FINAL DECISION: This book just made me happy. It was everything that a final book in a series should be. We got a great romance combined with getting to see characters from the series in their happy every afters.

THE STORY: Kit’s father finally passes and Kit is the last of his friends to take on the title of duke. Now the Duke of Kingsacre, Kit also is responsible for the care of his much younger sister. The problem with this is the governess that comes along with his sister. Sarah Carlton is a lady who has fallen on hard times after the deaths of her parents. Kit and Sarah had an unpleasant confrontation several years ago and now the two are under the same roof.

OPINION: This book closes the series about this group of friends. Appropriately, the book is filled with the characters from the series and it was especially gratifying to get to see all the couples together and happy with their children.

This story is more quiet than others in the series. The big event here is the death of Kit’s father and the effect it has on him and those around him. I really liked it because the quieter pace allowed for more of the relationships between not only Kit and Sarah, but also all the characters from the series.

Kit and Sarah talk, work through their relationship and build a family. The characters are good people. Kit is responsible and didn’t have great tragedy or drama in his past like the other dukes. Instead, his tragedy is now. I especially liked how the issue of his and Sarah’s past confrontation was addressed. His anger at Sarah is so wonderfully explained by his friends.

Sarah is a woman who is making her own way in the world. Her change in circumstances has been difficult, but she perseveres. Dedicated and sweet and such a good person.

This might have been a boring book — the characters are so nice without deep trauma or drama. Instead, I ended up loving this book best in the series. The characters are nice and good people. They have the normal loss and pain one might expect from life and it is so sweet how much they like one another. I especially loved in this book how all the other characters help to gently push Kit and Sarah together.

I ended this book just being happy. The book satisfied all my desires to see this series wrapped up.

WORTH MENTIONING: One of my favorite scenes is the duchesses acting as fairy godmothers. Just made me smile from start to finish.

CONNECTED BOOKS: THE LAST DUKE is the tenth and final book in the 1797 Club series. The romance here is self contained and can be read as a standalone. There are, however, overlapping characters in the series and this book is much more enjoyable knowing all the characters.

STAR RATING: I give this book 5 stars.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in order to prepare this review. I was not required to write a review or to write a positive review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in order to prepare an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

FINAL DECISION: Quite enjoyable story of a notorious rake who finds that his past misdeeds are coming back to haunt him when the woman he is intrigued with will have nothing to do with him. As to two begin to fall, all of the past and mistrust threatens any chance for a future.

THE STORY: Robert Smithton, Duke of Roseford, immerses himself in sexual excess although his life is beginning to separate him from best friends who all moving on to married life. When the Countess of Gainsworth returns to society after the notorious death of her husband, Robert plans on seducing the widow. What he doesn’t expect is that Katherine seems to hold a hatred of Robert although he has just met her. Katherine blames Roseford for the circumstances which led to her being forced to marry and has no intention on being Robert’s next conquest.

OPINION: I enjoyed reading the interactions between Robert and Katherine. I was a bit disappointed that Robert was not as wild as I expected from his history. I think, in fact, he was tamer than some of the other heroes. He was nicer than I expected.

What I really enjoyed was how Robert really wants what his friends have but doesn’t know how to reach out for what he wants. And I really loved that he is confounded by his attraction to Katherine and falls for her hard.

I didn’t find Katherine’s journey as compelling as Robert’s, but I liked her strength as a character and her unwillingness to sacrifice her own self-worth. She has her freedom and intends on living her best life despite her father, and she certainly isn’t going to be a doormat for Robert.

WORTH MENTIONING: We get quite a few updates on the prior couples in the series.

CONNECTED BOOKS: THE DUKE OF DESIRE is the ninth book in the 1797 series. The romance here is self-contained and can be read as a standalone although the characters from the series make significant appearances here. The relationships make this series better read in order.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4 stars.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in order to help prepare this review. I was not required to write a review or to write a positive review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in order to prepare an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

“So Amelia would come to Hugh with hate and desperation. With heartbreak and resistance.”

