Review: Wild, Wild Rake

• Title: Wild, Wild Rake
• My Rating: 4.25
• Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
• Format: ARC*
• Publication Date: February 25, 2020
• Author: Janna MacGregor

Similar To

Book Blurb

Her first marriage was an epic failure.

Lady Avalon Warwyck never did love her husband. Arrogant, selfish, and cruel, it’s a blessing when she’s widowed and left to raise her son all by herself. Finally, Avalon can live freely and do the work she loves: helping fallen women become businesswomen. She’s lived these past ten years with no desire to remarry―that is, until Mr. Devan Farris comes to town.

Can he convince her to take another chance at happily ever after?

Devan Farris―charming vicar, reputed rake, and the brother of Avalon’s son’s guardian―is reluctantly sent to town to keep tabs on Avalon and her son. Devan wishes he didn’t have to meddle in her affairs; he’s not one to trod on a woman’s independent nature and keen sense of convictions. But she’ll have nothing to do with vicar with a wild reputation―even though he’s never given his heart and body to another. If only he could find a way to show Avalon who he really is on the inside―a good, true soul looking for its other half. But how can prove that he wants to love and care for her. . . until death do they part?

My Thoughts

What I really love about Janna MacGregor’s Cavensham Heiresses Series is that you do not need to have read the others to read the newest one, but if you have read them all, you get these fun easter eggs.

In this particular installment, the book opens with out heroine in a disastrous marriage. We don’t normally start a romance book with a terrible couple, but Janna MacGregor uses this relationship as the perfect base to build a host of complex characters.

Because of her terrible first husband, the heroine, Avalon, hides her insecurities with a false tough exterior. What we come to discover, is that Avalon has hidden her issues for so long that she has even fooled herself. She is often surprised by her own genuine responses, having spent her entire life repressing her actual thoughts and feelings in order to please someone else or hide her own pain. This creates a woman who does not truly know herself when she tries to envision a life joined with someone else.

Then there’s the hero. He is not terribly likable in the beginning, as he coins Lady Warwyck’s, Avalon’s, dreadful nickname of Lady Warlock. I have to say, while not very original, it does fulfill its purpose in making Avalon seem dreadful. Then we slowly begin to understand why he dislikes Avalon, but like any good historical romance, his less than amorous feelings are based on false assumptions. So when he discovers the truth about Lady Warwyck, he sees the strong, beautiful, and broken women he has helped torment for years.

Through a series of miscommunications and hopeless shenanigans, our two main characters find their way to each other. Their paths are tricky, and even once they come together, their previous actions have the ability to drive them apart.

Wild, Wild Rake is a really good historical fiction romance novel that does a brilliant job showing that you can’t believe everything you hear about someone. It’s always best to listen with an open heart and make your own decisions, because you never know what’s inside a person.

*Special thanks to Janna MacGregor, St. Martin’s Press, and TLC Book Tours for providing a copy of Wild, Wild Rake in exchange for an honest review.