A tale of love, lust and insanity… with a cherry on top.
Sarah has arrived in England after the death of her father, come to stay with her uncle, the Earl of Westbrooke. When her coach arrives late in the evening, she’s forced to find a room at the Green Man, rather than turning up disheveled and unexpected on the Earl’s doorstep. The innkeeper balks at providing a room, even after she explained her relation. She’s rescued by a kind stranger, Robbie, who seems strangely familiar. Sure, Robbie’s a bit foxed, but he’s a gentleman with a room down the hall and Sarah hasn’t slept days. There shouldn’t be any issues…
James is only too ready to stay the night at the Green Man when he discovers his cousin, Richard, has arrived from London. Richard might arrange yet another ‘accident’ that night in an attempt at gaining the Inheritance that was ‘stolen’ because James’s father was born first. When James retires for the night, he discovers the London doxy Robbie smuggled into his room. While he’s quite tempted by her beauty, she’s obviously exhausted, so he decides to let her sleep and ‘discuss’ things in the morning.
Sarah is having the most wonderful dream… until she realizes there’s a man in her bed. Then she screams and beats him with her pillow. Unfortunately, he’s naked. Worse yet, she’s naked. Worser still, it’s at the very moment that she realizes their state of extreme dishabille that his Aunt Gladys bursts into the room with several people in tow.
James shoos the uninvited from his room and can’t help but howl with laughter when he finds out that not only is this goddess not a doxy, but she’s a gentleman’s daughter, come to stay with her uncle, the Earl of Westbrooke. When they assemble in the private sitting room below, there’s groaning and sheepishness from Robbie as James makes the introductions…
What introductions they are! Mr. Alvord is actually Mr. Runyon, the Duke of Alvord. The older man Sarah was expecting to meet died a year ago and Robbie is her cousin, the Earl of Westbrooke. She’s quite shocked when everyone seems to think she and James now need to marry, because *nothing happened* (except some rather lovely kissing but no one saw that). James is rather pleased at the prospect of their nuptials. Sarah is resistant, so they agree for her to accompany James’s sister during Lizzie’s come-out in London while Sarah decides on accepting his suit. James fully intends on wooing her and she’s tempted to agree if he weren’t a Duke.
Cousin Richard is quite incensed by these developments. The closer James gets to the altar, the less time he has to arrange for an ‘accident’ to finally hand him the dukedom. His valet, Phillip, has quite a time dissuading him from killing the American chit. But Phillip is talking logic, so Richard will just have to stop the match — either by destroying Sarah’s affections, her reputation or her appeal through the forced end to Sarah’s virginity.
What we all end up with is a rather sweet romance intertwined with much intrigue as James works on convincing Sarah to marry him, while persuading himself to wait for the wedding night… keeping her from falling for someone else… dealing with his cousin’s machinations… and managing his sister’s come-out. No one ever said being a duke was easy. There’s tons of enjoyable banter, whether it’s between James, Sarah, Robbie, Lizzie, or Aunt Galdys and her lady’s companion. Our OTP and their circle are well-rounded, the ton is obnoxious and Richard’s increasing instability lead the story is many unexpected directions. Richard’s complicated relationship with valet Phillip keeps Richard from being too much of a cartoon villain. All-in-all, it’s a great start to the series. I just might give it a re-read before I move on to the next book.
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