Any Duchess Will Do Blog Tour: excerpt, review & giveaway
On this last Thursday in May, we are today's stop on the Any Duchess Will Do Blog Tour hosted by Bewitching Book Tours. We have an excerpt, our review, and there's a tour-wide giveaway. Find the complete tour list here. Have a wonderful day!
Any Duchess Will Do (Spindle Cove #4) by Tessa Dare
Historical romance*Mass Market Paperback/eBook, 384 pages
Expected publication: May 28th 2013 by Avon
What’s a duke to do, when the girl who’s perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can’t live without?
Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season—or any season—but his diabolical mother abducts him to “Spinster Cove” and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.
Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn’t dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week’s employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother’s “duchess training”… and fail miserably.
But in London, Pauline isn’t a miserable failure. She’s a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure—a woman who ignites Griff’s desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won’t be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess—can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?
Excerpt:
Chapter One
Griff cracked open a single eyelid. A bright stab of pain told him he’d made a grave mistake. He quickly shut his eye again and put a hand over it, groaning.
Something had gone horribly wrong.
He needed a shave. He needed a bath. He might need to be sick. Attempts to summon any recollection of the previous evening resulted in another sharp slice of agony.
He tried to ignore the throb in his temples and focused on the tufted, plush surface under his back. It wasn’t his bed. Perhaps not even a bed at all. Was it just a trick of his nausea, or was the damned thing moving?
“Griff.” The voice came to him through a thick, murky haze. It was muffled, but unmistakably female.
God’s knees, Halford. The next time you decide to bed a woman after a months-long drought, at least stay sober enough to remember it afterward.
He cursed his stupidity. The epic duration of his celibacy was no doubt the reason he’d been tempted by . . . whoever she was. He had no idea of her name or her face. Just a vague impression of a feminine presence nearby. He inhaled and smelled perfume of an indeterminate, expensive sort.
Damn. He’d need jewels to get out of this, no doubt.
Something dull and pointed jabbed his side. “Wake up.”
Did he know that voice? Keeping one hand clapped over his eyes, he fumbled about with the other hand. He caught a handful of heavy silk skirt and skimmed his touch downward until his fingers closed around a stocking-clad ankle. Sighing a little in apology, he rubbed his thumb up and down.
A squawk of feminine outrage assailed his ears. An unyielding object cracked him over the head, but hard. Now to the pounding and throbbing in his skull, he could add ringing.
“Griffin Eliot York. Really.”
Bloody hell.
Forget the headache and piercing sunlight, he bolted upright—bashing his head again, this time on the low ceiling. Blinking, he confirmed the unthinkable truth. He wasn’t in his bedchamber—or any bedchamber—but in the coach. And the woman seated across from him was all too familiar, with the double strand of rubies at her throat and her elegant sweep of silver hair.
They stared at one another in mutual horror.
“Mother?”
About the Author
Tessa Dare
Tessa Dare a part-time librarian, full-time mommy, and swing-shift writer. She makes her home in Southern California, where she shares a cozy, cluttered bungalow with her husband, their two children, and a dog.
Sexy, romantic, and humorous, this is the best way I can describe Tessa Dare's latest historical romance, Any Duchess Will Do. This fourth book in the Spindle Cove series had me up late at night, reading and laughing at the antics of Lord Griff and servant girl Pauline. In a modern day version of Pygmalion, author Dare has created an enchanting romance and a story to truly get lost in.
This is how a convincing love story is done. Straight off of page one, the opening scene quickly drew me in as I chuckled at the Duke of Halford's latest escapade. Who is the woman he wakes up next to? And why are they moving? He may be a rake, but Lord Halford or Griffin York, has a sense of humor, sometimes a wicked sense. No worry, his mother, the Duchess of Halford, knows how to handle her only son. Tired of his debauchery and yearning for grandchildren to love, she drugs and kidnaps her son taking him to find a wife in Spindle Cove. Griffin isn't thrilled but decides to play along--even to one-up his mother and turn her ridiculous plan on herself. He didn't expect a woman like Pauline, the serving girl at the town tavern.
Pauline may be from simple means but her heart is big. She fiercely loves and protects her sister, Daniela, and she has a dream to open up a revolving library in her town. Hardworking, klutzy, and strong-willed, Pauline doesn't believe in fairy tales and winds up caught up in a lopsided story of her own.
Opposites attract and in this case the cliche proves true. Duchess Halford has a week to turn a country girl into a lady, a duchess, and brings her to Town. New dresses, corsets, shoes and jewels, Pauline receives a crash course in how to act like a lady in London. How can she keep her new composure when the good looking rakish Griffin is giving her smoldering looks? He offers her a wage to fail and she accepts, but one week can be a long period of time spent in his company and she begins to like his mother. What's a country girl with a growing attraction to a wealthy man to do?
If historical romance is one of your favorite genres, I totally recommend Any Duchess Will Do. The main characters are witty and well written, the story is engaging, and the romance endearing. This is my second Tessa Dare novel and I know I will be keeping an eye out for her other books as well.
Rating: 4
Cover comment:
Typical for this genre and it's fine.
Book source:
I received a promotional copy from Edelweiss in return for my honest review.
Giveaway
Tour Wide Giveaway 5 print copies of each:
A NIGHT TO SURRENDER
A WEEK TO BE WICKED
A LADY BY MIDNIGHT
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for the giveaway. Any Duchess Will Do is getting great reviews.
ReplyDelete