Curly Bibliophagist
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Cole, the Duke of Colehaven, is challenged to a wager by his friends. He will find a husband for Diana Middleton, cousin and ward of his friend Thaddeus Middleton. As Cole sets off on his search for a husband for the five and twenty year old woman, he finds there is much more to Diana than meets the eye. Suddenly, finding her a husband doesn't seem like such a great idea anymore. Diana is taken with Cole but she refuses to marry. She fears that if she does, she will lose her independence and her ability to champion her causes. But the heart wants what the heart wants. Will Cole and Diana figure out how to get what they want or will Cole fail at his wager? I liked this book. It has romance, history and intrigue. It's a good read.
Kelly Price
The roles in seduction are reversed when it comes to Diana and Cole. You know it’s going to be interesting when the butler get unnerved by someone calling on her. They butt heads from the start, but they are so much alike. I loved their battles because I never knew what would happen next. Everyone around them seemed to know what was going to happen. Diana is a spitfire that goes to great lengths to hide from people. She is extremely bold in everything she does and doesn’t shy away from anything. She just needed to see it wasn’t her battle to fight alone. Cole wasn’t prepared for the battles when it came to Diana. I loved his story about his life and how he went about things with her. He didn’t hesitate once he knew his feelings. Copy provided for an honest and voluntary review
Alison Robinson
Three and a half stars Diana Middleton is a singular young lady. Obsessively interested in order and justice she masquerades as a barrister's clerk testing weights and measures in local shops. She has campaigned (anonymously) for reform of the anarchic weights and measures system in the UK which has 27 different definitions of a bushel.She knows her eccentricities could cause her cousin, and guardian, Thaddeus Middleton to suffer the scorn, ridicule and perhaps ostracism from the ton, should they be known. In order to avoid having her activities curtailed or prohibited she is determined not to marry and has deliberately made herself into a wallflower. Thaddeus is one of three founders of the tavern and brewery known as the Wicked Duke, one night he laments to his two best friends, the Duke of Eastleigh and the Duke of Colehaven that his ward is unmarriageable and dares the Duke of Colehaven to find her a husband by the end of the season. Colehaven finds Diana to be a world of contradictions, dressed in such a way that she blends into the wallpaper at society balls, she nevertheless has a keen mind and proves more than capable of engaging him in wide-ranging discussions of politics and sexism and weights and measures (of course). Pity Diana's outspokenness and appearance preclude her from being the Duchess of Colehaven ... I'm always a sucker for a brilliant heroine, constrained by society who teaches the hero a lesson, especially when he thinks he's rescuing her and this is no exception. However, I felt the novel was too short and didn't really have time to develop the romance between them. I received a free copy of this book from the author, via NetGalley, in return for an honest review.
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