SAY NO TO THE DUKE

The fourth installment of a Georgian-set but very modern romance
series that explores the theme of reputation versus reality.

Lady Boadicea “Betsy” Wilde is the eldest daughter of the Duke
of Lindow. Her mother, the duke’s second duchess, ran away with a Prussian
count when Betsy was a baby. To ward off even a hint of her mother’s
debauchery, Betsy tamps down her wilder impulses and presents a demure and
perfectly polished image during her first season. She attracts dozens of
suitors, proving the naysayers wrong when Lord Thaddeus Greywick, a future duke
with a sterling reputation, proposes. The trouble is that Thaddeus doesn’t set
her heart racing like a certain “evil-tongued aristocrat with a dark soul and a
penchant for drink.” Lord Jeremy Roden has been hanging out at Lindow Castle
for months, recovering from a disastrous military campaign in America and
coping with PTSD. He lounges about guiltily in the billiard room, drinking too
much whisky, making wisecracks, and generally proving himself unfit for polite
society after a terrifying flashback episode in Vauxhall Gardens causes him to
black out for an entire week. The bickering twosome cannot resist each other,
their banter thrumming with wit, passion, and heart. Jeremy’s frank admissions
of lust ratchet up the tension for Betsy. The characters, including the
snobbish duke to whom the title refers, his spirited mother, and Betsy’s wise
Aunt Knowe, are endearing and memorable. But James’ (Born To Be Wilde,
2018) depiction of recovery from PTSD falls flat, as does the one-dimensional
villain whose machinations throw an unnecessary barrier in the way of lovers
whose journey to self-revelation and acceptance stands on its own.

A lusty journey back to Lindow Castle with a few dead ends on
the way to a deeply felt romance.