The Prince

Starred review from March 26, 2018
Ashe strikes gold in her fourth Devil’s Duke Regency (after The Duke), giving minor characters from earlier books their own sensuous story. Twenty-year-old Miss Elizabeth “Libby” Shaw, adamantly determined to become a surgeon despite strictures against women practicing medicine, convinces exiled Mediterranean prince and
portrait artist Ziyaeddin Mirza to let her board with him so that she may attend surgical school disguised as a man. Although her successful ruse, skill, and dedication catapult her to the head of the class, she makes no headway convincing Ziyaeddin to allow her to construct a suitable prosthesis for his amputated foot, and he cannot persuade her to remain silent while she sits for him, the one form of payment he requests. Stakes run high for each of them—Ziyaeddin will soon be called home to run his small kingdom, Tabir, and Libby knows a discovery of her secret will cost her the career she yearns for. Ashe allows desire to build slowly between the two, giving them time to demonstrate goodness, honor, and love before they act on their long-simmering passions. A subplot involving murdered women and grave-robbing adds mystery to this thoroughly pleasurable historical.

June 15, 2018

Forensic physician's daughter Elizabeth Shaw will do anything to study medicine at Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh, even disguise herself as a man. But Libby needs help, so when the popular but reclusive portrait artist Ibrahim Kent (aka Ziyaeddin Mirza, Prince of Tabir) sees through her façade and doesn't give her away, they strike a dangerous bargain. He will allow her to move into his house--as medical student Joseph Smart--and introduce her to a noted artist/surgeon who can help her in her quest; she will pose for him once each week. The plan works perfectly except for one thing--they fall in love. A brilliant, atypical heroine with goals of her own and a responsible royal who has a kingdom to look after star in an engaging romance that keeps things wonderfully unsettled until the very end. VERDICT Sparkling repartee, definitive commentary on social issues, and a pair of deserving protagonists make this a worthy addition to Ashe's series and a delectable summertime read. Ashe (The Duke) lives in Durham, NC.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2018
Two outcasts find each other hiding in plain sight--and fall in love.When they run into each other in an Edinburgh bookshop, Ibrahim Kent and Joseph Smart have just one thing in common: Neither of them are who they claim to be. Joseph Smart is actually Elizabeth Shaw, better known as Libby, a smart society lady who wants so badly to be a doctor that she is dressing up as a man to attend lectures at Surgeons' Hall. And Ibrahim, known as "the Turk" and posing as a society portraitist, is actually Ziyaeddin Mirza, Prince of Tabir, in exile from his homeland for 17 years. Ziyaeddin has been enamored of Libby since first meeting her two years ago, so when she asks him to host Joseph Smart in his home, he agrees on the condition that she pose for him once a week. As she devotes every waking hour to her studies and he prepares to re-enter Tabir after its current ruler is deposed, their obsessions leave them little time together. But Libby's hour of sitting for Ziyaeddin each week crackles with chemistry and, eventually, leads to the bedchamber. Given their single-minded plans, as well as Libby's mounting battles with her mental health, it's hard to see how the two can find a happy ending together--but, as usual, Ashe finds a way. As with the three previous entries in her Devil's Duke series, she has written a remarkably complex story that historical romance readers will adore. Few romance novelists can conjure such lush, erotic stories alongside substantial historical detail and moral heft.A Georgian-era romance that enthralls and impresses up to the last page.

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