Rake: A Dark Boston Irish Mafia Romance by Sophie Austin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
All in all? Boring. And cheesy. And not in a good way.
Finn (the male MC) was also boring. The writer tried to pass him off as interesting and clever and sexy, but it was boring. The sex was boring. His daddy issues were boring.
Apparently, he loves cooking, which sparkled a little interest in my brain, but the next paragraph completely killed it:
I toss some bacon into my Le Creuset pot, and once the meat is soft, I add some celery and onion. Fish stock and, importantly, oyster liquor, my secret ingredient, make the base of the soup. After I blend in the spices, I leave it to boil as I sear the scallops. Once the liquid boils, I back off on the heat, let it simmer for a while, and then it’s time for the oysters, some Worcestershire sauce, and finally, the delicately seared scallops.
Wtf is that? Certainly I love good writing and details in a book, but… I felt like I was on my living room sofa watching Masterchef on BBC 1. The only thing missing was telling us the quantities of each ingrediend and Greg Wallace breathing down Finn’s neck yelling there was just “5 MINUTES LEFT! PLATE YOUR FOOD!”
Totally weird.
On top of that, I just finished the book, and I still can’t understand just what the fuck Sasha (the female MC) was fighting for. Oh, the book did a good job at drilling in my eyes all the boring details of worker unions, how they’re made, injustice, yada yada yada… But they literally just flew over my head. I didn’t get the passion from it at all, and I was wondering how it was worth it.
Because they said they would HURT HER LITTLE BROTHER if she doesn’t stop. And other people. Even she got beaten nearly to death. And does she stop? Of course not. Because she’s braaave.
Obviously it’s unfair and disgusting how powerful people can get away with things, but use your brain please. They are powerful – unlike you. They have money – unlike you. They have important connections – unlike you. They have nothing too important to lose – UNLIKE YOU.
They could have beaten Sasha again. Killed her. KILLED HER BROTHER which she keeps mentioning how much she loves (it totally shows…). Killed her friends. Fired countless people. Ruined many lives.
I hate that I’m in this awful position, but I’ll do what it takes to keep my brother safe and get the casino staff organized. Then my brother and I can both leave Boston and I can restart my life.
(I don’t know how already dead people can leave a city and restart on life, but good luck hun. The stupidity really shows in this quote.)
A smart person would have known to stop and get out of that idiotic town as soon as possible. But no, she keeps going, woeing her pains and crutches and prettily crying about her shitty life, and how she wants fair pay for workers.
Because a fair pay is totally worth more than your brother and other people’s lives. Gotcha.
Obviously there wouldn’t have been a book if she hadn’t been this stupid braaave, but I just couldn’t give two shits, unfortunately.
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