Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart – by Sarah MacLean
Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart
(Love By Numbers #3)
“She lives for passion.
Bold, impulsive, and a magnet for trouble, Juliana Fiori is no simpering English miss. She refuses to play by society’s rules: she speaks her mind, cares nothing for the approval of the ton, and can throw a punch with remarkable accuracy. Her scandalous nature makes her a favorite subject of London’s most practiced gossips . . . and precisely the kind of woman The Duke of Leighton wants far far away from him.
He swears by reputation.
Scandal is the last thing Simon Pearson has room for in his well-ordered world. The Duke of Disdain is too focused on keeping his title untainted and his secrets unknown. But when he discovers Juliana hiding in his carriage late one evening—risking everything he holds dear—he swears to teach the reckless beauty a lesson in propriety. She has other plans, however; she wants two weeks to prove that even an unflappable duke is not above passion.”
OMGoodness. This book was wonderful. I literally could not put it down. There wasn’t even a pause with an “okay, just one more chapter,” no. Full steam ahead. This is a book that grabs you by the hand and drags you along on the adventure.
The scenes are sweet and endearing as much as they are adventurous and exciting. The characters are bright and beautiful, and the main characters grow in such wildly wonderful ways.
Some of my favorite romance novels, and one of the reasons I am so in love with the genre is the possibility for redemption. In one book a character can be the evil bad and then the next he ends up the hero, and really well done books make him quite the best hero of them all. (And apparently the first two of this series, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake and Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord, he was a giant douche.) I don’t know the details of course, but I can guess from his demeanor in this book he was a seriously unlikeable dude.
Juliana is sweet and friendly and believable, she got her phrases confused, but not so much that is was kitschy, and her personality was wonderful. I loved the verb conjugation detail.
Simon was a beautiful, irritating, obnoxious but so very endearing hero. The scene at her brother’s country home is so touching, so incredibly fresh and new— well, it quite honestly stole my breath. I’m sure my husband hates this book because I was up late reading while he was sleeping, and I laughed out loud several times. A lot. Often.
I LOVED this book. I never threw my iPad across the room, I could hardly put it down. I NEVER rolled my eyes, there was zero WTFckry, and it was quite honestly one of the most refreshing and wonderful books I have read so far this year.
I received this book from Netgalley for review and I loved, Loved, LOVED it
Jenn LeBlanc 