FINAL DECISION: A solid addition to the series. I enjoyed the characters but the lie that sets their relationship in motion and the secret Hugh is keeping didn’t work well enough to support the plot of the story for me.

THE STORY: Hugh Margolis, Duke of Brighthollow, has been suffering with his own sense of honor. His sister was seduced by a wicked man and Hugh found himself keeping silent and paying the man off rather than seeking revenge. This lack of action has been eating at Hugh for a year. Now Hugh discovers that the villain is after his next victim. Hugh cannot allow him to ruin another woman’s life. Amelia Quinton thinks she has found the man of her dreams, when her father tells her she must marry the Duke of Brighthollow to settle his debts. Amelia and Hugh begin a marriage with lies and deception between them. What will happen when the two strangers begin to have feelings for one another with the lies Hugh told to force the marriage between them?

OPINION: The characters in this book were really nice. I liked them both and I thought that they had a nice rapport with one another. I book is as sexy as I would expect from this series and overall I enjoyed this entry in the series.

The part of this book that really bothered me was how quickly Amelia turned to trying to make her marriage to Hugh a good one. I just wasn’t convinced. She was too quick to think Hugh a good person and too quick to want and participate in a passionate marriage. A woman is forced to wed a complete stranger and only days later is taking the initiative in their sexual relationship. Nope, just didn’t work for me. I did enjoy the characters and only wish that the initial part of their relationship had been dealt with differently.

I also really didn’t understand why Hugh kept the secret after he and Amelia were married and continued to lie. He clearly could have told her the truth and it would have made their relationship better. Without the buy in to the storyline, everything else felt okay but a little bland.

WORTH MENTIONING: I want the story of Hugh’s sister as well.

CONNECTED BOOKS: THE DUKE WHO LIED is the eighth book in the 1797 Club series. This book can be read as a standalone although there are overlapping characters and relationships between secondary characters that are developed over the series.

STAR RATING: I give this book 3 stars.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in order to help prepare this review. I was not required to write a review or to write a positive review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in order to prepare an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

“Everyone knows my story, don’t they? It is all they talk about. The Duke of Tyndale and His Tragedy. It is practically folklore.”

FINAL DECISION: These characters end up being just so nice and I liked them tremendously. The contrast being their so good character and how they meet gives what might otherwise be a too nice story some dash.

THE STORY: Matthew Cornwallis, Duke of Tyndale, is urged by his friends to put aside his grief at the death of his fiancee three years ago and attend the Donville Masquerade, a sinful gathering where masked guests meet for sexual encounters. There Tyndale meets a masked stranger who he ends up spending the night with. Isabel Hayes is a widow whose elderly husband was chosen by her parents in an arranged marriage. Curious about what she missed in her marriage, Isabel comes to the Donville Masquerade to watch. But then she meets a masked stranger who tempts her to find the passion she missed. Eventually, however, Isabel realizes that her lover was the man engaged to her cousin and who her uncle blames for her death.

OPINION: I really, really liked the characters in this book. Both Matthew and Isabel are good and even gentle characters who find one another despite pasts which make them wary because the guards and shields are let down when they meet in a sinful and wicked way.

This book is hot and it manages to do that with very likable and nice characters. Although both have some pain in their lives, their inherent positivism contrasts with some of the other characters in the book who dwell in their unhappiness. I really liked that about these characters. The willingness to make the best of things, to look forward, to try and be happy.

Most of the conflict here ends up being external because these two hit it off almost from the start. In fact, they seemed so perfect for one another that I wondered how the dramatic tension in the story could be maintained — and yet it was. All of the parts work here.

WORTH MENTIONING: I especially loved that we get to see so many of the members of the 1797 Club and their wives.

CONNECTED BOOKS: THE DUKE OF HEARTS is the seventh book in the 1797 Club series. The series tells the stories of a group of men destined to become dukes. Each book tells the story of one couple but the characters appear throughout the series. This book can be read as a standalone.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in order to prepare this review. I was not required to write a review or to write a positive review. All opinions contained herein are my own.