Blog Tour – Winning Back His Duchess by Amanda McCabe

Winning Back His Duchess

Winning Back His Duchess

Wiining Back Cover

Escape to beautiful Venice for this Victorian marriage reunited story…

An invitation to Venice…

To save their marriage!

Suggesting divorce to her estranged husband, Jamie, Duke of Byson, takes all of Rose Wilkins’s courage. Years of distance and heartbreak have taken a toll—she needs a new start. But Jamie won’t hear of divorce, because of the scandal alone. His counteroffer is a trip to Venice… Might discovering Venice’s delights together rekindle the still-simmering desire that drew Rose to Jamie as a starry-eyed young American heiress?

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Winning Back - Amanda McCabe Author1
Author Bio:

Amanda wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen–a vast historical epic starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class (and her parents wondered why math was not her strongest subject…)
She’s never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times BOOKReviews Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Santa Fe with a Poodle, a cat, a wonderful husband, and a very and far too many books and royal memorabilia collections.
When not writing or reading, she loves taking dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network–even though she doesn’t cook.

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Tracy’s Review:

Winning Back His DuchessWinning Back His Duchess by Amanda McCabe

Tracy’s rating: 3.5 of 5 stars 

Series: Dollar Duchesses, #3

Release Date: March 29, 2022

If you have been following the series, you will recall that heiress Rose Wilkins and the youngest son of the Duke of Byson Lord James “Jamie” Grantley met, fell in love, and married in the first book. But three years later, Jamie is now the duke, and trouble in paradise has led to our lovers separating.

Rose was adrift after a miscarriage caused the loss of their baby and then lost Jamie to drink and his own dark world. After months apart, she has decided that it is time put the past behind her and move on. Rose is a celebrated beauty and loves the season, while Jamie is more studious and rarely attends events. After making her decision, Rose visits him and requests a divorce. But Jamie doesn’t want to end their marriage, he knows he hurt Rose and wants a chance to win her back. Rose agrees to wait and even agrees to visit his estate. It is there that they begin to heal from their loss and they begin to rekindle their love, leading Rose to wonder if they could have a future. But it isn’t until they travel to Italy and she is confronted by her past that she will learn the answer to her ponderance and find out if Jamie is worthy of her heart.

I liked this book, but I was confused by the vagueness of the timeline and the events that caused their separation. This story starts three years after they met, but the author makes it seem like they have been separated for a long time – anywhere from “many months” to “almost a year” – and then there is the loss of their baby – she was far enough along to know the sex of the baby and spent months mourning, before leaving Jamie – so it doesn’t seem like there was enough time for everything to happen. The book is very emotional and might trigger some readers, the characters are both hurting from not only the loss of their child but the loss of their relationship, and the journey back to each other is slow and has a healthy dose of angst before they find their HEA. Overall, this was a very touching, low heat story of second chances, hope, and love. This is the third book in the series, but it could be read as a standalone title with no problems.

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

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The Lady Tempts an Heir by Harper St. George

The Lady Tempts an Heir (The Gilded Age Heiresses, #3)The Lady Tempts an Heir by Harper St. George

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Gilded Age Heiresses, #3

Release Date: February 22, 2022

Lady Helena March and Maxwell “Max” Crenshaw met when Helena befriended his sisters, but their relationship took a turn when she helped him save his sister Violet from certain ruin. And while they shared a mutual attraction, nothing came of it and Maxwell returned to New York. Now a year later, Max is back in England to see his father who has had some serious health issues. Thankfully his father pulls through, but their relationship that was already strained by his father’s treatment of his sisters takes another hit when his father demands that Max marries by the new year or he will pull the funding for his sister August’s project. Unwilling to let his sister suffer or let his father win, Max hatches a plan – he just hopes that Helena is willing to play along.

Helena has been widowed and living independently for years, she loved her husband, but has decided that marriage is not for her. She spends her time working on her charitable projects, the newest being a home for unwed mothers and their children. At first, she gained a lot of support, but one by one her patrons are backing away. Apparently, her father has been poisoning the minds of her donors, he wants Helena to marry again and believes that her association with this project will ruin her chances. So when Max proposed that they fake a betrothal, just until August’s project is underway and Helena’s charity house is up and running, it seems like the perfect solution. As long as she guards her heart because, despite the passion that burns between them, Helena has a secret that she believes will prevent them from ever having a HEA…

This well-written book is a great addition to the series, Max and Helena have an undeniable on-page chemistry, making it very easy to root for their happy ending. The book does drag a bit in the middle and the come-and-go tension between them became a bit wearisome around the 70% mark, I also began to get annoyed with Helena’s insistence that she knew Max’s feelings better than he did and the solution that she came up with didn’t really work for me – I felt like she still didn’t believe that Max could unconditionally love her. That said, the book is filled with secrets, wonderful characters, great secondary characters, steamy love scenes, meddling parents, matchmaking sisters, and finally, an ending with a HEA that didn’t seem possible complete with an epilogue. I liked this book and I am looking forward to the next installment! This is the third book in the series, it can be read as a standalone title, but I would recommend reading the series in order for the best reader experience.

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