Reviewer: Tracy How to Love a Duke in Ten Days by Kerrigan Byrne
Series: Devil You Know #1
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: August 27, 2019
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 440
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Series Rating:
These men are dark, bold, and brave. And there is only one woman who can bring them to their knees...
Famed and brilliant, Lady Alexandra Lane has always known how to look out for to herself. But nobody would ever expect that she has darkness in her past—one that she pays a blackmailer to keep buried. Now, with her family nearing bankruptcy, Alexandra strikes upon a solution: Get married to one of the empire’s most wealthy eligible bachelors. Even if he does have the reputation of a devil.
LOVE TAKES NO PRISONERS
Piers Gedrick Atherton, the Duke of Redmayne, is seeking revenge and the first step is securing a bride. Winning a lady’s hand is not so easy, however, for a man known as the Terror of Torcliff. Then, Alexandra enters his life like a bolt of lightning. When she proposes marriage, Piers knows that, like him, trouble haunts her footsteps. But her gentleness, sharp wit, independent nature, and incredible beauty awakens every fierce desire within him. He will do whatever it takes to keep her safe in his arms.
Alexandra is an archaeologist and is living a good life. She has an issue with men due to a trauma while she’s at school. She truly wants nothing to do with them but when she finds out that one of her best friends is marrying a man Alexandra’s never heard of or met, she’s concerned! Alexandra is being drained financially from her family and a blackmailer who knows what happened to her 10 years earlier when she was traumatized at a boarding school and took matters into her own hands. She needs money to keep her family’s good name and not be in the poor house. Despite her distrust of men, she offers to marry Piers in place of her friend. (Her friend didn’t want to marry Piers, she was just trying to get info on the murder of her family.)
Piers is shocked that the woman he’s so attracted to is taking his fiancé’s place. He can’t wait to get her into bed, but when he finds out she’s not a virgin he’s devastated. His previous fiancé betrayed him and he insists that they wait 10 days before sleeping together. (The ten days is when her period is due.) During this 10 days the pair get to know each other and fall in love.
There are other things happening during the story – Piers’ previous fiancé’s betrayal, someone trying to kill either Alexandra or Piers, Alexandra’s friends Francesca and Cecilia and their issues – there was a lot going on. Even though this was all A LOT, I really liked the story and how it unfolded. The friendship between Alexandra and her friends was heart-warming and I loved how they had stuck together through all of their many horrid trials.
I wasn’t a fan of the end of the book, unfortunately. It started dragging at the end and the revealing of the villain was a bit OTT for my liking. Despite my issues with the ending, I really liked the story and definitely recommend it. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
Rating: 4 out of 5
I enjoyed the story.