My rating:  3.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. And make sure to check out my BLOG TOUR post on this book here! This book tells the story of Esmeralda Swift, the grand daughter of a viscount who was cut off from their family after he mother eloped with an Irish poet. After her mother dies, Esmeralda becomes a governess to support herself and her younger sister, Josephine. And then she takes over the administration of Miss Fortescue’s agency, struggling to make ends meet after being taken advantage of by Miss Fortescue’s son. So when the Duke of Griffin walks through her door looking for a chaperone for his twin sisters, the last thing Esmeralda expects is that she’ll be the one chaperoning them. Especially given how attractive she finds the Duke, she knows she should stay far away from this particular Rake. But as circumstances throw these two together again and again, Esmeralda sees beyond the Duke’s title to the compassionate man beneath. And when Griffin finds out that Esmeralda is not in fact a commoner but the grand daughter of a viscount, he can’t stop himself from wanting to make her a more permanent fixture in his life.
Overall I liked this book ok. The story line was interesting and had all the makings of a great historical romance novel. There was a good amount of tension between the main characters, and I liked all the supporting characters.But while there was a lot of potential, there were some pieces of the story that I didn’t love. Griffin was a little flat as a character for me. I didn’t feel like the reader learned enough of his real thoughts and feelings to get into his head and connect to him as a character. And the ending for me didn’t make a ton of sense. The Duke acts like an ass and then he shows up, they do it, and then Esmeralda decides she wants to talk about the fight after. And then after that they were just married and that was it. There were a lot of pieces of the ending I thought were missing, like a confrontation with Miss Fortescue’s nephew and her cousin the current Viscount and anyone else who was a jerk to Esmeralda. And I didn’t think the person responsible for the intrigue with Griffin’s sister made sense, why did he even get involved? What was the motivation there? Anyways other than those things it was a quick and easy read and I enjoyed it but not a lot to the plot I guess.

The bottom line: I liked this book ok. It was a quick and light read and was a perfect read timing wise for me right now. Some pieces of the story line fell a little flat for me but I’m interested to see where this series will go in the future. I would recommend it.

Link to author website

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