Today I'm delighted to be part of the Blog Tour for If I Only Had a Duke, Lenora Bell's latest book. It is the second book on her series The Disgraceful Dukes but it can be read as a stand-alone as it has its own story with new characters. Here are my thoughts:
Title: If I Only Had a Duke (The Disgraceful Dukes #2)
Author: Lenora Bell
Published: August 30th 2016 by Piatkus
Blurb: After three failed seasons and a disastrous jilting, Lady Dorothea Beaumont has had more than enough of her family's scheming. She won't domesticate a duke, entangle an earl or vie for a viscount. She will quietly exit to her aunt's Irish estate for a life of blissful freedom. Until an arrogant, sinfully handsome duke singles her out for a waltz, making Thea the most popular belle of the season.Well, the duke ruined her plans and now he'll just have to fix them.
Dalton, Duke of Osborne, is far too heartless for debutantes or marriage - he uses dalliances to distract from his real purpose: finding the man who destroyed his family. When his search leads to Ireland, the last thing he needs is the determined, achingly innocent Thea, who arrives in the dead of night demanding he escort her to her aunt. His foolish agreement may prove his undoing. The road to the Emerald Isle is fraught with unforeseen dangers, but the greatest peril of all might just be discovering that he has a heart... and he's losing it to Thea.
Review: This was such a fun book and I enjoyed it immensely. The story revolves around Lady Dorothea, who turned out to be a fantastic heroine. She had been brought up with a sole purpose: marry a duke. But her family hadn't counted on something: she was prone to disaster and no one seemed interested in her. Thea though had other intentions, she had no interest on dukes, her heart belonged to art and wanted to spend her life dedicated to it.
Art is actually the reason why Thea first contacts the Duke of Osborne. She finds quite a collection hidden in his residence in Ireland and writes to him demanding to make this collection public. They exchange then some hilarious letters that set the tone for the story, there's lots of irony, bantering and even some flirting. So when they finally meet in person the sparks are already flying.
One thing that I especially enjoyed in this story is seeing Thea flourish. She started being quite shy and naive but as the story progressed and she spent more time with the Duke trying to get back to Ireland uncovered, we started seeing her sassy and brave side more and more. She was just such an interesting character to read about and definitely my favourite character in the story. I loved that she was not your usual historical fiction heroine waiting to be rescued. And she came up with the craziest ideas.
The Duke of Osborne was also a very intriguing character. I loved how he had this back story that made him have two identities. And I also loved how he treated Thea. It was so much fun seeing this big scary guy being saved more than once by tiny lady Dorothea. They definitely made a great team.
This book was such a fantastic read, full of action and drama and with complex and interesting characters. It surprised me more than once and I found it a really exciting read. I can't wait to read what Lenora Bell comes up with next.
Rating: 4 stars
I would like to thank the publishers for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
About the author:
Lenora Bell is a third generation Alaskan and her hometown still has no traffic lights or fast food, but the public library is going strong!
An English teacher with an MFA in Creative Writing, Lenora has traveled the globe using music to bring smiles to classrooms. She currently lives in Switzerland with her carpenter husband and two naughty tiger-striped kitties.
