A soldier. And he has always been a rogue. What he is not, and never wanted to be, is a peer of the realm, responsible for an ancient heritage and the livelihood of hundreds. But when he is recognized as the long-lost son of the House of Wyndham, his carefree life is over. And if his birth proves to be legitimate, then he will find himself with the one title he never wanted: Duke of Wyndham.
Grace Eversleigh has spent the last five years toiling as the companion to the dowager Duchess of Wyndham. It is a thankless job, with very little break from the routine . . . until Jack Audley lands in her life, all rakish smiles and debonair charm. He is not a man who takes no for an answer, and when she is in his arms, she's not a woman who wants to say no. But if he is the true duke, then he is the one man she can never have . . .
What Others Say
Total J.Q. Novice
I've read tons of romance books, but have never read a JQ before. I found this to be an entertaining, but very average read. The heroine was almost too perfect and not very realistic. The hero was sort of cute, but his immediate and constant idolization of Grace was almost too sappy. I like my characters to have at least a few flaws. I think my favorite character was the irritable old dowager duchess. I'll read more by this author - probably the Bridgerton series which comes highly recommended.
Really Julia Quinn?
I have to say that I read these books out of order, starting with "Mr. Cavendish, I presume". Although I didn't LOVE it like I do almost all of Julia Quinn's novels, i was charmed by the main characters and decided to read the other side of the story. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I felt like the story was very shallow and I really disliked the characters. It was like reading a novice authors feeble attempts at writing a romance novel, and of course we all know that Julia Quinn is not. Most of her work is great and I can definitely recommend reading her novels (especially the Bridgerton series, which I just finished and LOVE...so worth the time). This just didn't feel like her caliber of writing. Both the hero and the ... Read More
Oh yes....
"...and in truth there was no way - simply no way - he could do anything in that moment but kiss her.... Anything else would have been a tragedy..." Wo buddy, that moment was worth the price of the book! Now I'm onto Thomas's story (just released in Oct)...
Don't waste your hard-earned money!
I read the book. Extremely poor writing. Extremely poor development of characters. Exremely boring plot. Should I say more? I'm just writing this review to warn the people not to spend their hard-earned money on this complete writing failure which somehow got published. It's a total rip-off: I think the big wigs (Quinn's publishers) thought to milk the cash cow (Quinn) at the expense of her creativeness and professionalism, so they got her to publish something so obviously bad as this. Not worth a dime.
Charming, despite itself
The first Julia Quinn novel I ever read was "The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever," which I hated so much I threw it against the wall. I was not looking forward to reading "The Lost Duke of Wyndham," but it was in my book pile and I figured I'd give it a whirl.
I'm glad I did.
At first, for the first few chapters, I found the book very annoying and hard to enjoy. There's too much "witty banter" that doesn't feel very witty to me at all. Also, I found the opening action a little silly--a highwayman robs a coach, kisses one of his victims, and she enjoys it--okay. And the highwayman is actually possibly the other victim's grandson--so he gets away scot free with his stolen goods--okay. I suppose. And oh no, there's ... Read More
