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…
Blame It On the Duke, by Lenora Bell
Well, the holiday season is done so in theory I have time to read again, right? Right. Working on that. (There’s just one more set of baking to do and maybe I’ll take down the decorations at some point and… you know, we’ll just pretend the to do list is blank right now. I feel a lot better that way.) Anyway! I did squeeze in this quick read yesterday and it made me happy, especially since it’s been a bit since I sunk my teeth into a Regency novel.
The book opens with Nicolas hosting one of his famed extravaganzas when his father (who is not in his right mind) crashes the party to announce that he has gambled away his son. Unfortunately for Nicolas, if he refuses to marry the daughter of the merchant who won him, the man will take Sunderland House instead – and Nicolas is utterly convinced that removing his father from the familiar house will kill him. Since Nicolas swore long ago that he would never have children, this leaves him between a rock and a hard place.
Of course, Miss Alice Tombs has her own opinion on the matter and it is decidedly not favorable. Marriage was on her list of things to do eventually, but only after she presented the lost chapters of the Kama Sutra she had found with her uncle’s papers to scholars in India – along with her translation. Unfortunately, her brother’s abrupt marriage to a French opera singer has left her plans in disarray. When Nicolas proposes that they make the most of their current situation, Alice seizes the opportunity to demand some erotic tutelage from him in the name of improving her translation.
What follows is somewhat predictable in the sense that of course hearts get involved despite the best efforts of Nicolas and Alice. Nicolas is quite understandably terrified of what madness the future might hold for him, especially since he watched his father go mad on a voyage to India in search of rare orchids. At the same time, he’s determined to treat his father with as much dignity as possible and works hard to provide him with a home and stable environment, even though it would be much easier to simply ship the duke off to a private asylum. Indeed, the book deals with some of the less savory aspects of the private asylum system in Britain at that time, although not in any real depth.
Given Alice’s interest in improving her understanding of the sensual for her translation, it is unsurprising that the physical relationship between the two of them is a major focus. Still, there is plenty of character development outside the bedroom and I feel she did a good job of balancing the two. This is the third book of a series so there are references to the previous characters; there were a few times where it felt like I would have enjoyed it more knowing some of the backstory (and getting to see Nicolas and Alice through the eyes of the previous H/hs).
My biggest complaint is that the timeline at the end becomes a little compressed and there are a few loose ends that I would have liked resolved – small things that don’t impact the main couple, like seeing Alice’s mother happier and perhaps a little more about the servants’ change of mind (specifically what drove it, particularly March). I would have loved a little more of Alice’s aunt as well. Overall, the book was well written and an enjoyable romp, if existing primarily in the alternate reality shared by many modern Regencies. I would happily pick up the first two books in the series and look forward to seeing if Jane’s story is next.