TITLE: The Fake February Rake
AUTHOR: Charlie Lane
SERIES: The Rake Review
SERIES ORDER: 2 of 12
PUBLISHED DATE: 2/1/2024
GENRE: Historical Romance
RATING: ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
The Rake Review is a series/collaboration from multiple authors in the historical/regency romance genre. Each month in 2024, a new book will be released by a different author where a new rake will be raked over the coals by the elusive Brazen Belle. The Fake February Rake is book two in this series.
BLURB:
The ton thinks Hades is a rake. He’s not.
Before the Brazen Belle’s gossip column named him February’s rake, Dr. Hades Jones was the ton’s most trusted doctor, proper in every way but for his family’s scandalous past. But the rake the Belle named wasn’t him. I t was someone wearing his distinctive silk-lined coat, which was stolen from him months ago. Now Hades is on the hunt for the coat thief, and what he finds in a Covent Garden alley is not what he expects—a woman with doe eyes, a steal spine, and a tart tongue he unexpectedly wants to taste.
Everyone thinks she’s Hades. She’s just wearing his coat.
Lady Ophelia Howard has one purpose in life—protect the women of London from rakes, scoundrels, and rogues. Unable to save her father’s mistress, she’ll do whatever she must to keep other women from suffering the same fate, including theft. She stole the devilishly handsome doctor’s coat to hide her identity while sneaking women to safety. She didn’t mean to smear his good name.
And now he’s caught her, and he insists she help restore his reputation. Any way she can. Including marriage. But can marriage to an earl’s daughter bring the ton calling once more? Or will Ophelia’s radical secrets ruin them both?
The Fake February Rake is book 2 in the multi-author series The Rake Review. If you enjoy watching some of London's most notorious scoundrels getting raked over the coals, then be sure to collect all twelve bachelors in The Rake Review!
MY REVIEW:
DISCLAIMER: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The more I think about this story, and what to write for my review, the more I love it even more!
Ophelia has a hard time trusting men, thanks to her father, and she has made it her life’s work to help women in similar situations escape. Because she’s a woman, and doesn’t want to get caught, she steals Hades’ coat to use as a disguise. She doesn’t think much of it, until his name gets raked through the mud by the Brazen Belle in the latest Rake Review.
Hades’ business as a physician has plummeted thanks to The Brazen Belle and the person that stole his coat. Thanks to the uniqueness of his coat, he tracks the person down and demands that they give it back to him. He’s shocked when he finds out that it’s woman beneath his coat. A woman that he knows!
I really enjoyed this story. I loved Hades and Ophelia’s chemistry and their banter! I loved watching them fall in love throughout the story!
I loved how independent Ophelia was and how Hades didn’t stop her, even though that’s what her father was hoping he would do! Ophelia’s father was a real snake in this story! Charlie did an excellent job of making him unlikeable!
I really liked the scenes with Hades and his mom and sister! I loved how accepting they were of Ophelia and how they helped her mission!
If you like stories about rakes (whether they’re actual rakes or not), you need the check out The Rake Review! These are all standalones so you don’t need to read one to understand the other.
Thank you Charlie Lane for the advance copy.