Never Have I Ever by Darcy Burke
Never Have I Ever With a Duke by Darcy Burke Series: The Spitfire Society Series Book #1
on October 12, 2020
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical / General, Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency, Fiction / Romance / Historical / Victorian
Pages: 270
Goodreads
From the USA Today bestselling author of The Untouchables series comes your next Regency obsession: The Spitfire Society...
Meet the smart, independent women who’ve decided they don’t need Society’s rules, their families’ expectations, or, most importantly, a husband. But just because they don’t need a man doesn’t mean they might not want one...
Graham Kinsley is shocked when he inherits a debt-ridden dukedom, and now he has just one month to repay a loan. He needs an heiress—or find a way to recoup the former duke’s losses. When he meets the alluring Arabella, he’s entranced. Unfortunately, she’s as bankrupt as he is, but if they work together they may be able to recover their fortunes. Though if they keep stealing kisses, they may lose their hearts instead.
Arabella Stoke can’t afford an attraction to the penniless duke who has vowed to help rescue her family from financial devastation. She needs to find a wealthy husband before her father succumbs to the stress of losing everything. However, as Graham brings them closer to finding the swindler who stole their money, the war between what they want and what they need may ruin them both.
Never Have I Ever is book one in the Spitfire’s Society series by Darcy Burke. I thought this book started off very strong. Graham Kinsley has inherited an insolvent dukedom and he must find a wealthy heiress to rescue him. Arabella Stoke’s family has been financially devastated as well and she must also find a wealthy man to wed. But when sparks fly between Graham and Arabella what are they to do when being together means they lose everything. The trope of someone needing to be rescued from financial ruin through marriage is common enough and probably very common during this era of history. I liked the character of Graham. But not everything about him made sense. He’s employed himself for years as a trained secretary so managing an estate comes as second nature to him. The underlying mystery to me is why doesn’t he just instantly sell his estate Brixton Park? He claims that his attachment is very deep and very personal, but that doesn’t make sense when Graham’s ancestral line has been ignored for four generations. Another mystery is Graham’s relationship with his father. One of the reasons that Graham claims he wants to keep Brixton Park is because his father had cared about it. “Sell the one thing Graham’s father had cared about the most aside from his late wife and beloved son?” But then later in the book we find that his father didn’t care enough about Graham to prepare him to take over the bankrupt estate. Granted the villain in the story declares the following so it may not be true, “The money is gone. Furthermore, His Grace didn’t care. He suspected there would be no return, but as he was not long for this world, he said it would be your problem and he didn’t give a fig if you were bankrupt or not.” A father who loved his son but at the end of his life didn’t care to prepare him for the insolvency of his inherited estate? It didn’t make sense.
I liked the various male relationships that Graham has. A number of characters are from Burke’s other novels in the Untouchables series: The Duke of Seduction, The Duke of Kisses and The Duke of Distraction. Anthony The Viscount Colton is mentioned briefly in The Duke Distraction but he plays a more prominent role in this book as a friend of Grahams along with the Marquess of Ripley.
As for the romance between Graham and Arabella I felt it was too compressed and quite frankly too modern. There wasn’t enough sexual tension building up to the climax of the characters coming together. I felt more could have been done to enhance the relationship and their attraction for one another. It just didn’t feel like much depth there. I have enjoyed Burke’s Untouchables series immensely. But I’m afraid this book fell a bit short for me.
