The Rake by L.J. ShenMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Final Score - 3.5 Stars
This book was such a raw revisit to an unhappy and traumatic part of my life - at times, I needed a break as I was getting some severe PTSD ( but there was a warning put in the beginning of the book, so this is ALL on me ). Now that I'm finished, and had time to reflect on it, I'm just left with a slightly oozing wound that's been picked at.
The only person I identified in this book with was Emmabelle Penrose - damaged, man hating, misunderstood by ALL who claim to "know" her, Belle the Valkyrie. Side note: I find it quite funny that there is ALWAYS a secret the Hero/Heroine keeps from everyone, they're behavior suddenly shifts/changes, but NO ONE confronts them or questions them to get to the root of it. Where is the love and care your friends and family are supposed to show? And I ask this as a fellow abuse survivor who hid her pain, her personality drastically changed/shifted, and not one person in her immediate family gave a damn to call me out and/or confront me. I did not get any justice against my abuser, but you best believe I was cheering Belle on when she got hers. I am firmly in her cheer section.
The Rake, aka Devon Whitehall - such an appropriate name for such an English a-hole, which is what Devon is. And he makes no apologies about this. Life has dealt him the crap cards in parents and the harsh lessons he learned as a member of the Aristocracy. Those parents of his - God, they are AWFUL. And I wanted to like Devon - I really did - but I just could not. I understood what he had been through and why he went down the path he did - much as Belle - but I expected more from him. He's older, therefore shouldn't he be just a bit wiser? He just came across as a forever that adolescent, selfish snot. And I could accept him, nor his flaws anywhere Belle.
I wanted to LOVE and adore this book and it's story, but I can only like it. I didn't feel the emotions I normally feel when I read LJ's other stories.
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