To Dare a Duke

I had very mixed feelings about To Dare a Duke. <br /><br />Prunella Chuffington-Smythe is living a secret life as an author Miss Terry. She is writing a story each week and the name resembles a real person. Robert Adolphus Duke of Bedwin. Her Duke in her story is the Duke of Bedsin. Prue has heard lies about Bedwin from gossiping ton memebers. She decides to bring an innocent man down using lies. She had never meet the Duke of Bedwin. Nor does she know the truth of what he endure at the hands of a cruel wife. <br /><br />Robert's deceased wife was a cheat and really a whor!! Robert loved her but she betrayed him in everyway. On the morning of a hunt at his home he catches his wife having sex with a childhood best friend. In the Bed chamber ajoining his. She goes on the hunt and breaks her neck making a jump. Some believe he killed her. <br /><br />I just couldn't forgive Prue. She made this man's life hell and she had never met him or knew anything about him. She became his judge and jury for a crime he didn't even commit against an evil women.<br /><br />The story might have been better if Robert and Prue had more romance and less of Prue's attacks everytime he meets with her. She was downright rude and this would have never happen in any era for a lowly nobody to set down a Duke. The author has a good bases for a storyline Girls Who Dare but she really Miss The Mark on this one. I wish authors would remember Dukes were extemely powerful beings and write them as such. Robert was to whimpy running after Prue. He even forgives her for what she has done to his reputation. I think he should have dumped her and married her cousin Minerva!!

3.5 Stars<br /><br />It was a cutesy story. Felt very teenage giddy romantic type. I loved Robert, Prunella (unfortunate name aside) redeemed herself. I think a 20 year old me would have enjoyed it more than a 30 year old me!

3.5<br /><br />I took a break from my mystery reading binge to read this week’s guaranteed happy ending. Just what the doctor ordered for this COVID19 shelter in place bookworm (so far we’re all virus free including and especially my 82-year-old mom).<br /><br />Back to the review. <br /><br />I just love the bad boy-bookish spinster trope (is that the right word? If not, it does lend some Regency elegance to this review!!). <br /><br />Romance, silly misunderstandings and fairly tame moments in the garden at moonlight alone run rampant here. <br /><br />A charming romance for a rainy day stuck inside!!<br /><br />PS— and thanks to the lovely author, it was free! Well worth the price!!

Wallflowers and bluestockings are part of my favorite tropes, why the blurb caught my eyes and I do preordered this book.<br />And I’m glad I did it.<br />I even had to hurry finishing the book I was reading so eager I was to jump in this one.<br />Even if there was no mystery about how the plot will progress, I had some hard time to stop and put this book aside today, I was even late as some of my rendezvous because I was so in need to read few more pages.<br />I loved both main characters, Prue and Robert are two people shaped by their past, he payes a harsh tribute to his mistakes some distorted by the gossip rags, while she designed her future upon the ugly sample she had from married life.<br />Prue to built her freedom uses her talent with words and writes stories as a secret livelihood, she even narrates stories with known peer as background characters for her work, she just never expected to meet the vilain of her actual serial nor catch his eyes. And worst, the more she get to know him, the more she sees she was misguided by said gossips. But how can she stop the clock or go back in time now she knows she was wrong.<br />Robert after a failed marriage and the death of his scandalous wife has avoided the ton, preferring meddling with debauches and light-skirts than meet those who choose to believe the dirt told about him. But even if he is reluctant, he knows he must find a new wife for the usual heir and spare. But this time, she must be rather plain, dull, boring and scandal free, except the one woman fitting this portrait is not so dull nor boring, worse she utters nonsenses, dares him, intrigues him and even refuses him. The more she rejects him, the more he realizes she is the one woman he wants, really wants. She unsettles him and reawakens feelings he thought buried, but will it be enough to win her when she seems so reluctant to give up what she has carefully planned without a man in.<br />There are very few angsty moments, while the plot could have called for it, but it is more a story about guilt than anger, Robert was sentenced guilty by the Haute Monde because his wife died after an altercation and he feels it too as he never really did anything to stop the spreading of the gossips. While Prue in wanting to write about abusive men as her own father, she chose the wrong one for instance and her anger against vicious men turned to guilt to have fallen so easily prey to the hearsay and put all her resentment on the wrong character even if it was romanticized. <br />A great first book in a new series, so much I can’t wait for the next one.

The plot can be summed up as just feckin tell him. So while this was cute, it was also irritating. I also prefer my heroes more alpha and less wet sop. <br /><br />Complete story and available on ku.

Prue (I don’t’ blame her for not using her given name so I’m not going to use it here), is a wallflower, but she does not bemoan her position, due to her parents’ marriage she has no desire to marry, and her plans for the future require no man. Prue is a writer, writing under a false name in The Lady's Weekly Review, her work is gaining notoriety and fame, with many thinking the villain in her story is based on the real Duke of Bedminster, with many believing he killed his wife.<br /><br />The Duke of Bedminster, has no wish to marry after the disaster of his first marriage, but he knows his duty and the need for an heir, and so he gathers himself to locate a wife, and when his uncle recommends Prue – who is loyal and intelligent, well the Duke decides she will be the women he weds, now if only he could persuade her.<br /><br />The chemistry between Prue and Robert was clear, especially after the midway point, and as a couple I enjoyed them, however they are not a couple that will remain potently in my mind. There was a fire/spark in the authors depiction of them and events that was missing, although there were moments were glimmers of that spark were tangible. <br /><br />I did expect the Duke to be a tad broodier, the shift from him being wary to in-love for me didn’t feel seamless/entirely natural, and I wanted the banter between the two main character to be snappier throughout the book, still this was a nice, albeit predictable read. The characters were engaging, but they didn’t grasp my attention and keep it ensnared in an iron grip. <br /><br />This is a light HR book, the two main characters work well together, and I enjoyed this enough that I have started reading book 2.<br /><br /><b>Free on Amazon 1st June 2019 and available via KU. </b>

If you love Regency romance, you HAVE to read this book. It is one of the best Regencies I've ever read.<br /><br />Prunella Chuffington-Smythe, Prue to her friends, has a secret goal--to save enough money and move out of her aunt's loveless home and be an independent woman. She has no desire to ever put herself under a man's thumb by marrying. Toward that end, she becomes an authoress, secretly writing a serialized novel about the exploits of the "fictitious" roguish Duke of Bedsin, inspired by the very real Duke of Bedwin (S v. W). Her newspaper serial is the talk of the town.<br /><br />Her plans begin to go awry when she encounters the real duke and she realizes he's not the blackguard gossip made him out to be (and that she had hand in advancing).<br /><br />This book was such a joy to read. The characters are wonderful, and the story is great. The writing is awesome and fit the story and the time period perfectly.<br /><br />Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

Once again Emma Leech steals the plotline from Georgette Heyer - here it is "Sylvester" - and does not even change the characters noble station, both times the hero is a duke and the heroine is a cinderella-like nobody with a spiteful cousin and aunt and successfully publishing a book about a character resembling the hero.<br /><br />I expected some twist to distinguish it from above mentioned book, but it never came.<br />I am glad it was free on kindle.

This otherwise perfectly lovely book wouldn't have been such an exercise in patience if the heroine didn't feel the need to act like a brainless twit at every turn.

DNF<br /><br />Started out with potential but quickly deteriorated, the heroine is a nitwit, and I just can’t waste any more of my life on another 200 pages