My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh

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Title: My Fake Rake
Author: Eva Leigh
Series: Union of the Rakes #1
Published by: HarperAudio
Release Date: November 26, 2019
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Zara Hampton-Brown
Length: 10 hours and 6 minutes
Genres: Historical Romance
Source: Libby
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 2
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iTunes ✩ Libro.FM ✩ Chirp
My rating:

Blurb:

In the first book in Eva Leigh's new Union of the Rakes series, a bluestocking enlists a faux suitor to help her land an ideal husband only to be blindsided by real desire....

Lady Grace Wyatt is content as a wallflower, focusing on scientific pursuits rather than the complications of society matches. But when a handsome, celebrated naturalist returns from abroad, Grace wishes, for once, to be noticed. Her solution: to “build” the perfect man, who will court her publicly and help her catch his eye. Grace’s colleague, anthropologist Sebastian Holloway, is just the blank slate she requires.

To further his own research on English society, Sebastian agrees to let Grace transform him from a bespectacled, bookish academic into a dashing - albeit fake - rake. Between secret lessons on how to be a rogue and exaggerated public flirtations, Grace’s feelings for Sebastian grow from friendship into undeniable, inconvenient, real attraction. If only she hadn’t asked him to help her marry someone else...

Sebastian is in love with brilliant, beautiful Grace, but their bargain is complete, and she desires another. Yet when he’s faced with losing her forever, Sebastian will do whatever it takes to tell her the truth, even if it means risking his own future - and his heart.

My Review:

4 stars — I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this book given that the heroine initially has feelings for someone else.  And while I definitely struggled with the whole prolonged misunderstandings/lack of communication thing at the end, it was still just a really fun and adorable book.

I loved how absolutely nerdy this book could be, given both of our MCs are scholars.  Grace’s absolute enthrallment with all things herpetology was adorable, and you couldn’t help but get excited with her.  Her obliviousness when it came to Sebastian’s feelings was definitely frustrating, but at least we did get to see that she had crushed on him but assumed he wasn’t interested…and of course there are always the dynamics of class at play in this period of time.  At least when Grace did figure out her feelings, she tried to correct her course.  I cringed every time she reinforced his “acting” skills, but I did appreciate how much thought she put into helping Seb be comfortable in this role.

Sebastian was pretty adorable, even if he was as clueless as his love.  I appreciated that he truly didn’t feel like he could offer anything to Grace given his rank and standing (though I kind of wish this had been at all addressed at the end).  It was interesting to see all the little things they figured out together to help him get over his social anxiety, and I loved that it wasn’t a one shot change, but something he consistently worked on.  He, like Grace, was a bit of an idiot about their relationship and not seeing how the way he phrased things just undermined everything he wanted.  On both their parts I wouldn’t have minded if that part was a bit shorter and less frequent.

They were so cute together.  You could truly feel how much they admired one another, and their chemistry and connection were palpable.  The steamy scenes surprised me a bit, just given everything else going on.  But I loved all the little moments they had along the way, whether they were dancing, or picnicking, or racing local townsfolk.

And since I read books 2 and 3 first, it was interesting to see how the Duke was first presented…I loved the way he helped Seb (even if he sometimes went about it wrong).

The narrator was solid, though it was odd to hear her leave out the Scottish accent for MacCameron…just, jarring given I’d just listened to his book.  Not that he appears much.

All in all this was a solid series, and I’ll definitely be looking for more books to read from this author!