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Anna Bennett

Auteur van I Dared the Duke

23+ Werken 451 Leden 76 Besprekingen Favoriet van 1 leden

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Bevat de naam: Anna Bennett

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Werken van Anna Bennett

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I love historical romance trilogies. In the first story you meet a lot of very interesting people, and the story focuses on two of them. In the next story you get a laser look at another couple of people, usually one you met in the first book and someone unexpected. And – bonus – you get to catch up on that first couple and many of the others. By the third book you feel like you know them all. There’s another couple, one old, one new, and they press on will they-won’t they to their glorious HEA. Maybe, hopefully. You’re never quite sure until the end. it’s a great formula, with the only drawback being that while you can’t wait for that third book and the big wrap-up, at the same time you dread it because you know it’s The End for the series. Author Anna Bennett is so excellent at this. It Takes a Rake is an excellent example, in fact.

Kitty is the little troublemaker from book one. Willful, headstrong, clever, orphaned, being raised by a bachelor uncle who has no idea what to do with her. She’s the reason Blake and Hazel met and got their HEA. Kitty? We meet her and kind of forget about her.

Kitty is a young lady in book two, a member with Hazel and Poppy of the little group The Belles of Bellehaven. She’s refined, calmed down a bit, but we can still see her independent streak and determination. But this is Poppy and Keane’s story and we enjoy the trek to their HEA, happy for how Kitty is growing up, how she belongs, but mostly smitten with the two lovebirds.

Book three, though, is all about Kitty. All about all-grown-up Kitty. A talented heiress ready to come into her own. Not so much about getting in trouble these days as knowing her own mind and intending to follow her own path. Which is to become a successful architect. Remember, however, that we are still in the Regency Era and young women don’t really get to do whatever they want without consequences. How is Kitty going to deal with this? By never giving away her heart and never being under the thumb of any man who will try to control her, that’s how.

And now we come to the fun part that Bennett does so well. Enter Leo, childhood friend of Kitty, and an old rival in architectural talent and dreams. When he returns to Bellehaven after several years away, they meet again and Kitty feels something, but she won’t let that little twitch take hold. Nope, no way, not Kitty. She has plans. As for Leo, he has plans too but as soon as he sees her he realizes that childhood crush he came close to acknowledging before chickening out is no long a crush. Nope, now it’s love. Through a series of hilarious misunderstandings where she thinks he’s come back looking for a wife, she offers to teach him to be a rake, to attract women and find that wife, although this soon starts to stick in her throat and grate on her. These two together are laugh-out-loud funny, tender, sweet, hilariously oblivious, and eventually steamy enough to make you break out in a sweat. And, yep, we get our bonus and catch up on Hazel and Blake and Poppy and Keane and everybody else.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for providing an advance copy of It Takes a Rake. It was delightful, suspenseful, swoony and totally, completely enjoyable and satisfying. I just hope fantastic author Bennett is busy writing another trilogy; I can’t wait! I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.
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GrandmaCootie | 1 andere bespreking | Jan 29, 2024 |
From the time they were in their teens, nobody could vex Miss Kitty Beckett like Leo Lockland. She was fifteen and he was seventeen when they began apprenticing at Leo’s grandfather’s architecture firm. Both were gifted but in very different disciplines. Kitty could dream up the most wonderful, fantastically beautiful buildings and bring them to life with her colorful renderings. Leo was anything but fanciful. His world was orderly, with neat lines, perfectly planned, and nothing left to chance. His strong suit was calculating everything to do with the design – the math was his strong suit – Kitty, well, not so much in the math department.

Leo – OMGoodness – I did love Leo, and he is why I rounded my rating up to 4 stars rather than down to 3. Leo had loved Kitty from the day he met her but she was totally oblivious to it. He never stopped loving her even though he abruptly left – without saying goodbye to her. Now, he’s returning to Bellehaven Bay to run his grandfather’s architectural firm – and to hopefully win the heart of Kitty. He’s willing to do anything – change in any way – to win her. So, when she offers to teach him to be a rake, he readily accepts. Anything to keep him close to her. Whatever she wants – he gives. Sometimes, I thought he gave too much, but it never annoyed me, so I continued to give high marks to Leo.

Miss Kitty Beckett has severe abandonment issues. It is her opinion that everybody she loves abandons her for one reason or another. Therefore, she cannot depend on anyone – she can only rely on herself. She will marry because she wants children, but she’ll marry a rake who will leave her to live her own life while he leads his. She’ll never love him and won’t be hurt when he abandons her. Even her nemesis, Leo, abandoned her without even saying goodbye. Now, though, he is back to plague her.

I enjoyed this, I believe, final book in the series because it was well-written, witty, nicely paced, and had some characters I loved. I even mostly liked Kitty, but I got very, very annoyed with her and her refusal to change her mind about marriage and love. She had wonderful examples of loving and caring all around her, but she chose to ignore those. When she was still steadfastly against a life with Leo closer toward the end of the book, I found myself wishing he would just tell her to go live her lonely, loveless life and he’d find someone who would love him in return.

This was a nice wrap-up for the Belles and included a lovely epilogue that included all of the Belles and their families two years later.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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BarbaraRogers | 1 andere bespreking | Jan 23, 2024 |
This is a novella that's part of Barton's "Honeycote" series. I haven't read the first book (When She Was Wicked, about Annabelle who is to marry Rose and Olivia's brother), but I didn't suffer for it. Amelia is removed from the going-ons of the Sherboune family (for the most part) and her story was told independent of Annabelle's (save for a mention of a ball Annabelle was holding).

This was a short, delightful read. Amelia, though somewhat more of a pushover then she should be, proves her mettle. She won't let the past repeat itself, but at the same time she's wants so much more. Her mother makes it hard (and I suspect part of the issues Amelia had with her fiancee were in part because of her mother's meddling), but Amelia finds small comforts. Her pretend gossip columns about her 'scandalous' going-ons, her practical outlook that if Stephen was there anyhow why not take advantage of the time?

Stephen, who's reputation as a rakehell and gambler precede him, is genuine with Amelia despite himself. Her earnest request that he doesn't pretend with her bemuses him as much as it beguiles him. Amelia isn't angling for anything more then shared passion and a few stolen moments for herself. Whether she feels otherwise is moot--which she makes abundantly clear from the get-go--it won't get in the way of things.

The obvious obstacle that Barton uses to separate the two undermines some of the honesty that the two portray, but it resolves itself quickly enough. I think this is an excellent introduction to Barton's writing and will seek out the other books!
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lexilewords | Dec 28, 2023 |
4.5

This is the second Anna Bennett book I have read that has left me sighing with content. Keeping spots open for more of her books on my tbr.

What a delightful and unique package of all these great tropes- part-mystery, part-masquerade, part- only one bed, part-class difference - all wrapped up in one. Slap on a low-angst swoony romance, and the characters on the cover aren't the only ones who will be smiling!

Thank you to the author/publisher for providing me an e- copy of the Advanced Reader Copy through NetGalley. All opinions in the review are honest and my own.… (meer)
 
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Serena1787 | 5 andere besprekingen | Aug 4, 2023 |

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23
Ook door
6
Leden
451
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#54,392
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3.8
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76
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46
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