Judith’s review of Any Duchess Will Do (Spindle Cove #4) by Tessa Dare.
What’s a duke to do, when the girl who’s perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can’t live without?
Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season—or any season—but his diabolical mother abducts him to “Spinster Cove” and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.
Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn’t dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week’s employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother’s “duchess training”… and fail miserably.
But in London, Pauline isn’t a miserable failure. She’s a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure—a woman who ignites Griff’s desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won’t be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess—can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?
Readers of historical romance fiction know that a Tessa Dare story will be a really great read. How these stories keep cropping up is, of course, the wonder of the creative process. In this series about women who find themselves outside the acceptable boundaries of polite society, who are by nature square pegs in round holes, or for some reason find themselves in Spindle Cove, readers are presented with stories that pique the interest from start to finish, that push the boundaries of the imagination and take the historical romance in unexpected directions. How wonderful that a duke who is in a “marriage war” with his mom would choose the serving girl to be his prospective duchess. And the bargain that Griff and Pauline make–one where he will pay her a king’s ransom on order to “fail” her duchess lessons–are the context of some of the wit and humor Tessa Dare is famous for.
I am delighted to have had the opportunity to read and review this novel. It’s a very fun read, one that is satisfying from the standpoint of reading a novel that is well written, well-edited, and which tells a story full of color and humor and romance. It isn’t overly long but of sufficient length to allow full character development, teasing out the story line so that the reader really wonders how these to very different people will be able to resolve the differences and close the social gap that lies between them. All in all, it’s a novel that shouldn’t be missed and will please and delight Tessa Dare fans–well, just about anyone who reads it.
I give it a rating of 4.25 out of 5.
The Series:
You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Avon Books. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
Aww, sounds cute.
For some reason I keep giving this series a try but none of the books have been read homeruns for me. :/