Mini reviews
Pub Date – 12/27/22
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Cinderella and the Duke
by Lydia Drake
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Click on the link to buy from The Ripped Bodice
Cinderella and the Duke

Miss Julia Beaumont has exactly one night to find herself a husband…
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I always love the late in life spinster finding love stories. You know at the old age of 27/28.
Julia saved the Duke from a possible duel and he was hooked! I loved that he was attracted to her brain and her smarts. I mean he thought she was gorgeous but all of those former things were strikes against her. He was a rake with a devoted club of past admirers and didn’t think he was good enough to be a husband or father due to his parents neglect. She negotiated an arranged marriage to help them both out.
She also had a horrid step mother but a lovely step sister.
I really enjoyed this story and Gregory the Duke and Julia had some miscommunication and separations that caused their final revealing of their feeling to be so sweet. It’s in dual POV so you know everything about how they both feel which is my fav.

Synopsis:

Miss Julia Beaumont has exactly one night to find herself a husband…

The Weatherford Ball is the last chance Julia Beaumont has to escape the clutches of her horrid stepmother. Any potential husband will do—rich, poor, even a reasonably well-groomed walrus. But all of Julia’s matrimonial chances are completely obliterated…thanks to the actions of an infuriating and utterly rakish duke.

Gregory Carter, Duke of Ashworth, would never risk his cherished bachelorhood by flirting with marriage-starved debutantes. But one look at the luscious and refreshingly clever Julia, and he simply can’t resist a stolen kiss—scandal be damned. Then just as things start getting deliciously interesting, the lady flees…leaving only a slipper behind.

And it must have been one dandy of a kiss. Because now Julia has proposed to him. After all, the lady needs a husband, and this roguish duke will certainly do. It’s simply a matter of making him the perfect scandalous offer…

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Never Cross a Highlander
by Lisa Rayne
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Click on the link to buy from The Ripped Bodice
Never Cross a Highlander

Ailsa Connery has waited three long years to finally escape her enslavement at Stirling Castle and reunite with her clan. But all her carefully laid plans are completely destroyed by the arrival of the fierce, Highland warrior known as Dubh Mahoun, the Black Devil, who has plans of his own.
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Kallum helps free enslaved people and is also a commander in his Scottish clan. He gets stuck on a journey with Ailsa who is on the run back to her clan after being forced into service by the crown.
These two are matched by their passion and by their fiery tempers. He’s really attracted to her until he finds out she is from his enemies clan.
This is a close proximity and one horse situation.
This does use historical settings with serious topics FYI. It’s not a fluffy romance. Check CW.
This is the first in a new series, excited to read more!

Synopsis:

Ailsa Connery has waited three long years to finally escape her enslavement at Stirling Castle and reunite with her clan. But all her carefully laid plans are completely destroyed by the arrival of the fierce, Highland warrior known as Dubh Mahoun, the Black Devil, who has plans of his own.

Kallum MacNeill’s fearsome reputation has long allowed him to keep hidden his secret double life of freeing enslaved captives across the land. Only, it works against him when he inadvertently kidnaps a servant lass he assumed had gone astray from the group he’d come to free. When he discovers she has plans to head in the opposite direction, he can’t leave her to travel alone…or risk her exposing his true identity. Escorting a lone woman should be easy, if only the beauty didn’t oppose him at every turn.

As they make their way to the Highlands—one feisty hellion fighting the strong, prideful devil—their heated sparring leads to heat of a totally different kind. But the perils Kallum must face to get Ailsa home, safely and untouched, are nowhere near as dangerous as what lies in wait for them…

Thank you entangled_publishing and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

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