The Broken Duke (1797 Club, #3)

by Jess Michaels

[Lindsey Gray]

I received this book for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Graham Everly, Duke of Northfield, was engaged to his best friend’s sister for nearly a decade. He was betrayed by both his fiancee and a man he though of as a brother when the pair were found in a compromising position. Graham doesn’t know how to forgive or forget until he sets eyes on actress Lydia Ford.

Lydia walks the boards by night, but by day she is blends in with the walls in ballrooms all over London as Adelaide Longford. Since her parent’s deaths, Adelaide has lived with her stern and at times cruel aunt, Lady Opal. Her only outlet as Adelaide is her friendship with Emma, the new Duchess of Abernathe. Lydia gives her the freedom to be someone else, if even for only a few hours at a time.

In the previous two novels, I found Graham to be very stiff and off putting. I was excited to see what kind of woman would take him over, body and soul. For a majority of the novel, Graham is obsessed and torn between what he feels for both Lydia and Adelaide. When Michaels describes the different looks of the two lady personas, I understand how Graham could not tell the two ladies were the same woman. Graham is transformed from the broken, betrayed Duke into a lusty and loyal man he was always meant to be.

Adelaide’s upbringing by her maiden aunt was borderline brutal. Her accidental introduction to the theater a few years before opened a whole new world to her. Not only did she find something she loved and was utterly fulfilling, it brought her to her destiny, the Duke of Northfields.

I loved the unusual way Michaels brought this duo together and the reintroduction of the villain from the first novel of the series, Sir Archibald. Not only do we get a complex and fascinating love story, we get two villains in Archibald and Opal who cause more than enough havoc for an entire lifetime.

It is with absolute honesty that I convey to you that I devoured this novel in one day. I could not stop reading as every page had something worthwhile to absorb. There is not a single paragraph that needs to be skimmed. I had my doubts about Graham’s story, but Michaels blew me away once again. She gave Graham lessons I never thought he would learn and brought forgiveness to his heart and soul. With the discovery of unconditional love, Graham and Adelaide were able to leave the heartless past behind and create a blissful future together.