Olive Becket Plays the Rake by Kat Sterling
Historical Romance
October 9, 2025
Self-published

Review by Melanie

There’s a particular scene in this delightfully charming historical romance that made me fall hard, not just for the characters or the romance but for the way this author writes character development. I’m pretty certain I’m now a will read anything she writes kind of fan. Although, real talk, I’ve read everything this author has written thus far and I was already there. 

Let’s backtrack for a bit. Olive Becket Plays the Rake is the second book in The Seattle Suffrage Society series, which takes place in the early 1900s. It’s a fun departure from the usual historical romance regency fare of London ballrooms and country estates. Sure, there are the usual class differences, a stark dichotomy represented between the haves and have nots, but there’s also, especially in this particular book, an interesting look at events happening some two hundred years ago that are still very much relevant today. 

There’s the obvious, a discourse on voting rights and whose voice gets to be heard and whose are silenced and a smaller scene in which a rich, powerful businessman wants to get rid of a relatively new arrival to the Seattle business scene because he’s deemed a “newcomer” and “a threat that must be put down” all of which is actually code for being an immigrant. (This isn’t me making an assumption, this is actually spelled out in the scene). 

And then there’s the titular heroine, one Olive Becket, struggling mightily to hold her tiny family together, a family which includes her mother who is afraid to leave the house and while this isn’t spelled out directly, probably suffers from depression, and a younger brother with dyslexia who is having difficulties in school. She is, since her father passed away, the financial and emotional cornerstone of her little family, earning money by giving piano lessons and occasionally performing at balls and other gatherings. She is also a member of the Seattle Suffrage Society and while she is working desperately to keep a roof over her family’s head, she’s also keeping a rather big secret. (It’s not that big of a secret to the reader, it’s actually right at the top of the book description). 

That secret, or rather uncovering the source of that secret is what really brings one Emil Anderson deeper into her orbit. They have mutual friends (the pairing in the first book of the series) but when Emil, struggling to get his fledgling detective agency off the ground, is hired by a wealthy businesman to uncover the hidden identity of the woman who wrote a very popular suffrage anthem, he naturally turns to the piano teacher he can’t stop thinking about, not realizing that she’s the very person he’s actually looking for. 

But Olive is no lamb, despite what her suffragist sisters call her. While she may come off as shy and quiet and unassuming at first, she has grit and a spine of steel and one of my favorite things about this romance is the way that Emil immediately clocks that about her. He truly sees her for what she is, a brave woman with far more strength than she gives herself credit for. 

Emil comes from a fairly well-to-do family and has decided to forge his own path and eschew the family business, much to his father’s chagrin. And while that may not sound all that bad, he intially presents as a bit of a spoiled little manchild, willing to cut off his nose to spite his face. It would be very easy to paint a character like this as a one dimensional poor little rich boy but he’s got depth. Every time he and Olive meet up to solve the mystery of who wrote this anthem, we see the layers being peeled back to show more of who he is, his true character, the depth of his care for Olive. We see his feelings deepening for her long before he comes to this realization. 

One of my favorite scenes between them is the first time they are intimate with each other and he realizes that the way to get Olive to relax enough to enjoy physical pleasure is through words. His initial attempt is adorably clumsy – “your legs are like a gazelle’s,” he announces but it’s the attempt, the fact that he noticed what she needed and cared enough to give it to her that makes him so endearing. 

I found this book so incredibly sweet and charming. Olive is in dire financial straits and willing to do whatever it takes to protect her family. And in turn, Emil is willing to do whatever it takes to protect Olive. These two lovebirds dance around each other and eventually, with each other (metaphorically speaking) and watching them give their hearts to each other makes for a really lovely romance. 

Grade: A