A review by balletbookworm
The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham

3.0

3.5 stars - I liked it by the end, but I didn't love it.

I was actually expecting a bit more of a romp given the cover copy and the Lady Rake trope (and the cover!) so it actually took my quite a while to get into this book. Seraphina isn't carefree, she's actually fighting a drinking problem, she's facing some scary harassment for returning to her family home, and one of her friends is missing (likely in an asylum bc guess what your husband can do to you for no reason?). I read this a chapter at a time until about halfway through and I had a better handle on Sera and Adam (because they are very interesting together) and the darker tone of this book. Because a lot of this book is spent working through the awful shit that can happen to women at the hands of men. There are a lot of content warnings: slut shaming, loss of pregnancy, alcoholism/addiction, among others.

So if you need your romances on the lighter side, this probably isn't for you. But if you are looking for a grittier realism, you might like it.