Review: The Way to a Duke's Heart (The Truth About the Duke #3) by Caroline Linden
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Series: The Truth About the Duke #3
Author: Caroline Linden
Published August 28th 2012 by Avon
Goodreads Synopsis
Charles de Lacey, Lord Gresham, is running out of time, running from his responsibilities, and running from love.
Destined to be a duke, Charles de Lacey has led a life of decadent pleasure, free of any care for propriety or responsibility. It comes as a terrible shock to learn that he might be stripped of everything, thanks to his father's scandalous past. He has no choice but to find the blackmailer who would ruin him—and his only link to the villain is a woman who may be part of the plot…
To save his fortune and title, he vows he'll stop at nothing—in fact, he's all too eager to unravel the beautiful, tart-tongued Tessa Neville. She intrigues him and tempts him like no other lady ever has. With only his heart to guide him, and keenly aware that his entire future is at stake, Charles must decide: is she the woman of his dreams, or an enemy in disguise?
Goodreads
Review
The final book in The Truth About the Duke series, The Way to a Duke's Heart sees Charles de Lacey, Lord Gresham, and the new Duke of Durham, take over the search to discover the truth about their late father's first marriage, and whether or not they are illegitimate and will lose everything. The plot has moved to Bath, and Charles is struggling at first with where to go next, but after he overhears mention of the Mr Hiram Scott that they've been looking for, he finds himself drawn to the beautiful Tessa Neville. On their first meeting, Tessa lambasted him as a lazy lord, but the more time they spend together, in the guise of looking at the canal building plans as prospective investors, the more Charles finds himself falling for Tessa. But Tessa has be stung in the past, and isn't ready to give up her freedom, not without knowing if her feelings are truly reciprocated, and for herself, not for her brain.
As the conclusion of the series, this fully tied together all of the interwoven plot lines or questions we might've had. I think this one might have been my favourite of the lot, and I adored Tessa as the main character. She was clever, and quick, but had a vulnerable side to her that we saw more and more when she was with Charles. Her family have never truly understood her: her sister wants to change her at every moment, and her brother cares only that she is smart enough to basically run his estate for him, and leaves the heavy lifting to Tessa. Her companion, and relative, Eugenie was lovely, though a little grating at times, but I understood how she was when we saw her more. Charles has really grown too, and now that he has something, or someone, he cares about, he's more willing to get up and do something for his title and his family. The reason for his and his father's estrangement came out nicely, but I felt some parts of the story dragged a little, and could've perhaps been dealt with a lot quicker. But, all in all, Charles and Tessa had an unbelievable chemistry, and their love story was well worth the read!
Dates Read:
Rating
4 Stars
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