To Pleasure a Duke

September 26, 2011
Bennett (A Seduction in Scarlet) launches the Husband Hunters Club series with this sweet early Victorian romance. The dowager duchess of Somerton, a penniless bohemian’s daughter, raised her children to be proper in every way, but her haughty son, Sinclair, harbors secret artistic longings. Sir Peter Belmont, a baronet and scam artist, raised his children to help him fleece their neighbors, but his hoyden daughter, Eugenie, dreams of respectability and love. A meet-cute involving three young boys and a goat sends Sinclair and Eugenie down the bumpy path of cross-class love, which unexpectedly leads to Scotland when Eugenie’s wayward brother helps Sinclair’s extremely silly sister and her meek chaperone run away from home. Any reader willing to accept that a duke might wed a common conman’s daughter will enjoy the duo’s adorably awkward and forthright conversations as they help each other escape their upbringings and find true happiness.