RAKESS is broken, but the discount seems to have ended there anyway
@Kolforin, Kobo has a 110% price match guarantee. Buy the book at Kobo’s price, and fill out the form linked at the bottom of this page with a link included to Amazon’s lower price. Kobo will give you a store credit of 110% of the difference within 24-48 hrs typically.
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/pricematch-about
@(The Other) M – ohhhh thanks so much for the heads up re the pricematch! I generally try to avoid Amazon for Reasons but so often Kobo seems to miss the sale price, so this is great.
@Kolforin: Are you outside the US? Sometimes our affiliate links don’t correspond to other geo versions of Kobno.
$.99:
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– Hard Stuff (A Collection–HARD CODE, HARD WARE, HARD BYTE): Laugh-Out-Loud Romantic Comedy by Misha Bell
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– Lust: The Bad Earl (Seven Deadly Sins Book 2) by Christi Caldwell
– One Night in Hartswood. A historical romance to warm your heart in 2025. (The Barden Series, Book 1) by Emma Denny
– All the Painted Stars: A dazzling queer historical romance for 2024, perfect for fans of Freya Marske (The Barden Series, Book 2)
by Emma Denny
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$6.99:
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$7.99:
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Free:
– Everything About You: An Enemies to Lovers Brother’s Best Friend Small Town Romance (Ever After Book 6) by Lea Coll
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Some Pride sales: https://books.bookfunnel.com/pridebooksonsale/t5xfgj2q3a
Another Pride promotion, focused on direct sales: https://books.bookfunnel.com/mm_read_pride/xrw8ee71ge
@Amanda Nope, I’m in the U.S. I do use iCloud Private Relay, which can mess with my apparent location, but the URL I end up when I click the link is in the U.S. store, which is the one I use: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-rakess) . But it just shows Kobo’s 404 page. When I use Kobo’s website search to find the book, I end up at https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-rakess-2.
@(The Other) M Thank you! I forgot they do that because the sales line up so often (and because of that I assumed the sale was over everywhere, so wouldn’t have thought of it anyway). It’s not worth the hassle for me except in very special cases, but good to know if one comes up.
@Kolforin: Strange! Our Kobo link should start with click.linksynergy.com plus a bunch of random characters for affiliate sales, and it works fine for me. I wonder if the iCloud Private Relay is the culprit.
@Amanda The linksynergy link redirects to Kobo, and I stripped the affiliate/tracking stuff from the Kobo link because it shouldn’t be relevant. The address I get when copying it from the page here is https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=YAp9SdgZlbI&mid=37217&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kobo.com%2Fus%2Fen%2Febook%2Fthe-rakess , which doesn’t have the “-2” on the end, so matches the Kobo link I posted. The full link I’m redirected to is https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-rakess?utm_source=linkshare_us&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Smart+Bitches+Trashy+Books&utm_term=&ranMID=37217&ranEAID=YAp9SdgZlbI&ranSiteID=YAp9SdgZlbI-OcG2mpSNKPihjF.7Llc2mw&siteID=YAp9SdgZlbI-OcG2mpSNKPihjF.7Llc2mw (still 404). I don’t think Private Relay is the issue, but I don’t know why we’re seeing different things.
@Amanda Out of curiosity I opened this (SMTB) page in a private browsing tab so I’d be logged out from Kobo. The linksyngergy link as copied from this page still didn’t end in “-2”, but clicking it took me to the correct Kobo page (the one ending in “-2”). It looks to me like the page for The Rakess changed/moved at some point (happens sometimes with new edition, publisher, etc.) and Kobo is failing to redirect properly for logged in users (or maybe in more specific circumstances than that).
@FashionablyEvil – I had very similar feelings about it. One of the biggest issues for me was how the FMC’s alcoholism was handled, and particularly how the MMC, who had an alcoholic parent was responsible for two children, and had seen her at her drunken worst just a few months prior, was made to apologize for having reservations about a relationship with a person who has been sober less than six months and is clearly not stable yet. He had nothing to apologize for, especially as a parent!!! His children and their safety must come first.
But that’s a thing with Peckham: her female characters are never required to apologize even when they’re the one who should, and the male characters must always put them first no matter what. I don’t like that; I want the person in the wrong to apologize regardless of gender.