Rowena’s review for Four Dukes and a Devil (Anthology) by Cathy Maxwell, Elaine Fox, Jeaniene Frost, Sophia Nash and Tracy Anne Warren.

Fall in love with the unpredictable and irresistible dukes (and one dog named Duke) of Four Dukes and a Devil. Join New York Times bestselling authors Cathy Maxwell, Jeaniene Frost and Tracy Anne Warren, along with USA Today bestselling author Elaine Fox and RITA Award winner Sophia Nash, for tales of noble danger and devilish desire.

Delicate young ladies must be protected from him.
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First he steals her clothes, then he steals her heart.
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Most would be terrified of this powerful vampire- but not him.
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He’s “the catch of the century” but she’s the only one he can’t have.
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A young miss demands a kiss. But he won’t rest once she’s touched her lips to his.

The Irish Duke by Cathy Maxwell:

This was such a short story and in the beginning of the story, I didn’t think I’d mind until I got to the last couple of chapters. When I first started this story, I got a little excited because I loved the premise. The heroine was involved in a scandal and now she’s working as a ladies guide through the Season where parents hire her to steer their daughters toward marriages with high ranking Lords and what not. Her ticket to doing all of this was by telling everyone about the Irish Duke, the Irish Duke comes last after the English Duke and the Scottish Duke and so on and so on. Now she didn’t think too much of it since there weren’t any Irish dukes to speak of and they were in England until a very young, strong and handsome Irish duke lands on the shores of England, looking for a wife.

Roan (I liked his name) came to England to find a wife, he came into his uncle’s title when his uncle didn’t have an heir and the title came with a lot of money and Roan has big plans for all of that money, he was in the military for so long that he wants to live a long, peaceful life working on the farm but he wants to settle down with someone titled so that he can have an heir of his own. Imagine his surprise when he comes to England thinking he’s hot stuff and everyone is snubbing him. He’s a DUKE! Well he finally hears about how Susan Rogers is tainting the Irish Duke title and sets things in motion that bring these two together.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this story, how they met, the circumstances in which they met and I really enjoyed Susan’s character. She didn’t shy away from the truth of her actions in front of Roan which I totally respected her for and I loved how she was realistic. I thought Roan was a stand up man’s man and my problem was that they fell in love way too quickly and their romance was so abrupt that it wasn’t believable for me. I know that the author was working with a word count crunch but everything happened way too fast and it made the story fall flat on its face for me which sucked for me because I was totally into the story until the end. If this book was a full length novel, I think it could have been a total winner but because it was cut so short, my enjoyment suffered. I wanted so much more!

Grade: 3 out of 5

The Duke that Came to Dinner by Elaine Fox:

I really enjoyed this story, it was cute, fluffy and funny and Duke was too cute for words. The way this story opened up and the way that this story took off was perfect. We meet our heroine when she’s riding past our hero’s house on her bicycle…naked.

HA!

Our heroine’s name is Gray and she’s a teacher who is trying to let loose, she’s always been that good girl and she’s trying to live a more adventurous life so she takes a little summer vacation to have a little fun and while she’s out in the early morning on a little bike ride, she comes across a lake or something and she sheds her clothes and goes skinny dipping. She’s having a blast until she sees a dog take off with her dress and with no other clothes around, she has to suck it up and ride back to her summer house completely naked…well with her underwear because thank goodness the dog didn’t take that and while she’s taking that ride of shame back to her house, the hero of the book, Sam sees her and cannot believe his eyes.

Watching these two grow to that happy ending kind of love was too cute for words and what I liked most about it was the entire story was believable. It didn’t feel rushed, I didn’t feel cheated because a rushed ending was put in place and I thought Ms. Fox did a fantastic job of writing this story. Good job!

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Devil to Play by Jeaniene Frost:

I have been in the biggest paranormal reading slump known to romance reader. The last paranormal that I read was Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon and next month, it will be a year since I’ve read that book but this short story was good. This short story packed a punch and it didn’t feel like the author was trying to cram everything into a few chapters, I enjoyed the story and it’s made me mighty curious about the series now. Bones and Cat are in this short story and I’m curious about them too.

Hmm.

This book is about Blake Turner who is a human possessed by a bad ass demon and the demon overtakes his body and makes him do all kinds of horrible things like murder and what not. Elise is a vampire that comes across him and takes him in and tries to help him. Watching these two grow closer was a treat and I will definitely put Ms. Frost on my list of authors to try.

Grade: 4 out of 5

Catch of the Century by Sophia Nash:

This book was another great addition to the anthology because it told the story of two people who came together and fell in love over the course of a short week and even though that’s such a short amount of time to fall in love, Sophia Nash wrote this story in a way that made their falling in love believable and enjoyable as well. You see, the story is about Victoria Givan and John Varick, Duke of Beaufort. Victoria Givan is a teacher and she’s in charge of a bunch of young men and she’s fallen into a bit of bad luck trying to get to Wallace Abbey. The Duke of Beaufort, who is the catch of the century as told by the gossip rags in their time almost runs over Victoria and her young charges so he does the gentlemanly thing and offers to escort them to Wallace Abbey which is 60 miles away from where they are.

It was such a delight to read this short story because it didn’t feel short at all, the way that the entire story fleshed out was done really well and I really got a feel for what the characters were feeling and what they were going through. It was funny to see characters (of which I’m sure are from other stories written by Nash but since I’ve never read anything by her aside from this short story, I can’t be sure) come forth and add their little spices to the story. I loved the chemistry between John and Victoria and I thought they made a beautiful couple. Great story!

Grade: 4 out of 5

Charmed by Her Smile by Tracy Anne Warren:

This was the last story in the book and I quite enjoyed this one as well. This story was another grand addition to the story, especially for me since I read Tracy Anne Warren’s last release, Tempted by his Kiss and it was good to see Cade and Meg enjoying their happy ending. The heroine in this story, India Byron is Cade’s younger cousin and the hero was one of Cade’s friends, Quentin Marlowe, Duke of Weybridge.

The story starts off at Cade and Meg’s wedding reception with India running from a persistent admirer and running straight into a surprised, Quentin Marlowe. Instead of running away from Quentin though, she runs toward him and pleads with him to kiss her…so being the gentlemen (ha!) that he is, he kisses her.

And that kiss sets into motion a whole grand scheme of getting Peter to ditch India. However, it only worked for a couple of weeks because at the next party that India attends, Peter is there, professing his undying love for her and forgiving her for her indescetion with Quentin. Quentin shows up at the party and India asks him to save her by pretending to be taken with her to thwart the advances of Peter and Quentin laughingly agrees but all the while that they’re playing this little game of theirs, they are slowly falling for each other and even though this was another short story, I felt that Tracy Anne Warren did a great job of telling their story, packing a punch with their story and keeping it well within the limits of a short story.

This story was another great addition to Tracy Anne Warren’s work and I will definitely be wanting to try more of her in the future, I think I’m a fan now.

Grade: 4 out of 5

Overall, I enjoyed this book and my favorite of the bunch would definitely be The Duke Who Came to Dinner by Elaine Fox. Great bunch of stories and a great introduction to some new to me authors so overall, I give this book a:

4 out of 5

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.