Category: Georgian Era (1714-1837)

The Georgian era is a period in British history 1714 to 1830. The kings were all named George: George I, George II, George III and George IV. The sub-period of the Regency is defined by the Regency of George IV as Prince of Wales during the illness of his father George III. The definition of the Georgian era is often extended to include the short reign of William IV, which ended with his death in 1837.
Preceded by: Restoration
Including: Regency era
Followed by: Victorian era

The Accidental Duke by Barbara Devlin

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

The Accidental Duke (The Mad Matchmaking Men of Waterloo, #1)The Accidental Duke by Barbara Devlin

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Mad Matchmaking Men of Waterloo, #1

Release Date: April 14, 2021

Anthony Bartlett lost much more than just his arm in the war, he lost the life he knew as the “spare” to the Duke of Swansborough. With the death of his older brother, Anthony became the duke’s heir and inherited not only his brother’s courtesy title of Marquess of Rockingham, but his brother’s fiancée as well, and he wants neither – much to his father’s dismay. But after almost a year of convalescing – the duke is done coddling Anthony and makes his position clear – Anthony will marry and produce an heir. Anthony seemingly agrees but plans to find a way out of his unwanted betrothal.

Lady Arabella Gibbs is the only child of the Earl of Ainsworth and is equally determined to escape the bonds of matrimony. But when she meets Anthony, she sees a wounded soul and her sweet, caring nature cannot turn her back on his suffering. She offers Anthony her friendship, which he immediately rebuffs. And while Arabella doesn’t want to marry and agrees to work with him to end the engagement, she is still set on helping Anthony overcome the deep, unseen wounds that are still festering in his soul.

Slowly, Anthony realizes his mistake in trying to push away Arabella, and she soon becomes his lifeline in his struggle to be “normal” while dealing with flashbacks to the war. They have formed a true bond and are exploring their shared attraction when they are outmaneuvered by their parents and marriage becomes unavoidable. But marriage is the least of their problems when it becomes clear that Anthony’s father has betrayed him and they are taken captive by an evil man set on “fixing” Anthony. After months of confinement, they are finally able to escape but to save his love, Anthony will sacrifice himself to see her free – a sacrifice Arabella is not willing to let him make as long as she has breath in her body – with the help of Anthony’s friends, she declares war on the duke to save the man she loves!

This was a very deep and emotional story, written with startling and heartwrenching detail. As always the author has researched her subject matter and produced a well-plotted, original, interesting story with wonderful characters, warm love scenes, great secondary characters, accurate historical detail, and a beautiful love story complete with a happy ending. I did enjoy the story, but in all honestly, I found the book a little bit on the wordy side and was guilty of skimming through excessive dialogue that really did nothing to progress the story. All in all, it was a good book that I would be happy to recommend.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own. *

How to Catch A Duke by Grace Burrowes

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Georgian Era (1714-1837)1 Comment

How to Catch a Duke (Rogues to Riches, #6)Barbara’s rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: Rogues to Riches #6
Publication Date: 4//13/21
Number of Pages: 368

Grace Burrowes writing is always excellent and I always enjoy her stories. I have read almost everything she’s written, and I think this may be my least favorite. That may be because I have been waiting for Stephen’s story since the beginning of the series and it just wasn’t what I’d imagined for him. Then, add to that the cavalier way the story treated bisexuality during a time when it could get you HANGED, it just didn’t sit well. It wasn’t that I minded the bisexuality – it was that nobody thought anything about it – nobody was careful about mentioning it – and everybody seemed to be bisexual. I’m pretty sure that if I lived during that time and I was bisexual, I would most definitely NOT be discussing it with anyone – much less everyone. Because I wouldn’t care to be hanged. Also, I think bisexuality was just gratuitous to be politically correct. It added nothing to the story and didn’t move the plot along in any way.

As I mentioned above, we’ve met Stephen before, but we have also met Abigail Abbott before as well. Abigail Abbott is the plain-speaking, Quakerish, no-nonsense inquiry agent who helped the family earlier in another book. Stephen and Abigail met then, so he was pleased to see her when she showed up at his residence until she asked him to murder her. Oh! My Goodness! But, she didn’t actually want him to murder her – she just wanted him to help her disappear and for it to appear she had died. Someone is pursuing her – and she doesn’t know what lengths they’ll go to to get what they want from her. She knows WHO is after her and he’s a rich and powerful peer. She just doesn’t understand WHY exactly. She knows a lot more than she’ll tell Stephen, he doesn’t need to know all of that – he just needs to help her die.

Stephen, of course, has no intention of helping her die – pretend or otherwise. Since his family is powerful and they all outrank the peer who is causing the problem, he offers an alternative. He will court her – and she will stay in his brother’s home where she’ll be well protected.

Unlike some other reviewers, I actually liked Abigail for Stephen. She was no-nonsense, she was plain-spoken and direct, his disability didn’t bother her at all and she was able to physically offset his disability when needed. I wasn’t a big fan of her big ‘sacrifice’ at the end because it didn’t seem, to me, to go along with her no-nonsense, plain-spoken personality.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I don’t think I’d read it a second time.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.