Duels & Deception: A Swoon Novel

by Cindy Anstey

Miss Lydia Whitfield, heiress to the family fortune, has her future entirely planned out She will run the family estate until she marries the man of her late father's choosing, and then she will spend the rest of her days as a devoted wife. Confident in those arrangements, Lydia has tasked her young law clerk, Mr. Robert Newton, to begin drawing up the marriage contracts. Everything is going according to plan. Until the day Lydia - and Robert along with her - is kidnapped. Someone is after her fortune and won't hesitate to destroy her reputation to get it. With Robert's help, Lydia strives to keep her family's good name unsullied and expose whoever is behind this devious plot. But as their investigation delves deeper and their affections for each other grow, Lydia starts to wonder whether her carefully planned future is in fact what she truly wants...

• ISBN10: 1509831037
• ISBN13: 9781509831036
• Publish Date: 18 April 2017 (first published 11 April 2017)
• Publish Status: Cancelled
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Macmillan Children's Books
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Lydia Whitfield has always had a plan to fulfill her obligations as her father's heir. She would run the family estate and than marry the man he chose for her before his death. She would marry for the sake of the estate, and there was no need for a love match. This all seemed well and fine, until Robert Newton entered her life. All of sudden, there were these feelings, and a kidnapping, blackmail, and a duel.

I don't know what it is, but I find books set in the Regency time period so delightful. Everyone is so prim and proper even when they aren't being prim and proper. Duels and Deception pulled me right back to those genteel times, and kept a smile on face for essentially all 368 pages.

Things I liked:

*Lydia was fabulous! In a time when women was supposed to be seen and not heard, she was bold, daring, and apparently overeducated, if you asked her uncle. She challenged the men in her life, and asserted herself often, but commonly did so for the good of others.

"Barley, you do realize that I'm not ever going to be a mouse sitting int he background, nodding in agreement whenever you bother to glance in my direction?"

*Robert was just so charming. I fell instantly for him. He was so sweet and protective, and immediately began advocating and assisting Lydia, but it was even better in his head! He had so many swoony thoughts about Lydia, and well, I live for that stuff.

"He knew she was saying something, but he couldn't hear her above the noise of his hammering heart and the buzz in his ears."

*The duels were quite amusing. The interactions were rather fun, and the final duel was a real hoot. Way to pick your weapon there, Robert.
*The deception was seamlessly woven into the story, and gave it that extra tension and intrigue. I did guess it, but for me, that's half the fun. There were a few twists that surprised me and some that made me laugh out loud too.
*The romance was perfect. I was discussing this with another blogger, and she pretty much nailed it, when she tagged it as "cute and low-drama". They had the pressure of society to deal with, as he had no title and she had an estate, but there was not all that OTT stuff, that can sometimes get on your nerves. Rather, Anstey did a fabulous job maintaining the overall tone of the book and aligning their romance to that.

Things I didn't like:
Honestly, I have nothing.
This book was fun and fancy-free, and you know I love my books that way. The story was engaging with a little mystery and suspense in there for good measure, and the result was a lot of smiling, laughing, and swooning from me.


**I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book


Read my review at We Live and Breathe Books

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[bookishzelda]

I was delighted to find the same kind of witty and fun characters in Duels and Deception as I did in Love, Lies and Spies. Cindy Anstey crafts a humorous historical romance.

I absolutely loved Lydia and Robert. Both characters are clever and witty and completely adorable when they are together. Lydia has some control issues that Robert can see and often tease about. There biggest hurdle is always of course, class. Which is common in a historical setting. They have so much great witty banter it makes it fun to read.

I also always love the inclusion of family. I was thinking about how different the world is today on the subject. Before you were mostly with your family and everything happened to you as a group. I liked the inclusion of her interesting Uncle and most of all her mother. Who I think Lydia often under estimates herself. I like when her mom has her own times to shine.

The main plot is a fun mystery involved reputations and marriage. I liked the way the pieces come together as Lydia has to figure out who is at odds with her.

One thing that I have really enjoyed about Cindy’s novels is that there are often side stories. Like that of Cassidy and Cora. They are woven into the main plot but give a little something extra to the story as a whole. You are not just getting to the main characters but the characters around them as well.

I really loved this book. It was fun and well written. It makes me feel like I’m going to go around and start talking like I’m from the era. Ha! The romance is so sweet and cute you can’t help but smile. Just like all the people around Lydia and Robert. I highly recommend it, especially if you are looking for that not so heavy read.

[lizarodz]

4.5 Stars