Title:
One Fine Duke
Author:
Lenora Bell
ISBN:
9780062692504
Price:
$7.99
On-Sale
Date: 7/23/19
Cover
Copy:
USA Today bestselling
author Lenora Bell returns with her third book in the sexy School for Dukes
series.
Ready.
Raised in the countryside by her overprotective
uncle, Miss Mina Penny’s dream of a triumphant London season is finally here.
She determined her perfect match long ago: Rafe Bentley, the wickedest rake of
them all. There’s only one very large, very unyielding obstacle: Rafe’s brother
Drew, the reclusive Duke of Thorndon.
Aim.
This was supposed to be simple. Duke goes to London.
Duke selects suitable bride. Love match? Not a chance. But when Drew meets
Mina, she complicates everything. How can a lady armed with such beauty and
brains fall for his irresponsible degenerate of a brother? Drew vows to
save her from heartbreak and ruin, no matter the cost.
Desire!
But Mina is no damsel in distress. She’s daring,
intuitive, passionate…and halfway to melting Drew’s cold heart. And although
Mina thought she knew exactly what she wanted, one breathtakingly seductive
kiss from Drew changes everything. Now Mina must decide between long-held
dreams and dangerous new desires. Could her true destiny lie in the arms of a
duke?
Author
Bio:
Lenora
Bell is a USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of
historical romances. A teacher with an MFA in Creative Writing, Lenora has
lived and worked on five continents. She currently lives in New Zealand with
her carpenter husband and two tiger-striped rescue kitties. She loves hearing
from readers! Sign up for her mailing list to hear about new books, sales, and
giveaways.
Excerpt:
“There he is, Wilhelmina,” Grizzy whispered, staring
reverently across the crowded ballroom. “The Duke of Thorndon.”
Holy hell he’s handsome, thought Mina.
Jaw-dropping-on-the-floor handsome. Drool-on-your-lace-fichu
handsome.
Distract her from her plan with his brother, handsome.
Her uncle had been right. Thorndon was a fine figure of a
man. Objectively speaking, the finest she’d ever beheld.
Tall as a doorframe, with a face hewn from the same granite
as the rugged Cornish coastline.
A face rendered seductive by contrasts: sharp cheekbones and
curved, sensuous lips. Gleaming ebony hair brushed his collar. His eyes were a
light, gold-tinged brown—the only warm thing about him.
He owned this ballroom. Literally. And he owned everyone in
it by dint of his oversized presence and the cold, unsmiling arrogance scrawled
across his face.
He didn’t even follow the dictates of fashion, preferring plain
black attire to the white pantaloons and gaily-colored waistcoats of the other
gentlemen.
Why should he follow the dictates of fashion? Everyone
should follow him.
“When you’re introduced to Thorndon, pray speak as seldom as
possible,” Grizzy whispered. “Attempt to appear biddable and do try to recall
my decorum lessons. Remember, no one in London knows anything about you, thank
the Lord.”
Mina had seen several polished, elegant young ladies staring
at her, nudging each other and whispering. She was an outsider, a usurper, her
proper place in the social hierarchy not yet established.
They needn’t worry. She had no designs upon their prize
duke. And she was about as unpolished as a debutante could be—as rough as an
un-sanded plank. If anyone touched her they might get splinters.
She longed to shed her country skin swiftly and emerge as
the sophisticated social butterfly her mother had been. But she knew that it
would take time, observation, and experimentation.
Her first flirtatious conversation, first kiss, first taste
of brandy, first adventure…it was all ahead of her.
She couldn’t wait to taste it all.
Oh wow, this
book really took me by storm and is so well deserving of huge 5 stars, or in
this case Teacups! Fill them up ladies because you’re gonna need it. We first
start off with a man running for his life bare naked down the streets of London,
it is no other than rake Rafe the brother to the Duke of Thorndon who happens
to be coming by in his carriage. Seeing his brother he scrambles him inside and
they get to his townhouse and Drew (Thorndon) inquired about a letter he received
regarding their sister. Rafe, of course, gets upset and off he goes, not
revealing anything to Drew, he only informs him that he’d best be prepared for
the upcoming ball as their mother is on the marriage hunt and with Drew, back
in town, she’s going to be trying to find him a match. Drew has lived the past
five years in the countryside attending to their decrepit estate and trying to
revitalize and found through farming he has been able to put to rest some of
his past, a past that is now coming back to him in full force with the threat
in the letter. He does desire marriage but he wants a calm lady who is good
with her hands and isn’t afraid of farming, he definitely does not want a whiny
girl.
We next meet
Whilemena or otherwise known as Miss Mina Penny at her Uncle’s townhouse where
she’s being prepared for the season. She truly does not desire marriage except
to only one person and that is for a very specific reason, to be a spy and live
a life of danger and adventure. That particular person happens to be Rafe, the
Duke of Thorndon’s rakish brother. She’s met him several times at her uncle’s
country estate and knows of his ventures in antiquities and also know the
underlying darkness of those ventures and that he’s truly a spy. Coming from
generations of spies, she too desires the same. However, at the ball thrown by
Thorndon’s mother, it isn’t Rafe she dances with and soon begins to be very
attracted to, but the boorish and reclusive Duke of Thorndon. As the story
continues so many amazing and quite humorous things occur between the pair and
whilst Mina still tries to be with Rafe and see her dream fulfilled it is
Thorndon that soon captures her heart! Will she continue her dream of being a
spy and marry Rafe or will she allow her heart to open up to country boy
Thorndon and be a simple, yet very happy country miss?
Truly a
remarkable read and I really fell in love with Drew and Penny and felt the pain
they both have suffered in their younger lives, especially Drew. Ms. Bell is
truly a phenomenal storyteller, she grabs the reader from the first page and does
not let go, with scene after scene we are more drawn into the lives of her
amazing characters and I truly can’t wait to see more from this series ahead.
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