To Steal A Duke’s Heart by Audrey Ashwood and Rosie Wynter

To Steal a Duke's Heart by Rosie Wynter, Audrey Ashwood
on February 1, 2019
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency
Pages: 332
Goodreads

A disgraced young woman with nothing to lose.
A handsome, newly appointed duke, bound by his honour.
Her one opportunity to steal his heart.

Disowned by her parents for helping her sister elope to the Americas, beautiful Grace Curtis sets her sights on handsome and bold George Blackmore, the newly appointed Duke of Cromford.

However, fate seems intent on keeping them apart. When the duke's younger brother Edmund develops an interest in Grace's best friend, Grace is determined to bring the pair together, in the hope of seeing the duke again - and stealing his heart.

Will the young woman be able to succeed and find true happiness?

To Steal a Duke's Heart is a touching tale of love with twists and turns, set against the glittering backdrop of Regency England. It is a traditional, clean historical full-length regency romance novel that will keep you reading deep into the night. 340 pages. No cliffhanger.

I enjoyed this book.  I liked Grace and Catherine’s friendship. With quite a bit of humor, their relationship proceeded logically in the story. I did wish for more description of the setting and the characters. I found that there were times of “white room syndrome” – a lack of grounding when the setting is not fully established. Most of the scenes are loquacious with a lack of descriptive words to set each scene adequately. The story was quite slow paced at first, but picked up about half way through. This is a sweet romance with only a few kisses in it. I did enjoy one scene in particular and I will quote it here: “Soft, but firm lips pressed to hers. The first touch was little more than a caress, no more powerful than a rose petal brushing over her skin. As that yearned for touch receded, Grace’s face bunched up in disappointment and her lips parted slightly as she found herself desperate to feel that sensation on her mouth again. He did not disappoint. The fingers that held her cheek, now moved around the back of her head, entangling themselves in Grace’s voluminous hair and drawing her back to him. Grace offered no resistance at all. As their lips met for the second time, something within each of them felt complete and at the same time held a promise of things to come.”

Overall, this is a good book. It has a few twists that I wasn’t expecting. I would gladly read more by Ashwood and Wynter.