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.

Heiress In Red Silk (A Duke's Heiress #2) by Madeline Hunter
Series: A Duke's Heiress #2
Published by Zebra on April 27, 2021
Genres: Historical
Pages: 304
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FINAL DECISION: Enjoyable story of two people who are good at their work but not so good at relationships. By the end, I was really rooting for these two but was disappointed by the abbreviated resolution.

THE STORY: The Duke of Hollinburgh has died (perhaps murdered as some suspect) and left fortunes to several women outside the family and unknown to them. This book picks up the story about the second woman, Rosamund Jameson, who has been left money and half of a company. The other half is owned by Kevin Radner who is none too pleased by his new partner.

Rosamund designs hats and has a shop and has no intention of signing away her new business interest as Kevin wants. Instead, she insists on being a true partner which infuriates Kevin and makes him consider marriage to control Rosamund’s interest. But Kevin gets more than he bargained for in approaching Rosamund.

OPINION: I really enjoyed this book. The characters were often difficult to grapple with which made their romance that much better.

Rosamund is both practical and realistic and yet also innocent and perhaps a little silly about certain things. I enjoyed how many times I saw her as a fully fleshed-out person with strengths and weaknesses. So often in romance these days, the desire to show a practical woman with strength as she practices her trade and goes through life is tied tightly to those same qualities in her personal life. But that is not often how people are in real life. We all have weaknesses and frailties and having weaknesses does not take away Rosamund’s great business sense.

Kevin is also intensely good at what he does but really bad about personal relationships. Another aspect I enjoyed was how he must learn to allow Rosamund into all parts of his life because not only does she make the personal better, but her intelligence and business sense also can complement and enhance his own business.

I particularly enjoy books where both characters grow and change because of the relationship and not a book where the heroine is perfect and stays that way and the story is instead her bringing the hero to heel.

I really ended up loving these characters. My only complaint about this book is that it ended too quickly. After the final resolution of the conflicts in the book, I would have liked more with Rosamund and Kevin just being shown happy for a little while or an epilogue just so I could feel that their lives together have been cemented. I missed that in this book.

WORTH MENTIONING: The hero of this book, Kevin, is at times difficult to understand or even to like. Although there is no specific mention, because of the time period, it is pretty clear that Kevin is on the spectrum. I especially enjoyed that aspect, but he does not act or think like a “stereotypical” historical romance hero, and I’ve noticed that some reviews ding this book for that reason.

CONNECTED BOOKS: HEIRESS IN RED SILK is the second book in the A Duke’s Heiress series. The romance here is self-contained and thus it can be read as a standalone although the overarching storyline is much better if this book is read after HEIRESS FOR HIRE.

STAR RATING:  I give this book 4 stars.

NOTE: I received an eARC 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.