Lady Gwyn Drake has long protected her family's
reputation by hiding an imprudent affair from her youth. But when her former
suitor appears at Armitage Hall, manhandling the heiress and threatening to go
public with her secrets, it's Gwyn who needs protecting. Her twin brother,
Thorn, hires Joshua Wolfe, the estate's gamekeeper, to keep her safe in London
during her debut. As a war hero, Joshua feels obligated to fulfill the
assignment he has accepted. But as a man, it's torment to be so very close to
the beauty he's fought to ignore . . .
With handsome Joshua monitoring her every move, Gwyn
would prefer to forget both the past and the parade of money-seeking bachelors
at her coming out. But Joshua is unmoved by her attempts at flirtation, and the
threat of blackmail still hangs over her. With danger closing in, Gwyn must
decide which is the greater risk: deflecting a scoundrel's attempts to sabotage
her -- or revealing her whole heart to the rugged bodyguard she can't resist .
. .
Good book. I've been looking forward to this story since
seeing Gwyn and Joshua in the first book, Project Duchess. The sparks between
them were evident even then and burst into full flame in this book.
The story opens as Gwyn attempts to deal with a past
indiscretion that has come back to haunt her. Her confrontation with her
blackmailer is interrupted by Joshua Wolfe, the estate gamekeeper. Believing that
the man intends to kidnap Gwyn to gain her dowry, Gwyn's brother, the Duke of Thornstock,
hires Joshua to act as a bodyguard for Gwyn while she is in London.
At thirty years old, Gwyn is no longer a naïve young
miss. Past experience has made her cynical about men, a feeling reinforced by
the parade of fortune hunters she meets in London. She is spunky and not afraid
to stand up for herself and go after what she wants. And what she wants turns
out to be Joshua.
Joshua is a gruff, grumpy war hero, injured in the war
against Napoleon. On half-pay from the Royal Marines, he is determined to get
back on active duty. In the meantime, he works as the gamekeeper on
Thornstock's estate. He is attracted to Gwyn but believes that his injuries and
the differences between them prevent a relationship.
I enjoyed the development of the relationship between
Gwyn and Joshua. The sparks are there from the beginning, and I loved watching
them build. One of the things I liked best about Gwyn was that she didn't look
down on Joshua for being the gamekeeper. He is the grandson of a duke and a war
hero, and that is enough for her. She is also not put off by his injuries and
is quite protective of him when she thinks he is being slighted. I liked how
she saw the man beneath the grumpy exterior. I especially enjoyed her attempts to
make him laugh and how good it made her feel when she succeeded. I loved
Joshua's protectiveness toward Gwyn, which goes far beyond his bodyguard
duties. He senses from the start that there is more to the story with Captain
Malet than Gwyn or Thorn has shared with him. It was fun to see Joshua thwart
Gwyn's attempts to get around him. I loved seeing them grow to trust each other
and the boost that trust gave to the feelings that grew between them. I ached
for Gwyn as her love for Joshua grew because she was afraid that if he knew
everything about her past, he would reject her. The ending was great, as all
the secrets were revealed and dealt with, and love conquered all.
The storyline with Captain Malet was excellent. His
history with Gwyn created a lot of tension. There was Gwyn's fear that he would
expose their past, not just ruining her, but also affecting her entire family. This
wasn't his only run-in with Gwyn's family, as he also made an appearance in
Seduction on a Snowy Night, Heywood and Cass's story. To complicate matters
further, Joshua was also tasked with looking into Malet by the War Department. The
final confrontation with Malet was intense. I loved how it worked out - Gwyn made
me grin over what she did.
One of the best things about this series is the
complexity of the family dynamics. One woman who has had three different
husbands, all dukes. Five children by those three men, three of them now dukes
in their own right. I loved the teasing and evident love among the family
members and the way they support each other. The relationship between Gwyn and
her brother has been strained, and we finally find out why. There are also
ongoing questions and suspicions about the fathers' deaths that seem to run
across the series. Looking forward to how that will play out.
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