Duke of Renown
Series: Dukes of Distinction #1
Author: Alexa Aston
Published February 9th 2021 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.

Goodreads Synopsis
Who doesn’t love a duke? How about five of them?

Welcome to bestselling author Alexa Aston’s new Regency romance series, the Dukes of Distinction! These five aristocrats all come with nicknames Polite Society has bestowed upon them. Renown. Charm. Disrepute. Arrogance. Honor.

A woman with a broken heart...

A soldier who never dreamed he’d become a duke...

Phoebe Smythe, Countess of Borwick, suffers a tragic miscarriage when she learns her husband and young son have been killed in a carriage accident. The grieving widow retreats to an isolated cottage on the coast of Cornwall, where she finds a smuggler who’s washed ashore, blood leaking from a bullet wound.

Captain Andrew Graham returns home from the Napoleonic Wars after the death of his older brother, finding his father on his deathbed. Soon he becomes the Duke of Windham and must deal not only with numerous responsibilities but his wayward half-brother, who has amassed a mountain of debt and then shoots Andrew so he can become the new duke.

Andrew awakens to an angel of mercy, Mrs. Smith, a middle-class widow who nurses him back to health. She thinks he’s a criminal, which amuses him, but he soon falls in love with her beauty and spirit. On the day he decides to ask for her hand in marriage, she disappears and he has no way to find her—until he spies her across a London ballroom.

Though her heart belongs to the Cornish smuggler she left behind, Phoebe places herself once more on the Marriage Mart. She yearns to be a mother again—which means finding a husband.

What will Phoebe do when she learns that her Mr. Andrew is none other than the famous Duke of Renown?
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

Andrew Graham never expected to be called back from the battlefield early during the Napoleonic War, but with his elder brother dead, and his father on his death bed, he's about to go from plain old Captain Graham, to His Grace, the Duke of Windham. Taking time to learn about his new role, he realises that his younger, half-brother, Francis, is in debt, and has no intention of doing nay hard work or stopping his whoring or gambling. This all comes to a head when Francis shots Andrew, and knocks him over a cliff in Cornwall, hoping to be named Duke himself and have full control of the ducal finances. Andrew is still alive, but struggling, when he's found in the surf by Phoebe Smythe, Dowager Countess of Borwick. Phoebe has retreated to Cornwall following the deaths of her husband and five year old son, and her own miscarriage, and is happy being the unknown 'Mrs Smith', living alone in a seaside cottage, when she finds a man injured on the beach. Believing him to be a smuggler, what with his clothes and his gunshot wound, she hides him at home, and nurses him back to health, falling for him in the process. Just when Andrew was about to reveal that he was in fact a duke, and not a lowly smuggler, and also proposing to Phoebe, she flees Cornwall, to return to her pregnant sister during her confinement. Both haven't forgotten the time they spent together in Cornwall, and think they won't be able to find each other again, when they come across each other at a Society ball. Phoebe knows she wants to remarry, and hopefully have more children, and never expects that Andrew would be a suitable choice. But, will the actions of Francis come back to haunt them, and will Phoebe and Andrew be able to gave a happy ending once and for all?

This book was such a quick and enjoyable read. Once I had started it, I didn't want to put it down - it was beautiful written, and so lyrically described, it was as if I was in Cornwall with Andrew and Phoebe. Both the main characters have suffered in the past. While pregnant, Phoebe lost her husband and son in a carriage accident, and miscarried when she heard the news. She moved in with her sister and brother-in-law, who were so supportive, but when her sister, Letty, announced her own pregnancy, Phoebe needed some alone time to process it all. She found solace in her solitude in Cornwall, and though she never expected to find love again, with Andrew, she was able to envision a future full of happiness, and children. Andrew, for his part, lost men on the Peninsula, and likely expected to die himself. He never thought his father and older brother would predecease him, and he would inherit, but when he did, he tried to do everything he could to help, though his brother had other plans. Okay, so both Phoebe and Andrew lied about their identities to one another, but it was more withholding information, rather than an outright lie. Both expected the other would treat them differently if they discovered their true position in society, but were more than pleasantly surprised to learn they were perfect for each other, at least in the eyes of the ton, when they reconnected the Season after their time in Cornwall. I was so pleased with the ending, and hopefully we'll see more of Andrew and Phoebe in the other books in the series, all following friends of Andrew's.

Dates Read:
February 27, 2021

Rating
3 Stars