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My new book, THE RAKESS, is coming out in 4 days!
You can preorder it here: https://geni.us/RAKESS ">https://geni.us/RAKESS&qu...
It& #39;s a hard one to pitch the usual way, with tropes, but I will try in this thread:
It& #39;s about a female rake, but really, it& #39;s about why women don& #39;t get to be the rake trope.
You can preorder it here: https://geni.us/RAKESS ">https://geni.us/RAKESS&qu...
It& #39;s a hard one to pitch the usual way, with tropes, but I will try in this thread:
It& #39;s about a female rake, but really, it& #39;s about why women don& #39;t get to be the rake trope.
Why they were rarely the rake trope in the 18th and 19th centuries, why they are rarely the rake trope in romance novels about that era now, why they are not, despite our best efforts, often even truly the rake trope today.
Perhaps they are the ruined woman trope, or the hooker with the heart of gold trope. Or perhaps they claim the trappings of the rake trope defiantly and with panache, and hide the personal costs of that trope privately in their hearts, or their psyches, or their DMs.
But my suspicion is that the devil-may-care, gives-no-fucks smoothness, the liquid, louche, prowling, erotic noblesse oblige that characterizes the men who embody the rake trope have never been easily claimed by anyone who exists in a non-cis male body, be it 1797 or 2020.
That is because of the far more common tropes that are equally embedded in the canon and the culture it reflects, when one is living inside a female-identified body.
The slut trope. The she got what she deserved trope. The shrill woman trope. The boys will be boys trope. The angry feminist trope.
This book is about a woman who is at the intersection of all of these tropes. She is trying desperately to be the rake trope, careless and urbane and sexual and charmingly soused, and reaching the end of where that trope can take her.
Her happy ending is about the power of transcending the rake trope, and all those other tropes, and simply reclaiming her humanity.
It& #39;s a bit angry, and a bit sad, and very angsty, and very sexy, and absolutely optimistic. But not a fizzy sort of romance novel, so you should read the content warning if you are a sensitive reader.
I think it& #39;s probably the best thing I& #39;ve ever written. And so far, reviewers seem to like it.
I hope you will like it too! 
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