Blame It on the Duke (Disgraceful Dukes, #3)

by Lenora Bell

'Georgette Heyer with a sexy twist' - Eloisa James

Have you heard? The future Duke of Barrington has just been gambled away by his father. To an heiress!

The delicious details thus far . . . Nicolas, Lord Hatherly, never intended to marry - nor add to the 'mad' Hatherly line - but now he must honor his father's debt to a social-climbing merchant or lose the family estate.

A notoriously wild marquess, won by her father at a game of cards, is the very last thing Miss Alice Tombs wants. She's spent the last three seasons repelling suitors in spectacular fashion so she'd be at liberty to explore the world. She'll just have to drive this one away as well.

Until Nick proposes an utterly tempting arrangement: one summer together to prove the legitimacy of their union, then Alice is free to travel while Nick revels in the time he has left before the Hatherly "madness" takes hold.

It will be easy to walk away after a few months of make-believe wedded bliss - won't it? Alice and Nick are about to find out . . . one sultry night at a time.

This ought to be fun . . .

Praise for Lenora Bell:

'How the Duke was Won is exciting and emotional - evocative of the best of the genre. If you've been looking for a bold, new voice in historical romance, the search ends here. Lenora Bell is it!' Sarah MacLean

'Fresh, flirty, and fabulous! The new Belle of Historical Romance!' Kerrelyn Sparks

• ISBN10: 0349417636
• ISBN13: 9780349417639
• Publish Date: 1 June 2017 (first published 18 April 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Piatkus Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Rowena]

I have been looking forward to reading Alice’s book ever since I met her in book 1, How the Duke was Won and she went on and on about being a vegetarian. Her shenanigans were definitely memorable and I was thinking about how far she was likely to come from those days when I started this book. I don’t know why I was surprised that she was being paired up with Nick since this series follows all of the disgraceful Dukes and he was definitely one of those but I was a little surprised.

Nick is known around London for his completely inappropriate parties that he hosts at his house with his crazy father running amock. Nick and his friends love entertaining themselves with strippers and naughty dance shows. Their parties are filled to the brim with all sorts of wickedness and he wouldn’t have it any other way. When his father comes home and announces to a roomful of gentlemen trying to enjoy a show that he has gambled Nick away to an heiress and Nick will marry her pronto, Nick is floored.

The very last thing that Alice wants is a husband. Especially one that is forced on her, no matter how handsome he is. She’s spent so much time making herself as unbecoming as she can to chase away potential suitors so that she can travel that she’s furious when her Dad announces her engagement. She longs to travel to India to present some work on the Kama Sutra that she did and becoming a wife gets in the way of that. Once she’s married, her life is in the hands of her husband and she won’t ever be free again. But when Nick presents an arrangement that just might help Alice out, it’s hard for her to refuse. That’s why she finds herself getting to know Nick and the more she finds out about him, the more curious she becomes.

He’s not at all what she expected but the same can be said for him. They become friends of sorts and the more time they spend together, the closer they get.

I adored seeing them fall in love with each other. Alice was a fabulous heroine who knew her mind and knew what she wanted out of life. I loved how thirsty she was for knowledge and when Nick teaches her the art of lovemaking, it was so much fun. I loved Nick’s mission in life and I adored the way that he took care of his crazy father and felt his very real concerns about his own health as he gets older. The love he had for Alice, the way that he loved her for who she was and not for how pretty she was, hit me right in my feelings.

The romance between Nick and Alice was great. I loved that they fell in love slowly and that they really got to know each other over the course of their time together. They were great characters with great support systems in their friends and I just loved this book to pieces.

Grade: 4 out of 5