The Rake

Boston Belles, Book 4

By: L.J. Shen

Narrated by: Maxine Mitchell, Joe Arden

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Boston’s most infamous femme fatale meets her match in a dangerously mild Englishman who has vowed to never marry in this romantic stand-alone from Washington Post best-selling author L.J. Shen

Emmabelle Penrose has cruised through life never needing a man, a plan that has worked stunningly well until about five minutes ago, when she decided she must have a baby.

Devon Whitehall is 6’2” of premium DNA, financial security, and British royal titles. Best of all, he fears the one thing she dreads the most: getting hitched.

Emmabelle figures it’s a no-brainer when Devon offers his services - sperm and involvement in her future child’s life.

What begins as an innocent modern-family arrangement quickly erodes into a web of lies, dark pasts, and unfurled secrets.

Inside this chaos, Emmabelle and Devon are forced to face the awful truth - they are capable of love.

Even worse, they might feel it toward each other.

©2022 L.J. Shen (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Thank you

Loved it. Thank you thank you. You will not be disappointed. Sad to say good buy to this series but have LOVE the ride. Thank you

Mr Joe Arden slays it as a British Rake!!

I can hardly believe this is the end of the Boston Belle series! and what a way to end it! I knew when we met Devon in the previous books there was so much to uncover underneath his British sarcasm and charm. Emmabelle and Devon’s story is not an easy story. They have so many complexities to them but in a way there shared traumatic pasts bond them in a way that was different and uniquely beautiful.

Emmabelle is one of the most frustrating heroines I’ve read. Stubborn to a fault but with good reason. She does not trust men and it near impossible to break through her walls unless your Devon Whitehall. This man, is sexy, witty, his devotion and unwavering love towards Belle was what made me fall so hard for him! He never once gave up on her even when she pushed him away countless times. His determination, and fierce protection over her I loved.

If you follow my reviews then you likely already know that Joe Arden and Maxine Mitchell are my favourite narrators. These two are powerhouses when they come together to tell a story but I have to give accolades to Joe for his phenomenal performance as a British rake. His accent and ability to carry it throughout the story was fantastic. I loved Maxine’s emotional performance as well.

Devon and Emmabelle’s story closes out this series perfectly. This book has some heavy angst and big feels in it but is an addicting, unputdownable story, that will captivate your heart from beginning to end.

Devastatingly beautiful!💜

LJ Shen really knows how to ruffle my feathers 😂
Someone indicated that this was a romantic comedy. I’m here to tell you (IMO) this is definitely not a RomCom.
Sure there’s some very funny moments as in most romance books however, these characters are broken and their childhoods were tragic and played a major part of who they became as an adult. Him, a Rake (manwhore) and her a straight up bitch.
For me, her character was written a bit over the top. I was actually frustrated with her behavior beyond my normal response. I just feel like it was a bit of an overkill. Again, this is just my opinion. LJ is a brilliant author, and I absolutely love her work.
The narration was absolutely brilliant. Joe Arden performed his British accent very well. Maxine Mitchell’s performance was stellar. Well done everyone! 👏👏

This is book 4 with an HEA and can be read as a standalone.
I recommend this book/series.

Sisters Spotlight 💜

Raked

I loved this book. Happy ending for all. it is a must read or listen.

I just love her books

I felt like this one was pretty mild compared to her other books. I liked it. I didn’t think I would from the beginning but I enjoyed it. I didn’t really expect the expected “bad guys” to actually be the bad guys. Usually she throws me for a loop. I’m glad I read this one despite my skepticism. Another good read by LJ Shen

Darker Story/Beautiful Ending

Both our MMC and MFC have heavy backstories. It took a little longer to get through this book because I was constantly going ‘wtf’. The characters have great banter but a complicated relationship. Really good story.

Triggers:
Child Abuse
Adultery
SA
Stalking
Kidnapping

She did it again!

This is by far my favorite story from the Boston Belles series. I did want to strangle Bella a couple times, but this was a captivating read.

A GOOD LAYERED STORY.. & THE NARRATION ROCKED

Devon Whitehall.. a British blue-blood, emotionally damaged and brokered into, by his uncaring Father, an arranged marriage before he was even born which had him fleeing to the US as soon as he could. Now he’s a hot, 41 yr old arrogant self-made Millionaire Lawyer who’s having a ball indulging and he swears he’ll never ever ever marry. Emmabelle Penrose (aka Belle) is 30 and she’s the owner of the big, bold, infamous Madam Mayhem Club where burlesque dancers entertain, where spills and thrills happen nightly and where there’s a fully stocked bar ready for your liberal consumption. She’s a beautiful vixen, independent, detached, aloof and she’s got medical, ‘clock’s ticking’, fertility issues.. and she’s just drunk enough when ex hookup Devon makes an offer too good to refuse. And their arranged ‘no strings’ ie.. no emotions, no future together journey to parenthood sparks and splutters and stumbles as the chapters between these two damaged and tarnished characters slowly comes to life. But Belle’s so hard.. her walls impenetrable, bomb-proof, unscalable and her heart’s 24/7 guarded against letting someone in so she will continually, callously and coldly push Devon away.. and their Contract doesn’t say anything about monogamy - so how’s she gonna react when Devon ‘indulges’ with ow? And what will he do when his past life and duties catches up with him?

There were chapters I loved as the chemistry flared and sparked.. as barbed banter brought tingles and anticipation.. and as sexual pleasures were sure to end with a positive stick. Then there were chapters describing a young girl’s naive grooming by a pedophile Teacher I dreaded. There were stubborn attitudes where I mentally screamed, tore my hair out and knocked their heads together. There were slim chapters where I finally had hope these two very different people would be able to stop being so bloody difficult and work it out. Therefore, my emotions were all over the place and I had to keep taking a short break from their relationship angst.. so overall, it was a difficult but enjoyable listen with a happy ending. The well-written moods, slow subtle changes and slow one step character growth, the accents and the delicious feels were all expertly brought together by Joe and Maxine whose excellent dual POV narration (👏👏👏) fit the characters perfectly and made the listen enjoyable and entertaining.

Worth a credit? Yes.. a damaged meets damaged story where romance and forever is the last thing on either of their minds.

This book is not only a dark romance story

There are so many good things about this book, too many lessons to learn. Highly recommended.

enjoyed from start to finish!

I've listened to the whole series, my favorite was book 2 with Persephone and Cillian but this is a very close second! well written, meaningful character development, believable characters with a believable developing relationship. please be aware of the trigger warnings though. There are frequent flash backs for both MCs with detailed abuse. They aren't long or super graphic, but detailed enough to make you feel it. which adds to the story, but could be hard to listen/read.

The performance was fantastic! length of book was perfect. I'm not usually one to enjoy a pregnancy trope, but I found myself actually really liking this one because of the main character.

5 stars because I would definitely consider listening to/reading again in the future.