The two leads of The Rakess have such developed and complex backstories. #4: Its characters have fleshed out backstories The novel is certainly not flippant in the way that it deals with these issues, but I really appreciated that there was that sense of gravity to lend the story, and especially Seraphina’s character, real stakes and depth. Peckham does an excellent job depicting this reality of Seraphina’s without making the novel feel too too morose or bogged down in misery. I wouldn’t say it’s a depressing novel, but still, it manages to drive home how hard it is for Seraphina to inhabit her world as a woman, the way her choices are limited, and the way that she makes her own choices anyway, bearing the consequences. #3: It examines the role of being a woman, especially in a historical romance settingĮven though The Rakess is, by definition, a romance with a HEA, it also really deeply engages with what it’s like to be a woman in its historical time period (the late 1700s). He is good and decent all the way through, and I just want to underscore how much I loved and appreciated that. She pushes him away, and he holds himself back from her, but even through all that, Adam is never cruel, never careless with Seraphina and her emotions. I love how honest and kind Adam is he cares so deeply for Seraphina, and his actions always show that. The Rakess has exactly that–a male lead who is Nice–and let me tell you, it is an absolute breath of fresh air. I want male leads who are nice and kind and soft!!! Maybe it sounds dumb to say that I just want male characters who are Nice, but they’ve been so rare to find lately that I feel like it needs saying. I never much cared for them to begin with, and the fact that they seem to be everywhere in the historical romances I’ve been reading has pretty much reduced my tolerance for them to zero.
I’ve been reading a lot of historical romances lately, and I’ve just become so deeply, deeply bored by emotionally repressed alpha male leads. Which leads me to my next point… #2: Its male lead isn’t an emotionally repressed alpha type In contrast to Seraphina, we have the ever patient and understanding male lead, Adam, who is emotionally open where Seraphina is closed. In this novel it is our female lead, Seraphina the rakess, who is A Lot: oftentimes prickly and defensive, loath to let anyone in too close to her–a “rakess” precisely because she doesn’t want to let anyone in too close. I don’t mean to make this novel sound like it’s Not Like Other Romance Novels, but I just love the way that it flips the more conventional gender dynamics of the male rake who learns to let go of his of rakish ways because he falls in love with the female love interest. 8 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD READ THE RAKESS BY SCARLETT PECKHAM #1: It’s a romance that plays with the tropes of romance
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