Review: It Takes a Rake by Anna Bennett

It Takes a Rake by Anna Bennett
Series: Rogues to Lovers, Book 3
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Genre: Historical Romance 

ISBN: 9781250793959
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

She’s about to face her biggest challenge yet…
Since she was a girl, Miss Kitty Beckett has been adept at finding trouble: sneaking brandy, running away, and getting under the skin of the boy who, like her, was an apprentice to an architect. Now Kitty’s a talented heiress who can take a dry building plan and breathe life into it with her pencils and paints. Also? She can spot a rake at a hundred yards—and she won’t be tricked or charmed into marriage. Certainly not by a man who might interfere with her dreams. When Bellehaven Bay announces its first ever architectural design contest, she vows to win—with a little help from her childhood rival.

Turning her buttoned-up nemesis into a certified rake.
Leo Lockland, a hardworking architect with a gift for numbers, has returned home after a few years in London, and he has secrets. The biggest? He’s been in love with Kitty since they were both apprentices. She refuses to give her heart to any man, but Leo’s determined to beat the odds—even if it means learning how to be a rake. Fortunately, Kitty’s willing to tutor him in the nuances of fashion, flirtation, and seduction in exchange for his help with the contest. But the whole plan would fall apart if she knew how he felt, so he’ll have to be very convincing.

Let the lessons begin…
Leo proves to be a surprisingly quick study in the ballroom, on the beach, and in the bedchamber. Before long, he’s softening Kitty’s hard edges with his wicked words and kissing his way past all her defenses. Perhaps she’s a bit too skilled at teaching, because her lessons are threatening to backfire, putting her closely guarded heart in grave danger…

Anna Bennett brings her Rogue to Lovers trilogy to a close with It Takes a Rake. The youngest of the Bellehaven Belles takes center stage in this friends/rivals-to-lovers romance.

Kitty Beckett wants two things: to become a successful architect and to find a partner who she will never be in danger of falling in love with. Kitty has severe abandonment issues and with her closest friends seeming to be moving along in life without her, she is determined to put her career first and never be hurt by a husband who could leave her. Then her old nemesis comes back into town and threatens to make Kitty examine what she truly wants out of life.

Leo Lockland has been away from Bellehaven Bay for four years but one thing that hasn’t changed is how much he yearns for Kitty. Now he’s back and the two of them are teamed up for an architectural design competition. He'll help Kitty with her calculations and in exchange, she will help him win the “mystery woman” who has his heart. Leo knows it’s a risk that may backfire when Kitty learns it is she he’s in love with, but it’s a risk he has to take. He’ll let him turn her into a rake if that’s what’s necessary to win her over.

Leo is an absolutely endearing hero. He’s so sweet and kind and I loved that he wasn’t a dashing rogue at heart. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to change him and worried Kitty’s attempts to alter a perfectly delightful man into a rake would take away from what made him such an appealing hero. What happens I’ll leave readers to discover but suffice it to say that Kitty’s lessons make her look at her old friend and competitor in a way she rarely allowed herself to do in the past.

Kitty was a bit harder for me to connect to, mostly because she was intent on keeping her walls up high. I liked watching her lower them, however, but Leo has his work cut out in order to get her to trust him. Their romance is slow to start because both of them are holding something back, but Bennett makes things work out in an organic manner, resulting in a satisfying happily ever after.

Though It Takes a Rake is the third book in the Rogues to Lovers series, it can easily be read as a standalone. I liked seeing where Poppy, Keane, Hazel, and Blade are now, and how they come together to support Kitty, but it wasn’t necessary to enjoy Leo and Kitty’s story. All in all, this was a sweet romance that had some bumps in the road to an ending that was quite lovely.



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Read More

Review: Hers for the Weekend by Helena Greer

Hers for the Weekend by Helena Greer
Series: Carrigan’s Christmasland, Book 3
Publisher: Forever
Genre: Female/Female Contemporary Romance 

ISBN: 9781538768686
Release Date: August 27, 2024
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

No-nonsense Tara Sloane Chadwick is practically perfect. An impeccably mannered Southern belle, she’s the youngest to make partner at her law firm and still friends with all her exes. However, when the woman behind her most humiliating breakup invites Tara to her wedding, Tara panics at the thought of showing up alone and impulsively declares she’s bringing her very serious girlfriend.

One issue: Tara is seriously single.

Waitress and wild child Holly Siobhan Delaney may be lusting over Tara—but Tara only dates women she can marry, and Holly’s sworn off relationships. So when Tara needs a fake girlfriend, Holly’s eager to propose a no-strings, temporary fling. Only sharing secrets and steamy kisses show Holly the caring woman beneath Tara’s picture-perfect exterior, tempting Holly to break her own rules. Can these two opposites trust their feelings enough to try for forever—or will their relationship go down in flames?

Fake dating leads to much more than a real relationship in Hers for the Weekend. Helena Greer wraps up her Carrigan’s Christmasland trilogy with Tara, the Southern debutante lawyer/ex-fiancée of Miriam Bloom, and Holly, a waitress and baker with wanderlust in her veins.

I absolutely loved Tara. She’s an ice queen on the outside and wields her Southern charm like a whip, using her power and connections to do as much good as possible even though it’s slowly breaking her down. Inside, Tara is lonely, vulnerable, and doesn’t believe anyone could truly love and care about her. When she goes to Carrigan’s for her ex-fiancée’s wedding, Tara is immediately enveloped by people who it’s easy for readers to see care about her. I really loved watching Tara realize her value, that she doesn’t have to be needed to be wanted. It was a delight to see Tara come into her own over the course of the story.

Holly is the catalyst for that change. She sees Tara for who she truly is and appreciates the woman as a whole, even though she would never want to put up with the life Tara leads (and would require any wife of hers to navigate as well). Holly is sassy and sweet, easy to like and has great chemistry with Tara. But Holly has issues of her own that she’s never addressed and those are obstacles she will have to overcome as well.

Holly and Tara have fantastic chemistry and the sexual tension is delicious between them. It’s a bit disappointing with all the buildup to have things fade to black, but oh well. I really enjoyed watching Holly and Tara fall for each other. Their relationship grows in small moments and large as the two team up during the wedding festivities at Carrigan’s. And speaking of the winter wonderland of a locale, the Carrigan’s crew is heavily involved in this story. You don’t have to have read Season of Love or For Never and Always in order to follow along, but it does add to the world. Everyone adds to the story, especially when it comes to Tara’s personal journey.

Hers for the Weekend is fun and has some large personalities, but Greer doesn’t let those characters pull focus from Tara and Holly. I really enjoyed this romance and watching Tara and Holly learn that they could build a life that is what they want rather than what they think they should do to run for or make amends for the past. Tara in particular spoke to me and was a stand-out character. All in all, I found Hers for the Weekend to be a heartwarming read with a joyful queer romance and an abundance of welcoming characters.



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Read More