*** A Steamy Regency Romance ***Tall, handsome, and rich, with a touch of danger. The man risked his life to save her. What woman wouldn’t fall in love. From London’s lowest rung. A penniless Miss Ann Parker is perfectly aware that women such as herself are never admitted to his world. That won’t stop her from dreaming. The Duke of Bedford had one simple rules. Never allow the weak to be … allow the weak to be mistreated. He and his friends may live lives of privilege. But with that comes responsibility. However, that does not include matrimony. Especially not to the less than brilliant ninnies his mother is constantly pushing on him.
In order to forestall his mother’s efforts, the Duke needs someone to make her second guess her plans. If he can convince her he is thinking of marrying a commoner, perhaps she will decide that it is better that he not marry than betray their class.
In need of a pretend heiress to work the deception. The Duke turns to his maid, Ann Parker, for her help. A woman from the wrong side of life, yet a woman of intelligence, natural grace, and charm. With help and a little luck, she may be able to help him avoid a disastrous marriage.
Like Cinderella, Ann is exposed to a magical world. His world. But every moment is a reminder that it is a man and a world she cannot have.
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Well thought out characters. Each character had a little edge about them; a joy to read.
Sadly, just an okay read.
This is a difficult review for me to write. I normally love G.L. Snodgrass’ books, but The Duke’s Desire just was not up to the standards I’ve come to expect from this talented author.
Personally, I felt the story was too unbelievable and the heroine was brave but lacked common sense. I liked the hero, but I liked his best friend better. The ending was sweet, but it couldn’t offset what was lacking in the earlier chapters.
Content 411: This book contains some mild swearing (secular and religious) and a moderately described sexually intimate scene.
I enjoyed the story line of this book , however I do not think it was well written.
Loved the story
Good story.
For the lovely story , you forgive the poor editing. eg pear is not peer ( nor pier). A word checker and grammar checker help, but get someone to read it who speaks the language. A lovely story sorry for the rant.
Compelling Start But Bad Grammar
The hero and the heroine’s meet-cute in this book definitely reminded me of the Colin Firth movie *The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen*. The hero, hearing a woman’s terrified scream as he leaves a bar on the rough London docks, confronts her attackers, and after toying with them for a bit, dispatches them as I could imagine Colin Firth’s character would do, providing he only had a Regency gentleman’s walking stick as a weapon. I thought it was a well-done action scene and definitely had me intrigued to keep reading. Previous to that was a prologue, which I also thought was well done, showing where these men in the Dukes’ Club—which I imagine is going to be a series—became friends as boys in an exclusive but cruel school for young gentlemen.
I found the hero to be an interesting and complex character, starting from when he was just a young man in that prologue scene. The heroine drove me a little crazy at times, especially at first. Here, she had just been saved by the duke, but instead of thanking her lucky stars, she’s afraid to take his job offer as a maid because she was concerned that he could be a monster, especially after what she just witnessed (even if it was in her defense). Still, I think the author did her feelings Justice throughout most of the book because if she was put in a hard circumstance in a number of ways.
This book had severe problems with grammar, punctuation, and usage. I did receive an ARC copy of the book, and when I see there are problems—especially to this extent—I take a peek at the Look Inside feature on Amazon to see if what I read is reflected in the published book. Sad to say, I didn’t receive an uncorrected ARC as the published book has all the same errors in their first 10%. Some errors are just bizarre, like random capitalization. There were several close-but-no-cigar words—replay/reply, peaked/peeked—but my favorite one was “pear of the realm”! At least that one made me laugh. What I found the most difficult to read was that the writing was often in fragments. That isn’t so unusual in, say, contemporary romance. But these fragments were not merely random phrases with no relation to each other. Rather, they are phrases that should have been hooked together to make a proper sentence. For instance, in one paragraph, there were four fragments that should have been joined together into two sentences because two of the phrases were dependent clauses that modified the other two phrases. Let me quote it for you. “It was either a small parish or the Army. And since Duncan had committed more sins than most. He’d wisely chosen a career in the Army. Now, after years of war. It appeared as if the strain was taking a cost.”
All that being said, I did enjoy the basic story even though the issues mentioned above definitely detracted from my enjoyment of the reading of the book. I would suggest to the author that she spend at least as much money on editing and proofreading as she did on the lovely cover, and she will have a much stronger book.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
Pretty much anything by her is an incredible story
Book one in The Duke’s Club series a well written story with a very good storyline the story flowed smoothly from page to page. This is a new Author to me. I want to read more in this series. Miss Ann Parker who is penniless and Brock Powell, the Fifth Duke of Bedford’s story. I starts when four boys are young and goes to when they are older. I would say this is a book to read. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Dreams can come true.
Do you like regency romances how about ones that bring the steam then kiddies this is the one to pick up! Now before writing my review, I took a look at the other ones done so far and boy are they a mixed bag. Where I agree the heroine is a bit timid and naïve that is what I expect for regency. I liked the story Ann is a young woman who has to face some difficulties that could scare anyone. I think the author did a great job of writing those feelings. Yes, I agree there is a need to proof-read but then again I am reading an arc and I do not expect a perfect copy. I am sure the author will correct those things before publication. I liked the Duke and for me, this was a very entertaining and a good read. I did receive a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.