This regency romance has a special 80s twist as each novel takes homage from big screen classics like Flashdance, The Breakfast Club, and so on. I’ll confess I did not realize this until I read the Acknowledgement pages, and since the only 80s movies I’ve seen were Flashdance, and The Breakfast Club, I cannot tell you if the stories strictly follow the movie plotlines. But if they do, fans may enjoy the contemporary wink.

But the one I do recognize The Breakfast Club only refers to the prologues where five different boys-a noble duke, a steadfast Scot, a scholary anthropologist, a juvenile delinquent, and a dreamy eccentric- form an unseperable friendship during “detention,” dubbing themselves the Union of the Rakes. It’s a really moving friendship between them that is almost as palpable as the romances. I wish there was more depiction of emotional-trust filled male friendships in regency romance like it does for their female counterparts. Leigh demonstrates that they can have as much importance as familial bonds.

Anyway, on to the rankings!

1. Would I Lie to a Duke: I believe this is based on Working Girl, and Jess McGale is the very definition of a working girl. The eldest child, Jess is trying to keep her family and her family’s business together after the death of her parents and an unfortunate fire that burned down most of their equiment for soap making. Her siblings and her have been flung apart trying to find jobs that will provide for them, but in her role as paid companion, Jess has a chance to go to London and hawk her soaps to the elitest stories. Who will only buy and give capital if she had wealthy investors backing her up. That’s unlikely to happen to a farmer’s daughter, but as the fictatious Lady Whitfield she manages to finagle her way into the Bazaar so she can present McGale & McGale soap to the best of the ton. What she doesn’t expect is to lose her heart to Noel, Duke of Rotherby. But how can a romance last when it’s built on lies and a class difference so big? Jess and Noel are a true meeting of the minds, both so strong, so ambitious, a hawk and wolf-both hunters and they admire each other’s strength and intelligence. Noel respects her mind and Jess acts as a straight shooter to Noel whose life is filled with syphocants and hanger-ons who wish to yield his favor. She sees him as a man, not a duke. That combined with Noel’s innate charming, Jess’ wit, and the sizzling heat between them? I wanted more than anything for them to work out. It’s a romance so you can imagine they get their HEA, but not without a significant amount of conflict. I enjoyed how Leigh did not skim over the damage Jess did to Noel’s trust. Even if her intentions were good, and she was in an impossible situation, her choice to not divulge the truth after the numerous chances and the raw honesty Noel gave her, it was damaging. So the hard road to forgiveness and reflection on both their parts as to whether they should give it another shot makes it feel more earned. Speaking of raw honesty and vulnerability, the steam was amazing and unique as Noel is a raw submissive hero in bed, showing that it doesn’t take away his manhood one bit while also empowering them both. Just wonderful.
2. My Fake Rake: I believe this is based on She’s All That? I might be wrong but it’s a bit of a My Fair Lady trope where Lady Grace enlists her friend, Sebastian to pretend to be a potential suitor so she may attract the attentions of her true crush. But to do that, she has to turn this bookworm into a rake that would charm the entire ton. It’s an interesting farce considering Lady Grace is just as unaware of the social niceties that make up rakehood and success in formal functions so the Duke of Rotherby comes by as extra help. I really enjoyed the friends to lovers dynamic between Sebastian and Grace as well as how truly awkward they are. They’re scientists, seeing the world in the lens of experimentation and observation, but putting themselves in the fore of their plans leads to miscommunication in regards to their true feelings. Grace is stuck in denial, trying to chase the crush that she believes she still wants, while Sebastian thinks Grace is still infatuated with her end-goal. Friendship is a great foundation for any relationship in my opinion and Leigh depicts that here that even though both have different scientific fields, they form a kinship over feeling a bit out of sorts in the social scene and they just understand each other’s language. And just as Would I Lie to a Duke tackles the world of finance, ethical investment and female power over her purse, this critiques the societal pressures making up the ton and Grace’s struggles to fit into the womanly box the times wants her to conform to.
3. Waiting for a Scot Like You: Lady Beatrice Beuller, Dowger Countess of Farris is finally out of mourning and she is determined to live life to the fullest after a marriage where her identity was consumed by her husband and her duties as a mother. One of her first acts is a week-long bachannal at Lord Gibbs where she will undoubtedly have her every pleasure fufilled. Unlike the journey itself with the uptight Scot McCarmeron, assigned to get her safely to her destination. As you may be able to guess from Beatrice’s name, this roadtrip story is based on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and is filled with fun and hijinks, making it the most modern of the trilogy but I was willing to hold onto suspension of disbelief. However, it reaches third partly because of the road trip journey. It’s very fun but also a bit distracting and leaves no time to breath between each event like robberies, Footloose town where no one can dance, crashing carriages, and the beloved one bed trope. As for the characters, even though they form a lasting romance in two days, I found it moving as they reveal their vulnerable selves with Beatrice still trying to find her identity after being ignored and emotionally neglected in her own marriage and McCameron’s aimlessness after war and heartbreak from a broken engagement. Nonetheless, it felt surface-level as well as I feel like it dances around the extent of Beatrice’s bad marriage and glosses over the “haunting memories’ McCameron has of war. Additionally, the HEA actually made me feel somewhat bad for McCameron. While I understood his journey that maybe he needed to embrace the aimless as rules and structures don’t guarentee happiness as much as chasing it on faith. But I also felt he desperately needed some security and acknowledgement that marriage would provide that he’s worthy of being loved and having it proclaimed to all. And while it’s encouraging for Beatrice not to bind herself to marriage, which she finds the state so deplorable after her experience, it also feels like it’s selling McCameron short in that she doesn’t trust him not to subsume her identity. Nonetheless, their sex scenes may have been the hottest of them all. Normally I would never be able to keep a straight face at someone saying “They’re a bad girl,’ (No judgement. I know people like it but I find it funny), but Leigh managed to make it HOT which made me wish it worked out even more.

However, the epilogue does make up for some of my disappointment with the last book, it being so moving and even including the beloved “Don’t forget about me” lyric. I do wish that Rowe and Curtis had their own book because they had an interesting thread in the background that Leigh could have explored and felt the least formed out of the Union of the Rakes.

Overall, a scitilliating read with an empowering undercurrent that will sure to make you swoon and pump your fist.