Girl Meets Duke

Book reviews

17 Jan

Written By Anzhelika Li

Check out deeply emotional historical novels filled with steamy love scenes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

1. THE DUCHESS DEAL by Tessa Dare

SYNOPSIS

Since his return from war, the Duke of Ashbury’s to-do list has been short and anything but sweet: brooding, glowering, menacing London ne’er-do-wells by night. Now there’s a new item on the list. He needs an heir—which means he needs a wife. When Emma Gladstone, a vicar’s daughter turned seamstress, appears in his library wearing a wedding gown, he decides on the spot that she’ll do.

His terms are simple:
- They will be husband and wife by night only.
- No lights, no kissing.
- No questions about his battle scars.
- Last, and most importantly… Once she’s pregnant with his heir, they need never share a bed again.

But Emma is no pushover. She has a few rules of her own:
- They will have dinner together every evening.
- With conversation.
- And unlimited teasing.
- Last, and most importantly… Once she’s seen the man beneath the scars, he can’t stop her from falling in love…

BOOK REVIEW

The Duchess Deal is a retelling of The Beauty and the Beast. The book is just historical romance perfection. It felt like a tiny piece of cuteness and fluffiness and emotional heaven. It basically had it all: great banter (I cannot put into words how much I adored the pet names), sizzling steam (let’s say these guys knew what they were doing haha), and two multi-layered main characters that you cannot help but fall head over heels for.

Emma Gladstone had learned a few hard lessons by the age of two-and-twenty. Charming princes weren’t always what they seemed. Shining armor went out of fashion with the Crusades. And if fairy godmothers existed, hers was running several years late. Most of the time, a girl needed to rescue herself.

Emma Gladstone was everything worthy of love and respect. She didn't live an easy life and yet never lost the sparkles in her beautiful eyes and her incredibly gentle heart, which brought a broody duke who had proposed to her out of the blue down to his knees in the very end (please, do read the book in order to find out how yourself).

She smiled. “Do you know, I suspected you were a good man, deep down. Even if very, very, very deep down. In a fathomless cavern. Underneath a volcano.”

The Duke of Ashbury was impossibly stubborn, grumpy, with a penchant to blasphemy in the most creative of fashions, and perhaps slightly deranged... He wasn’t the man he once was before the war… He was scarred both on the surface (a monster he no longer wished to witness in the mirror) and deep inside (lost, rejected, and refused). But despite all that, Ash was still very responsible and caring, about many people who still depended on him. And for that purpose alone, he needed an heir, and thus, a wife. He believed he needed a miracle to get a wife, and Emma turned out to be the miracle itself.

“Sleep.” His arm flexed, gathering her tight. “I’ll keep you warm and safe. I’ll keep you always.”

The chemistry between the two imperfectly perfect characters was instant and feverishly hot. I seriously couldn’t get enough of their daily tug-of-war when Emma attempted to advance and break through the high walls the Duke had built and Ash kept retreating further behind them but started questioning everything he once thought was certain. I absolutely loved the downfall of the walls, as well as the way Emma slowly but surely healed Ash’s bleeding heart despite the hopelessness behind his scars.

The Duchess Deal was my very first book by Tessa Dare because I’m usually not a fan of swoony historical romances. Which was such a pity because this book was so so good and definitely shouldn’t be missed!

2. THE GOVERNESS GAME by Tessa Dare

SYNOPSIS

The accidental governess

After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don’t need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud: duke’s heir in the streets and devil in the sheets. The ladies of London have tried—and failed—to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart… without risking her own.

The infamous rake

Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule: no attachments. When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to give her an education—in pleasure. That should prove he can’t be tamed. But Alexandra is more than he bargained for: clever, perceptive, passionate. She refuses to see him as a lost cause. Soon the walls around Chase’s heart are crumbling… and he’s in danger of falling, hard.

3. THE WALLFLOWER WAGER by Tessa Dare

SYNOPSIS

They call him the Duke of Ruin. To an undaunted wallflower, he's just the beast next door.

Wealthy and ruthless, Gabriel Duke clawed his way from the lowliest slums to the pinnacle of high society—and now he wants to get even. Loyal and passionate, Lady Penelope Campion never met a lost or wounded creature she wouldn’t take into her home and her heart. When her imposing—and attractive—new neighbor demands she clear out the rescued animals, Penny sets him a challenge. She will part with her precious charges if he can find them loving homes.

Done, Gabriel says. How hard can it be to find homes for a few kittens? And a two-legged dog. And a foul-mouthed parrot. And a goat, an otter, a hedgehog… Easier said than done, for a cold-blooded bastard who wouldn’t know a loving home from a workhouse. Soon he’s covered in cat hair, knee-deep in adorable, and bewitched by a shyly pretty spinster who defies his every attempt to resist. Now she’s set her mind and heart on saving him. Not if he ruins her first.

4. THE BRIDE BET by Tessa Dare

SYNOPSIS

How to lose a duke in ten years… without losing your heart.

Once upon a time, two sworn enemies—the bookish daughter of a scholar and the devilish heir to a duke—made a pact: If they were both still single in ten years, they would marry each other. It was a joke, Nicola thought. A duchess? Her?

But when the Duke of Westleigh returns a decade later, he’s serious. He needs an heir, so he’s holding her to their marriage bargain—diamond ring, lavish gown, engagement ball, and more. Nothing Nicola says can dissuade him. When she calls him arrogant, he praises her honesty. When she makes social stumbles, he catches her fall. And when she gets exasperated, the duke can’t seem to get enough. For reasons she can’t fathom, he claims that no other woman will do.

He’s betting he can change her mind, with logic and passion. She’s betting she can change his mind, just by being herself. And as the clock ticks down to a wedding day, neither is counting on losing their heart.