Second Duke’s the Charm (Her Majesty’s Rebels, 1)
Tess Townsend and her two friends are three talented women who run King & Co., London’s most exclusive investigative agency. No less a figure than Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, hires them to recover from a blackmailer some indiscreet love letters written by her granddaughter.
The plot, however, is subordinate to the romance which develops between Tess and Justin Thornton. She is the Dowager Duchess of Wansford, whose aged husband died on their wedding night; he is a self-made shipping magnate who turns out to be the distant cousin who inherits the dukedom. She is smart as well as young and beautiful, he is open-minded as well as handsome and virile. Despite their mutual wariness, prospects for their marriage of convenience to evolve into a love match look promising, until a series of misunderstandings derail progress. Can trust be re-established?
Readers who enjoy steamy sexual encounters will be satisfied, and the issue of trust in marriage is important in any age, but the lively interaction between the three women provides the real sparkle to this Regency-period romance. More of these scenes would be welcome.
