Title: How To Love A Duke in Ten Days
Series: Devil You Know
Author: Kerrigan Byrne
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: August 27, 2019
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ASIN: B07N674967
These men are dark, bold, and brave. And there is only one woman who can bring them to their knees...
Famed and brilliant, Lady Alexandra Lane has always known how to look out for to herself. But nobody would ever expect that she has darkness in her past—one that she pays a blackmailer to keep buried. Now, with her family nearing bankruptcy, Alexandra strikes upon a solution: Get married to one of the empire’s most wealthy eligible bachelors. Even if he does have the reputation of a devil.
LOVE TAKES NO PRISONERS
Piers Gedrick Atherton, the Duke of Redmayne, is seeking revenge and the first step is securing a bride. Winning a lady’s hand is not so easy, however, for a man known as the Terror of Torcliff. Then, Alexandra enters his life like a bolt of lightning. When she proposes marriage, Piers knows that, like him, trouble haunts her footsteps. But her gentleness, sharp wit, independent nature, and incredible beauty awakens every fierce desire within him. He will do whatever it takes to keep her safe in his arms.
My rating:
When she was seventeen, Lady Alexandra Lane was raped by her school's headmaster, killing the bastard during the deed and burying his body with the help of her two best friends. For the next ten years, she did her best to make herself as unappealing to the male sex as she could while paying off a blackmailer who knows what she'd done. Now, with her family almost bankrupt, she's at the end of her rope...Until one of her friends is to be married to a duke she doesn't like and Alexandra decides to apply for the position of duchess herself.
Piers Gedrick Atherton, the Duke of Redmayne, isn't really in need of a wife, he just wants to spite his faithless former fiancee who married his cousin who almost inherited the title when Piers almost died from a jaguar attack that left his face scarred. He's not particularly picky either, Francesca Cavendish was chosen by his father and that at least saves him the bother of hunting for his duchess...If only he didn't lust for his future betrothed's best friend. And when she offers to take Francesca's place as his wife, Piers is more than happy to accept.
More often than not, taking on a "new" author, proves to be a bad choice if not a downright disaster. But there are those rare, sparking occasions when the decision to venture off the well-known path pays off in droves. This book is an example of the latter.
It started at the very beginning with the prologue, when Alexandra loses her innocence (in more ways than just the obvious), announcing the story wasn't yet another regurgitated historical romance. It was emotional, gritty, powerful and attention grabbing. It proved to be just the right hook to intrigue and grip the reader, to empathize with Alexandra and her friends.
Though the initial tone was gritty and moody, the story was anything but (with an occasional short somber scene). Compared to the tangible fear and despair of the prologue, the story was (surprisingly) light-hearted, even humorous at time, proving that though wounds such as Alexandra's (or Piers's for that matter) don't disappear, time and being surrounded by right people helps. That love can be a cure for all. That finding the right partner, that elusive soul-mate, is a balm to the soul.
Alexandra and Piers were both tortured people, deeply scarred on the inside (and outside as well), but were meant to find one another to heal one another, to heal the wounds.
Though the story spanned only ten days, it felt longer as they got to know each other and realize they were more similar than they initially thought. It were those mutual interests in travel and exploring the world instead of molding in the English countryside that allowed them to build their bond, it was their friendship that strengthened that bond and their relationship. But it was mostly Piers's patience and gentleness, despite his physical appearance, his care for Alexandra despite not knowing the truth, despite suspecting her of duplicity, that made the biggest difference for me in regards of this (rushed) romance. And when he finally realized the truth of what happened to Alexandra (though it'd taken him almost the entire book to do the basic math), his reaction was so utterly precious...His inner devastation, fear of hurting her, fear of her rejection, even his vengeful thoughts...Oh, boy.
And to keep things interesting and diverse, balancing out the beautiful romance, we also get a suspense subplot with a blackmailer and motive for blackmail you won't see coming and a murder plot whose instigator was a little more transparent, but the weapon-wielder sure came as a surprise. And that final showdown was an absolute cherry on the already yummy cake.
With an exquisite romance, wonderful lead characters, Alexandra's amazing and loyal friends (whose stories comprise the rest of this trilogy) and well-played and executed suspense plot this was a bitter-sweet, emotional, powerful and empowering book.
5 stars, favorites, historical, historical romance, Kerrigan Byrne, suspense/mystery/adventure/thriller, victorian
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