How to Love a Duke in Ten Days
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.
Author Bio:
Whether she’s writing about Celtic Druids, Victorian bad boys, or brash Irish FBI Agents, USA Today bestseller Kerrigan Byrne uses her borderline-obsessive passion for history, her extensive Celtic ancestry, and her love of Shakespeare in every book. She lives at the base of the Rocky Mountains with her handsome husband and three lovely teenage girls, but dreams of settling on the Pacific Coast. Her Victorian Rebels novels include The Highwayman and The Highlander.
Tracy’s Review:
How to Love a Duke in Ten Days by Kerrigan Byrne
Tracy’s rating: 5 of 5 stars
Series: Devil You Know, #1
Release Date: August 27, 2019
Lady Alexandra Lane’s life is irrevocably changed when she is called into Headmaster Maurice de Marchand’s office mere days before she was due to graduate from L’Ecole de Chardonne School in Switzerland. De Marchand has found the items Alexandra and her friends Francesca Cavendish, the Countess of Mont Claire and Cecelia Teague pilfered over the years for their Red Rogues Society. When de Marchand’s “punishment” turns brutal and he rapes Alexandra, she does what she must to stop the attack and flees. With the help of her friends and a trusted servant Jean-Yves, they bury the body and clean up the scene. That awful night the girls who have been friends for years, share their deepest, darkest secrets and vow to never marry and to protect each other forever…
Ten years later, Lady Alexandra is on her way to Devonshire to help her friend Francesca. She has much on her mind, she has been blackmailed and has faithfully made payments to her blackmailer for years, but now her family’s wealth is gone and she is in danger of being exposed as a murderer. If she was the only target of the blackmailer, she wouldn’t care, but she cannot let her friend’s lives be destroyed for her! She is not sure what she will do, but hopes to come up with a resolution without having to tell anyone. While waiting for Cecelia to pick her up from the train station, Alexandra is almost killed by a spooked horse and meets a man that interests her – for the first time in her life! It isn’t until later that she learns the man is none other than Francesca’s betrothed.
Piers Atherton, The Duke of Redmayne has against all odds, survived a panther attack, but when his faithless fiancée Rose, believes he is dying she marries his cousin Patrick, Viscount Carlisle within a month of getting the letter Piers sent her when he believed he was dying. Patrick is Piers heir and it will be a cold day in hell before he lets Rose become a duchess, so he revives an old betrothal that his father and the Earl of Mont Claire wrote up and will marry Francesca.
Francesca has secrets and she is also the sole survivor of an attack that killed everyone at her home, she is almost convinced that the former duke was responsible and has agreed to the betrothal to snoop around Castle Redmayne. If she finds evidence, she will enact justice, if she doesn’t, she will cry off. She has asked Alexandra and Cecelia to join her to help her find proof. While keeping look out for Francesca, the duke comes looking for her and finds Alexandra, they talk and Alexandra proposes to Piers, she knows Francesca doesn’t want to marry him and she doesn’t believe his family is responsible for the Mont Claire massacre – Piers is not opposed, but is honorable and tells her to talk to Francesca and decide who will be announced as his bride to be.
They marry the very next day and when Piers discovers she is not a virgin, he is sure he has been duped and refuses to touch her until they are sure she is not pregnant – as much as he wants to cast her aside, he admits that he is bewitched and is not willing to let her go, besides, it seems like someone is trying to kill them…
This was an amazing story, I loved Piers and Alexandra, I felt their pain and gloried in their happiness, I loved that they both had scars and neither judged the other because of them. The mystery of who is the target and why was very well done and while the final confrontation is a tad gruesome, it was perfect and tied up all the loose ends. The story does have some very dark aspects, but it is tempered with moments of laughter and joy, as well as some very steamy love scenes and an absolutely wonderful epilogue. I have to say my only complaint with the book is the incorrect use of some of the titles, but even though that is one of my biggest peeves, even that wasn’t enough to affect my rating. This is the first book in a new series, which I am happy to recommend it and I am impatiently waiting for the next installment!!
