Tara Wellesley, a Southern belle, knew her world was going to change. The only one in her family with the second sight, she could see what would happen to those around her. What she didn’t see, however, was the English Rake that befriended her twin cousins—dragging them into a deadly battle with a rival spy ring.Sebastian Stafford, the grandson of the Duke of Dunsbury, came to the United States … States to resurrect the Rakes of the Crown, a spy syndicate that once supplied information for the English Crown. Now, far from England, Sebastian takes solace in Tara’s love and renames his group The Rakes of Liberty. The Rakes have one mission—to keep the Union together no matter the price. That means engaging in their own battle with the Order.
But, fate has other plans. When the Order launches an attack against Sebastian’s family, he races back to England to save what is left of them. With a sea between Tara and Sebastian, will the Order get the upper hand or will love be enough to conquer an old foe?
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This book had such an intriguing premise. Spies from the Revolutionary War continued training their progeny and the descendants resurrected these talents during the American Civil War. The cover was also lovely.
Unfortunately, the premise is the highest praise I can give this book. It was disappointing. The dialogue felt forced. The historical period was interesting, but the chapters jumped around so much that it was difficult to follow. Grief was treated strangely. A grown daughter couldn’t understand her mother’s grief over her deceased husband since the daughter wasn’t married. But, she just lost her father, so I didn’t understand why there was a disconnect in her own grief. And then after both of her parents died, she was becoming a shell of her former self until an attractive acquaintance who she refuses to love (but is destined to be her soulmate) shows up and has sex with her. Wait, what?
There were too many love stories, all underdeveloped. Supposedly, these men and women were noble and treated each other with respect, and yet it seemed to be all talk since they jumped into bed with each other very quickly. The too-frequent and too-explicit love scenes were described crudely and in a way that didn’t fit the period. It also felt quite gratuitous – so many of those scenes were unnecessary. A woman was raped early in the book, and then immediately recruited as a spy and a whore for the opposing side. That seemed a little too convenient. A freed slave who appeared white offered herself as a mistress to a white man who she had known and admired all of her life and though it seemed like he desired her, there was no conversation from either of them about an actual marriage. Sex was described as someone showing how much they loved the other person but without talk of commitment or whether the other person was in love. Falling in love looked entirely like lust; I didn’t see anything in any of the stories that resembled actual love.
I finished the book in the hopes that the story would improve. The last quarter of the book finally started to focus on the back story of the spy families, which was much more interesting. If only that could have been brought in much earlier and more smoothly. I don’t recommend this book.
I was given a free copy of this book by NetGalley and reviewed it in the hopes that other people know what they are getting into before reading it.
Shallow Characterization and LOTS of Time Jumps
The cover of this book intrigued me when I first saw it on my favorite book review site. It didn’t look like a traditional historical romance cover, but the description of it seemed to lean that way. It’s a gorgeous cover, but it almost looks more like a fantasy one. I have read little historical romance that takes place during the Civil War, so that made me even more intrigued. Unfortunately, this book just failed to deliver on several points.
The novel covers several years from before the Civil War to after it. What really annoyed me is that the storyline jumped months or even a year every chapter or two. That did not lend to a feeling of continuity; the story felt disjointed. In fact, each chapter where there was a big time jump required the author to catch us up in the story. That made for a lot of telling, which makes a novel is boring and certainly non-immersive.
It also doesn’t give time for character to build, grow, and evolve. I feel like I didn’t get to know the characters much at all, and I certainly didn’t develop any sympathy or empathy for them. The story just simply jumped around too much, and there were quite a few characters as well to follow, some on each side of the war.
I felt like this was more about the war itself than the characters within it. The reader learned more about the events of the skirmishes and battles than they did about the characters. I don’t like that. I can read a history book for that. What I want is to see how history impacts people. That’s what we read fiction for. Especially historical fiction that is based around big traumatic events, where we want to see how the history we already know of actually affects and changes the lives of the people who lived through it. Unfortunately, this book did not deliver on this, so it ultimately disappointed me.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
She never gave the white flag of surrender.
I always enjoy it when I get to read a piece by Jessica A. Clements and this charmer has just the right amount of magic. Tara has the second sight a belle from the south knows that fate is going to come knocking at her door. Sebastian an English lord has come to America to create a spy network. What started off as The Rakes of the Crown turned to The Rakes of Liberty. Now like all good stories we have some super interesting and some sad twists in this piece. Both characters Tara and Sebastian face the challenges they are given with courage. I highly recommend this piece. I did receive a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.