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Book Review
Dec. 26th, 2024 01:32 pmThe Devil's Own Duke
by Lenora Bell
This historical romance was largely unsatisfying. Hetty is the daughter of a duke and has been developing a vineyard on their estate. She's on the cusp of building a viable winery. Unfortunately, there is no male heir to the title, so, with an aging father, she is in danger of losing everything. This is where the male lead, Ash, comes in. He is an orphan who has risen from the streets to become the successful owner of a gambling den, and just might be the long-lost child of a minor branch of Hetty's family, and thus the heir. Despite the initial friction between them, Hetty and Ash are persuaded to enter a marriage of convenience that would allow Hetty to continue working on the winery and help smooth Ash's entrance into society. They find themselves powerfully attracted to each other, and soon develop real feelings for each other.
This book did not really work for me. Ash started out too pushy and self-centered and the counterweight to this arrived too late in the novel to redeem him for me. I liked Hetty a little better. Her pursuit of winemaking was interesting, but it was more interesting than the growth of her relationship with Ash. The resolution of the conflicts in the love story and the surrounding plot came a little too late and was a little too pat. Nothing landed quite right for me.
by Lenora Bell
This historical romance was largely unsatisfying. Hetty is the daughter of a duke and has been developing a vineyard on their estate. She's on the cusp of building a viable winery. Unfortunately, there is no male heir to the title, so, with an aging father, she is in danger of losing everything. This is where the male lead, Ash, comes in. He is an orphan who has risen from the streets to become the successful owner of a gambling den, and just might be the long-lost child of a minor branch of Hetty's family, and thus the heir. Despite the initial friction between them, Hetty and Ash are persuaded to enter a marriage of convenience that would allow Hetty to continue working on the winery and help smooth Ash's entrance into society. They find themselves powerfully attracted to each other, and soon develop real feelings for each other.
This book did not really work for me. Ash started out too pushy and self-centered and the counterweight to this arrived too late in the novel to redeem him for me. I liked Hetty a little better. Her pursuit of winemaking was interesting, but it was more interesting than the growth of her relationship with Ash. The resolution of the conflicts in the love story and the surrounding plot came a little too late and was a little too pat. Nothing landed quite right for me.
