The Rake Audiobook By L.J. Shen cover art

The Rake

Boston Belles, Book 4

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The Rake

By: L.J. Shen
Narrated by: Maxine Mitchell, Joe Arden
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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. Romance Boston
Emotional Journey • Complex Characters • Captivating Romance • Engaging Plot Twists • Convincing British Accent
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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.

She did it again!

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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.

A GOOD LAYERED STORY.. & THE NARRATION ROCKED

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

This book is not only a dark romance story

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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.

enjoyed from start to finish!

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I cannot say that I have read a series of LJ Shen's that I didn't like. Book 4 although listed as dark I did not find it to be dark at all but I did find it to be very good with great narration. Joe Arden does a pretty good English accent. Well done!

Awesome as usual

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While the story is really good, I felt it dragged on too long. I thoroughly enjoyed Devon's character but had a problem with Belle being such a "bad ass". I understand what she went through ~ and just would not have ever been a friend with someone with such a prickly attitude. She needed therapy desperately, but wanted to always " do it herself.". I did enjoy the ending and was happy that Devon and his sister get a second. chance.

Good . . . . . but . . . . . .

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Like all of them it was absolutely fantastic. So funny too. Had me crackin up.

Loved it!!

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Although not advertised on Audible, but is another book of Boston Belles. As I read the past books of this series, I was curious of the mysterious English guy & hoped Shen wrote a story of him. This is it & I’m so glad I read it. Love it!!

Love!

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LJ Shen does not disappoint as always! The storyline pulls you in immediately creating the tension and angst that makes you want to stay up all night to finish the book in one sitting. It’s never the classic love story in the beginning, but it’s always a real and unbreakable love by the end!❤️

Never disappointed!

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This was a great finish to the series. I really enjoyed this story even if it dealt with some heavier topics. I enjoyed how this developed and the narration was fantastic especially Maxine Mitchell at some point I honestly thought there was a 3rd narrator. It was an enjoyable listen but not for those who do not enjoy darker topics.

Great finish

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