Book Review: Desperately Seeking A Scoundrel by Elisa Braden

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As someone who almost religiously reads only historical books—historical romance, historical fiction, historical mystery, and all that—the rake character is one I’m very familiar with.

Now, this rake, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t care about whatever society thinks about him and lives his life however he wants. This translates to him being very sexually liberal and totally ignoring the rules of polite society and whatnot. But in all the works I’ve read, it’s usually with a little regard for decency, at least.

That’s to say, even if these are characters who have shown society they will live their lives however they want, they still have some redeemable qualities that make them feel real and genuine, with morals they absolutely will never go against.

But this is definitely the very first book I have ever read about a scoundrel or a rake who is the type of villain you avoid with all your heart. I don’t want to break down all the atrocities our male lead, Colin, committed, but needless to say, I struggled with liking this character a fair bit.

In fact, it was only because I genuinely loved Sarah, our female lead, that I was gracious toward him, because he was actually a very horrible person. The book sort of—not really excuses but more like rationalizes—his actions on the grounds that he was young and had some trauma and all that, but that still didn’t cut it.

And I know there are a lot of books where the male lead perhaps has a very dark past, and he keeps telling the female lead that he doesn’t deserve her and that she deserves someone better.

Usually, I’m able to sort of commiserate with the male character and in my heart simply wish that they just get together because he does deserve her, even though he can’t see his good qualities. But this is actually the very first book I’m reading where I genuinely wished the female lead would absolutely abandon the male lead.

In lots of books with scoundrels, as I said earlier, this rake-like quality only manifests in the form of sexual debauchery and whatnot. But in this book, he did some very nasty things, and I actually loved what this author did with his scoundrel character because we got to see the real consequences of being a scoundrel. 

Unlike other books, where it is simply glossed over because the male is rich and handsome, in this book, we really got to see how Colin was shunned by both his family members and how he simply had to live with that regret for the rest of his life.

I really, really enjoyed our female lead’s character, and I feel like she really complemented Colin because while he was adamant and stubborn about being selfish, she was very selfless and willing to help no matter what. But this willingness to always help others didn’t come across as foolishness because she could still be calculating when needed.

The beginning felt a little slow to me, but it picks up quite quickly after that. This is actually a fake relationship book, and what’s funny about the fake relationship in this book is that there are actually two fake relationships. I mean, they start the first fake relationship, it eventually lapses, and then they start another one again.

But perhaps my favorite thing about this book is how the author dealt with the leads’ reactions to losing a parent or losing someone important in their lives. I haven’t read other books in the series, but we do get enough information to know that no single character has lived an easy life, which is simply painful.

Our female lead struggles for a huge part of the book with the loss of her father, and those scenes were very sad. Watching her sort of muddle through the aftereffects of his loss and now knowing the things she needed to do to sustain herself and her mother felt very realistic and jarring.

It’s also important for me to mention that there is a thriller subplot to everything happening, and Colin is constantly chased from place to place, which did wonders for the tension. I love how the author wove everything together, and it never felt like any of the plot elements were overshadowed by the others.

All in all, I feel this was a very interesting read, but definitely not something I would want to come back to because, as I said earlier, I didn’t like the male lead even up until the end, but I was able to understand why our female lead fell for him.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants a sweet and spicy historical romance novel with a morally ambiguous male protagonist you might struggle to like, but with a happy ending that will make you feel warm all over.