2015 Book #55 – The Duke In My Bed by Amelia Grey

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Title: The Duke In My Bed
Author: Amelia Grey
Date finished: 6/8/15
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Publication Date: December 30, 2014
Pages in book: 306
Stand alone or series: #1 in The Heirs’ Club of Scoundrels series

Blurb from the cover:

HERE COMES THE GROOM
As a notorious member of the Heirs’ Club, Bray Drakestone can’t resist a challenge from one of his well-heeled colleagues-especially when it involves money and horses. But the friendly wager takes an unexpected and deadly turn. Bray is forced to agree to marry one of his challenger’s five sisters-sight unseen. Now gamblers all over London are placing bets on whether Bray will actually go through with it…
THERE GOES THE BRIDE
Miss Louisa Prim, the eldest sister, doesn’t care a whit what the reckless rogue at the Heirs’ Club promised her brother-she has no intention of marrying the future Duke of Drakestone. Bray, however, sees her rejection as another challenge. He bets that the fiery Miss Prim will not only agree to marry him, she will propose to him! With four sisters behind her, Louisa knows she can’t lose. But why does her opponent have to be a divinely handsome scoundrel? And so sweetly, irresistibly seductive…

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist under the “a book by a female author” check box since it was written by a woman. I saw this book at the Bristol library and I have read a couple books by her before, but really it was the cover that grabbed me (I love the purple flow-y dress) so I thought I would give it a try. And I have to say I picked this one up for reading at the perfect time, because after the devastation that was the Hunger Games series, I needed something more light and sweet. This book was exactly what I needed!
Louisa Prim is everything her name suggests: prim and proper, as she must be since she is the main caretaker for her four younger sisters, ranging in age from eighteen to six. Her mother passed away shortly after her youngest sister, Bonnie’s, birth and her father passed away only a couple years after her mother. Her brother inherited her father’s title and proceeded to discover all that London had to offer to a young and slightly wealthy man. It was because of this that her brother, Nathan, was in a curricle race once dark and foggy night, which that led to his untimely demise. The race was with a young heir to a dukedom, Brey Drakestone. Nathan coerced Bray with his dying breath to marry his oldest little sister and take care of his family. Bray protested at first, but with so many onlookers it was really quite difficult to deny this dying man’s last request. Cut forward to two years later, and Louisa thinks that she and her sisters are managing just fine without the scandalous Duke. So when he suddenly shows up and basically says “Well I guess I could marry you now” she wants nothing to do with him.
I very much liked this book. I liked Bray’s character a lot and I have to say it was different for the woman to be the one in the wrong for a change. Bray and Louisa’s relationship was interesting to watch evolve, and I liked Louisa’s big and boisterous family. There were some characters in the book that I would have liked to see get scolded a little more but I guess that wasn’t necessarily central to the plot. Overall was a good read though and relatively quick/easy.
The bottom line: I would recommend this book, I liked it a lot. I think this would make a great beach read! If you’re looking for something heavy and thought-provoking, I wouldn’t say this is the book for you though.

Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

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