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A review by 1943tre
The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes by Eva Leigh
2.0
Competently written, relatively fast-paced, and a solid plot...me not loving this was (mostly) a "me problem." And I'm sure lots of other readers will enjoy this given it had an external third act conflict that was solved pretty quickly. I'm not one of those readers lol.
The central relationship is supposed to be between a goody two-shoes who has a desire for a life unrestrained by duty and societal pressure and a notorious rake who needs to find a respectable wife STAT. But the thing is, notorious rake he was not lol. Kieran was like a gooey cinnamon roll who enjoyed an underground party or two. There would be a few lines here and there about him having women in his bed, but if he's some big Player with all this game, I didn't see it. In fact, he was, like, extremely emotionally available, pretty #woke, super kind right away to Celeste. And while that makes him a delightful real-life boyfriend, in a BOOK, like this, it sucked away any of the tension that could have been had in this pairing. They literally were opening themselves up and having very tender chats after one outing together. I wanted to be forced to work harder for that emotional payoff, instead of being served it IMMEDIATELY lol. Same goes for Celeste, like she's supposedly this prim-and-proper society bitch who wants to run a bit wild, but she fits in with Kieran's wild set EASILY lol. She goes to these game halls and theaters (the horror!) and within seconds, she's like stripping and dancing with all these loose women like she was born to play this role. AS IF LOL
Steam-wise, this was just fine. Open door, relatively graphic. I enjoyed how, uh, chatty Kieran was. But again, because I never felt any tension between the two of them, the chemistry fell a bit flat for me and the sex scenes were more tender than spicy. Not my cup of tea!
The central relationship is supposed to be between a goody two-shoes who has a desire for a life unrestrained by duty and societal pressure and a notorious rake who needs to find a respectable wife STAT. But the thing is, notorious rake he was not lol. Kieran was like a gooey cinnamon roll who enjoyed an underground party or two. There would be a few lines here and there about him having women in his bed, but if he's some big Player with all this game, I didn't see it. In fact, he was, like, extremely emotionally available, pretty #woke, super kind right away to Celeste. And while that makes him a delightful real-life boyfriend, in a BOOK, like this, it sucked away any of the tension that could have been had in this pairing. They literally were opening themselves up and having very tender chats after one outing together. I wanted to be forced to work harder for that emotional payoff, instead of being served it IMMEDIATELY lol. Same goes for Celeste, like she's supposedly this prim-and-proper society bitch who wants to run a bit wild, but she fits in with Kieran's wild set EASILY lol. She goes to these game halls and theaters (the horror!) and within seconds, she's like stripping and dancing with all these loose women like she was born to play this role. AS IF LOL
Steam-wise, this was just fine. Open door, relatively graphic. I enjoyed how, uh, chatty Kieran was. But again, because I never felt any tension between the two of them, the chemistry fell a bit flat for me and the sex scenes were more tender than spicy. Not my cup of tea!