Every Duke Has His Price
Series: Dukes in Danger #5
Author: Emily E.K. Murdoch
Published August 4th 2023 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.

Goodreads Synopsis
Hugh Shardlow, Duke of Martock, is a Duke down on his luck, and determined not to get tangled into any other danger. That’s why he’s accosting this young woman in the middle of nowhere, France, in the middle of the night.

He’d only come to France to drink, gamble, and escape the terrors of England. Even with his father dead and buried, the place held nothing but darkness for him…until his money ran out.

Which is why the brightness of this mad Englishwoman, searching the French armies for her supposedly prisoner-of-war brother, is an absolute nonsense.

Nice young ladies don’t march into French encampments. They don’t meander into French inns and accost the locals asking after her brother. And they certainly don’t make bargains with strange penniless desperate Englishmen. But Beth Mead has never been one for Society’s expectations, nor keeping them.

And so a deal is Hugh will help Beth find her missing soldier brother, and she’ll pay his passage back to England.

Both think they’ve got the better bargain, but you can’t put a price on trust—and as secrets and lies intermingle with hopes and expectations, Beth and Hugh swiftly discover that to protect themselves, they may have to betray the other…
Goodreads

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

Beth Meade finds herself in Narthern France looking for her injured brother, Matthew. She speaks French well enough, but being an English woman, alone, is dangerous. When she is accosted in a tavern, she is lucky that another patron, who also happens to be English, comes to her rescue, and in return for helping her, he wishes for a ticket home. Beth thinks he is simply Hugh Shardlow, but he is in fact the infamous Duke of Martock. Hiding his true identity from her, Hugh soon falls in love with Beth, but is it too late for him to reveal the truth?

I knew when I finished book 4 that Nancy's sister, Beth, would be the heroine of one of the next books, and I wasn't wrong. I loved how strong she was. When we first met her, there was clearly a spark and fire in her to save Matthew, and she took off from home, alone with a little money, to France to search the countryside of her brother. She never gave up hope, not even when faced with soldiers or insults, and she pushed Hugh to be the best version of himself. I didn't like how secretive Hugh was, though that seems to be a bit of a theme for this series. His family was in disgrace, though he was a Duke, and he was in France for a bit of a jaunt, rather than fighting or doing anything worthwhile. To be honest, he only starts helping Beth for the ticket home, as he had gambled and drank away all his cash. Even so, he does prove himself worthy, again and again, even after hurting Beth with his lies. Another lovely addition to the Dukes in Danger series.

Dates Read:
August 24-25, 2023

Rating
3 Stars