It Takes a Rake by Anna Bennett

Tracy’s rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: Rogues to Lovers, #3

Release Date: January 23, 2024

Architect Leo Lockland has been in love with Miss Kitty Beckett for as long as he can remember and has known for just as long that she had no idea and considered him her nemesis. So when he left Bellehaven Bay four years ago thanks to his father, he tried to forget her, but she owned his heart and no amount of brandy or flirting or work could make him forget her. So now that his father has passed and his grandfather is getting older, Leo is returning to Bellehaven Bay to take over his grandfather’s practice and hopefully win Kitty’s affection once and for all. But almost immediately it is clear that Kitty hasn’t forgiven his hasty departure and clearly finds him too boring to consider as a husband. But when a design contest is announced, Kitty proposes a deal – he will help her with her building specifications and she will help him win his lady love by giving him “rake” lessons. He agrees, hoping that he will be able to win her heart and if not, then maybe he will finally be able to let her go and move on.

Kitty Beckett has known loss, sometimes it feels like loss is all she knows and that is why she doesn’t want to fall in love. Shortly she will come into her inheritance and will be able to live independently. She plans to move to London and start an architecture firm, and when she finally marries, she will find a man who is happy to share in her wealth, give her children, and leave her to live her own life, free from any emotional attachments. Because in her mind, love hurts too much and everybody leaves her in one way or another, starting with her parents, who died, then her uncle who left her at boarding school, and most recently Leo, who took off to London without a word of goodbye and no communication since he left. Now he is back, looking better than he should and obviously in love with someone. When the design competition is announced, she is ecstatic, winning would help her start her career on a positive note, she knows her drawings and concepts are unbeatable – even by Leo, but her mathematical calculations could use some work – and Leo is the best at numbers, so she offers him a deal, he helps her with her design calculations and she will help him attract the object of his desire by giving him rake lessons. It is the perfect solution and gives her a chance to engage in a bit of flirtation without any danger of losing her heart. Well, it was perfect until she lost her heart and it got broken. Can Leo make her see that his love is true and constant or will Kitty hold on to her fear and walk away from the love of a lifetime?

This was a well-written, nicely-paced, fun story with wonderful characters that perfectly wraps up the series. I loved Leo and Kitty together, but at times found myself annoyed with Kitty and her firm belief that love was pain. I know she has had more than her fair share of heartache, but she has also been witness to incredible love and so when she had the bobble with Leo, I felt that she should have had more faith in him instead of giving in to her fears. That aside, I thought this was the best book in the series and I would happily read it again and recommend it. The book has secrets, loss, emotion, wonderful chemistry, a sigh-worthy hero, great secondary characters, steamyish love scenes, grand gestures, a devious villain, and finally an ending that will warm your heart and gives our lovers a well-deserved happy ending. This is the third book in the series, but it could easily be read and enjoyed as a standalone title.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*

Barbara’s rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Series: Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mystery #12
Publication Date: 11/3/23
Period: Regency

The adventure continues with this wonderfully entertaining twelfth entry in the Beatrice Hyde-Care Mystery series. Often times a series with this many books begins to falter a bit and lose some of its edge, but not this one. There is full-on entertainment on every page and a murder to solve as well. As always, the pages are filled with lively banter between Bea and Kesgrave and the antics of other recurring characters. We make a delightful discovery – Kesgrave has a half-sister — and we are treated to the most delightfully improbable murder suspect you could ever want to meet. That suspect just happens to be Kesgrave’s former mistress, Penelope, and she is outrageous, entertaining, and over-the-top, but not vulgar. You are going to get a kick out of her!

This book begins just as A Lark’s Flight is ending. In case you didn’t know (I didn’t) there is a spin-off series, A Verity Lark Mystery, that features Kesgrave’s illegitimate half-sister. I was so excited to find out about the spinoff series that I went right out and bought both books in the series – and I’m hoping for many more of those as well. Should you think this is extraneous information and not pertinent to this book – you are incorrect, but you’ll need to read the book to see how.

Bea is in quite a pique! Kesgrave has lied to her and in typical insecure Bea fashion she has stewed, overanalyzed, and blown it into what she calls The Great Fabrication. Not only did he lie, he didn’t come to their bed. She’s up, dressed, and looking for a confrontation with him when she sees him in their entryway embracing a woman! Not just any woman either – it is his former mistress. Oops – now you’ve done it Kesgrave. Except – the woman is there to see Bea and not Kesgrave. Hmmmmm.

Mrs. Penelope Taylor, a breathtakingly beautiful, highly sought-after courtesan who happens to have been Kesgrave’s first mistress, is begging Bea to help her. Mrs. Taylor’s best frenemy was murdered – in Penelope’s own bed – and the magistrate is bound and determined to see Penelope convicted and hung. He may be Penelope’s dear friend, but he’ll see justice done. Only Bea can help her.

Did the murderer get the right victim or did he mean to kill Penelope instead – after all, it was her bed? With a number of suspects to sift through, very few clues, and the magistrate hot on their heels, can they solve the murder and keep Penelope from New Gate? You’ll just have to read the book to find out.

When you mix an indecorous, detecting duchess with an indulgent, helpful duke and then add an outrageous, entertaining, and over-the-top former mistress along with a determined magistrate, you have all the ingredients for a wonderfully entertaining tale. I have loved this series since the beginning and each new entry seems to be better than the last. I highly recommend this book – and this series. I love the characters, the banter, the irreverence, the humor, and the agility of Bea’s mind. I hope you will love it as much as I did.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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