Book Summary and Reviews of The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham

The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham

The Rakess

Society of Sirens, Volume I

by Scarlett Peckham

  • Published:
  • Apr 2020, 400 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Peckham deserves high praise for bravely creating a darker historical romance, confronting tough subjects such as addiction, gender inequality, miscarriage, and involuntary commitment... Highly recommended for those unafraid of a grittier love story." —Library Journal (starred review)

"This is the first book in Peckham's new Society of Sirens series, and like its heroine, it is thrillingly complex and suspenseful. Peckham's previously established talent for creating strong-willed heroines and heroes who respect them shines here along with her knack for creatively spicy scenes of intimacy. Given how well each member of the Society of Sirens is developed in this volume, readers will be anxious to read the next installment. A compelling historical romance from one of the genre's rising stars."  —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The open, exploratory love scenes sizzle with passion balanced by frank conversations about contraception and the risks of pregnancy. Peckham never shies away from the bleak realities facing women of the era while capably making 19th-century sexual politics feel relevant to today. This rewarding love story is fierce, feminist, and full of feeling."  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The Rakess is the kind of story that leaves you buzzing, excitedly advertising it to your fellow romance readers at the gym/coffee shop/bookstore. Scarlett Peckham has an elegant and lyrical writing voice and a tremendous gift for emotional complexity, leavened by a wonderfully sophisticated, wry sense of humor... a lush, clever, erotic, truly adult love story, a romance between two brilliant, scarred souls who risk everything for each other."  —Meredith Duran, USA Today Bestselling Author 

"I devoured The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham, with its unique role reversals, passionate couple, and rule breaking. The strong, brooding heroine rejects Society's restrictions on a woman and lives life boldly on her terms. The widowed upstanding hero fights the pull of desire in order to protect his business and children. But love can seldom be denied."  —Lorraine Heath, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author 

This information about The Rakess was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Scarlett Peckham

Scarlett Peckham writes steamy historical romances celebrating alpha heroines. Her USA Today bestselling debut novel, The Duke I Tempted, was named a Best Romance Novel of 2018 by BookPage and the Washington Post. Scarlett lives in Los Angeles, where she enjoys trying to think of new ways to say "wicked," collecting vintage romance clench covers, and dressing her cat up in bowties.

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