A Duke She Can’t Refuse by Gemma Blackwood
A Duke She Can't Refuse by Gemma Blackwood Series: The Impossible Balfours Series Book #1
on October 31, 2019
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Clean & Wholesome, Fiction / Romance / General, Fiction / Romance / Historical / General, Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency
Pages: 191
Goodreads
Miss Daisy Morton must make a choice: play the fiancée to a duke she doesn’t love, or face ruin.
Daisy has a very good reason for hiding underneath the Duke of Loxwell's bed. Unfortunately, she can't tell anyone what it is... even to save herself from disaster.
So when the duke makes her a mysterious offer, she's in no position to refuse. He wants a fake engagement. There's only one rule: she can't fall in love with him.
Simple enough. What are the chances that the true love Daisy has always dreamed of should turn out to be the strict, strait-laced, surprisingly tender duke with a devastating smile reserved especially for her?
Alexander Balfour, the new Duke of Loxwell, lives for honour and duty. The dukedom weighs as heavily on his shoulders as the responsibility of setting an example for his four unruly sisters.
And that honour has sealed his fate forever. A fatal mistake in his past means he cannot fall in love without betraying those he holds dearest. Even if Daisy turns his world upside down in a hundred different ways, she cannot save him from his lonely penance.
Or can she?
A Duke She Can’t Refuse is book one in The Impossible Balfours series by Gemma Blackwood. I think this should actually be read after the last book in Blackwood’s Scandals of Scarcliffe Hall book 4 – The Baron’s Inconvenient Bride. Although A Duke She Can’t Refuse can be read as a stand alone, there are certainly plenty of references to the hero and heroine from book 4. This story is about Daisy Morton, the sister of Lord Northmere (book 4’s hero). I loved Daisy right away. She is loyal and kind. I wished for more of a physical description of each of the characters. I like to picture characters like a movie as I read, and other than Daisy’s dark hair, I couldn’t find much of a physical description. Also the first chapter introduces a whole slew of people that left me baffled. But I pressed on. Alexander Balfour, Duke of Loxwell is a very well developed character. He is Daisy’s best friend’s big brother. Who hasn’t crushed on their best friend’s big brother? “Alexander had been a duke for a matter of months, but Daisy’s fascination with him had begun over a year before. There was something about a man with the broad shoulders of a prize-fighter and the impeccable dress of a gentleman, the tousled dark hair of a poet and the stern manners of a school master, that could not help but catch her attention.” I thought the pace was good and there were some twists and turns that kept me hooked. This is a clean sweet romance. I am looking forward to more by Blackwood.
