How to Entice an Enchantress: The Duchess Diaries

by Karen Hawkins

Reclusive Viscount Kirk, horribly scarred by a tragic accident that stole the life of his beloved first wife, is a man defined by fury. For years he's eschewed society, growing abrupt and curmudgeonly. But now, when he'd given up on life, he's fallen madly in love with the refreshingly naive daughter of his neighbour, dainty and charming Dahlia Balfour. Desperate to win her attention, Kirk calls in a favour from the Duchess of Roxburghe and asks that she transform him into a fashionable suitor for Dahlia's hand. But what's easy to change on the outside isn't as easy to change on the inside...Dahlia's always dreamed of a fairy-tale romance. Although Viscount Kirk is only seven years her senior, because of his cantankerous ways and lack of social graces she thinks of him as her "older neighbour," and is blissfully unaware that he sees her as anything other than an acquaintance. She is shocked to see him at the duchess's grand house party, trying to fit with the very societal rules he so frequently mocks. Surprised by his attention, irritated at his bald honesty, and intrigued that he finds her worth the effort, Dahlia regards Kirk as the opposite of Prince Charming.
Without the pretty words and grand gestures she yearns for, can true love find its way into her unwilling heart?

• ISBN10: 1451685254
• ISBN13: 9781451685251
• Publish Date: 17 September 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Pocket Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Cocktails and Books]

How to Entice an Enchantress starts off with the hero, Viscount Alasdair Kirk being a beast of a man, and wanting to marry Dahlia Balfour. With a scarred face and a bum knee, both of which make him grump and unfit for society. Alasdair, doesn’t want love, he wants a wife for companionship and he believes Dahlia is perfect.

I did enjoy this premise, since it screams Beauty and the Beast to me. I hadn’t read past books in this series, but it was easy to comprehend the plot and figure out all the players, the author does a good job of setting it up. I loved that even as Dahlia professed to hate Alasdair, she defends him to the death and that defense blossoms into love.

This is a story of two characters who on the surface seem so different but at the heart of it are meant to be together, and just have to learn to love each other for who they really are. I will definitely read more by Karen Hawkins, she’s is definitely good at writing a fun, and interesting historical romance.

Reviewed by Sheri for Cocktails and Books