• Home
  • ABOUT
  • Contact
  • Reviews By Genre
    • Black Romance
    • Contemporary
    • Cowboys & Westerns
    • Erotic
    • Historical
    • New Adult
    • Paranormal
    • Romantic Elements
    • Science Fiction/Fantasy
    • Suspense
  • Reviews by Theme
    • Celebrities
    • Harlequin Category
    • Holiday
    • LGBTQIA
    • Low Heat
    • Millionaires & Billionaires
    • Motorcycle Club
    • Multicultural
      • Black
      • East Asian
      • South Asian
      • Latinx
      • Interracial
    • Novellas & Anthologies
    • Royalty
    • Small Town
    • Sports
  • Reviews By Trope

Romance and Sensibility

From First Page To HEA

Historical

Duke of My Heart by Kelly Bowen

June 28, 2022 Leave a Comment

Kelly Bowen’s novella, Night of the Scoundrel,  was an unexpected favorite of mine last year and I was excited to finally dip into her backlist. 

Maximus Harcourt arrives home from two years at sea to find his 18-year-old sister on the run and Miss Ivory Moore, of Chegarre& Associates, re-dressing the dead earl his sister left tied to her bed. Ivory’s job is to fix the unfixable and she’s brilliant at it, but Max isn’t letting her fix this one on her own.

Oh, also he’s the Duke of Alderige and she’s a widowed duchess but this book is extremely unconcerned with that aspect of their identity. This is not the book for people who want historical accuracy. 

Most of my favorite romance novels have heroines like Ivory, she’s ultra competent, a little flinty and the best at what she does. Max is just along for the ride and they spend most of the story working out clues and trying to out clever each other. This book read like a police procedural tv show if the unresolved sexual tension between the two leads was on a speed run.

The audiobook narrator, Ashford McNab, is a favorite who I’ve reviewed a few times for her work on the Maiden Lane series. She has this dramatic husky voice that is so easy to listen to.

Bowen crafts a suspenseful story wrapped in a tenuous, sultry, slow-burn romance–perfect for readers toe-dipping into romance from the mystery genre. 

Author’s Note

I feel like Kelly Bowen was victimized by the cutsie-fication of historical romance titles in the 2010s. Duke of My Heart isn’t so bad but her debut is called I’ve Got A Duke To Keep Me Warm and last book in this series is called Between The Duke and the Deep Blue Sea. Why so long ?

Currently Reading

Kat
Jess

A spin-off of Books and Sensibility, this blog was created in 2015 to talk exclusively about romance novels--From the first page to HEA !

Follow Us on Bloglovin’

Follow

Subscribe !

Reviews By Rating

  • 1 Star
  • 2 Star
  • 3 Star
  • 4 Star
  • 5 Star
  • Unrated

Search

Book Blog

Blog Archive

Abou

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
@romanceandsensibility

I came across this trope a lot this year -Kat #spicybooks #booktok

♬ Still Into You Drill - ShoBeatz

Social Slider

  • Time for a cover reveal! Wall Street Journal bestselling author @kennedyryan1 is excited to reveal the gorgeous special edition paperback
  • The small town of Honey Hill isn’t big enough to handle the feud between Mayor Lunden Pierce and Quade Cannon—-the
  • Picked this up on a trip to 2nd & Charles . Can’t wait to dive into this series - J
  • Welcome to the snack / book pairing challenge! To enter, tell me what snack you are pairing with your current
  • Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you’re joining us tomorrow for the Black Friday Readathon. You can still sign up using the
  • I’m ready for the Black Friday Readathon! If you want to join us and read all day on Black Friday
  • It
  • It
Design by SkyandStars.co

Copyright © 2023