What’s a duke to do, when the girl who’s perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can’t live without?Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season—or any season—but his diabolical mother abducts him to “Spinster Cove” and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving … serving girl.
Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn’t dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week’s employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother’s “duchess training”… and fail miserably.
But in London, Pauline isn’t a miserable failure. She’s a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure—a woman who ignites Griff’s desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won’t be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess—can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?
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From the opening scene to the last, there are plenty of smiles (even a few laughs) and oodles of wonderful romance. Pauline is a truly strong character who also epitomizes compassion and caring. Loved her! Griff is pretty awesome, too. A gorgeous, wealthy, emotionally tortured Duke. Happy reading!
This is an entertaining, well-written, steamy, historical romance novel. It has likable, engaging characters, a working class, intelligent and strong female protagonist, a wealthy duke with a tragic secret, an unbreakable bond between sisters, a meddlesome dowager duchess, and a happily ever after ending. It is written with Ms. Dare’s classic wit and humor, and can easily be read and enjoyed as a stand alone. I am looking forward to reading the next entry in Ms. Dare’s outstanding “Spindle Cove” series with great anticipation. I listened to the audio version of this novel, and the narrator, Ms. Eva Kaminsky, has a lovely voice and does an outstanding job depicting the voices of the characters and their personalities.
Well, let me see if I can get my h’s right. Hells bells, happy, to read this book. It had humor, (oh look another h). The exudes with romance. Steamy sex, excitement, and a lot of love between a mother and her son.
Hmmm, I wonder if she ever caught the hang of crocheting. I’m laughing inside. Loudly inside. You’ll understand when you read the book. Read the book people.
Another outstanding job by the Mrs. Tesa Dare.
This book is amazingly entertaining. The premise alone is completely out there. A barmaid whisked to London to play Duchess? It’s outlandish and absolutely perfect. I love seeing this kind of relationship in a historical romance. Add in that Pauline is one of the strongest, stubborn, most likeable heroines I’ve ever read and then throw in the fact that the womanizing, debauched hero is actually nursing some severe emotional trauma and you have yourself yet another great read from Tessa Dare. Not all that surprising really, since that’s all she writes. A page turner from start to finish.
Another winner!
Of course, I loved this book! I am loving the ladies of Spindle Cove so much!
I enjoyed reading.
When the Duke of Halford marries barmaid Pauline on a whim, he expects little of her. She proceeds to show her worth as mad banter and spicy bedroom scenes ensue. Ms. Dare’s penchant for great dialogue and nuanced character development is on full display here.
This is one of my favorite books in the Spindle Cove series. Once I started reading it was impossible to put down.
Even as unlikely as the situation of a barmaid being whisked off to be a duchess was, I still enjoyed the heck out of it. I think a lot of that had to do with Pauline herself. She was a hoot and she had pure grit because she has had to. I had seen her in a previous book and was hoping for her story. And I was glad that it didn’t disappoint.
It had so many funny moments. And it added some fun when the Duke, Griff and his mother both had different motives for the outcome. To be honest, at first I didn’t like his mom. She was just too fussy and society ruled for me. But as the story went on, I began to see she was so much more than that.
Like I said before Pauline was a hoot. She was way more clever than most people realized. After all, she’s just a dumb barmaid right? So wrong and so many people underestimated her. I enjoyed every time that she surprised people. And she really did have some funny things to say. And her love for her mentally challenged sister, Daniela was so strong. She’d taken on more than one bully over the years to protect Daniela. It was also one of the driving motives for her agreeing to the charade. Not only for her dream but for freedom for the sisters.
Griff was a pretty good guy, then he would be a jerk. Sounds pretty realistic. But he was also carrying a secret and a lot of pain. He used to be a pretty mischievous, charming rake but suddenly he became more like a recluse. There was a lot of emotion going on in that part of the story but there was plenty of emotion going on throughout the story.
I thought it was kind of funny that Pauline was basically being paid to be a disaster, a catastrophe. She kind of had a bent for embarrassing mishaps so Griff figured this was perfect. But of course, he is fooling himself, there is a whole lot more going on about why he picked her..
If you want to know is there love scenes in the book, that would be yes.
If I had to pick one word to describe this book it would be “unorthodox”. I loved that about this book. Even the ending of the book was unorthodox and for me, it was a perfect way to end it. I’m still smiling over the book.
Another Tessa Dare perfection! I loved this story. The humorous plot and witty conversations entrapped me. I enjoyed this book so much. It had everything I look for in a read: romance, wit, humor, interesting characters, steamy scenes, heartfelt pain and a glorious happily ever after. The Spindle Cove series is great.
Ijust got in to them there interesting