The Duke Gets Desperate (Sirens in Silk, 1)
Yorkshire, 1886. As if it were not bad enough to inherit an impoverished estate, Anthony Carey, Duke of Strickland, is stunned to learn that his stepmother has bequeathed his beloved family castle to her American cousin. His resentment is slow to fade, but Raya Darwish turns out to be a beautiful Arab-American woman, and their mutual physical attraction is immediate. Since she is also an astute businesswoman, she is just what the estate needs to recover, he grows to recognize, but can they get past their distrust of each other?
Though it is never really in doubt, misunderstandings and personal issues delay the happy outcome, as does the mystery surrounding the stepmother’s death and thefts from the castle. Strick and Raya gradually learn to appreciate one another’s abilities, but the pattern of increasingly passionate encounters, followed by retreat into suspicion of each other’s motives, does become repetitive. There is valuable insight, however, into the causes for the economic decline of great estates in England during the 19th century, and Raya’s solution of opening the castle and selling refreshments and souvenirs to a paying public anticipates what became a widespread trend.
