Scouring my bookshelves recently, looking for a paperback to read in the bath, I picked up The Duke by Gaelen Foley. I can’t say where or when I came to acquire it, but I am sure glad I did.
I am not familiar with Gaelen Foley, but I intend to remedy that. I really enjoyed The Duke.
Robert Knight, the ninth Duke of Hawkscliffe, is a tortured soul grieving the loss of a woman he fancied himself in love with but could never have—she was married. Now she’s dead. And when it comes to light her death was not natural, Hawkscliffe wants revenge.
Belinda Hamilton is an honourable woman driven to a dishonourable profession, and desperately in need of a wealthy—and preferably celibate—protector to keep her from the clutches of the man who destroyed her life. Hawkscliffe proves an admirable choice—he’s willing to keep his hands off her provided she helps him exact the revenge he seeks.
Gaelen Foley creates likable characters in Hawkscliffe and Bel, and in the supporting cast. She even manages to redeem—partly—the treacherous antagonist who destroyed Bel’s life, as she develops a tender relationship between Bel and The Duke. I was captivated by Gaelen’s voice and her gentle weaving of a heartfelt romance against a backdrop of murder, poverty, and the price of survival some are forced to pay for no other reason than the circumstances of their birth. 5 stars.
Deborah
It is a purely relative manner where one draws the plimsoll-line of condemnation, and… if you find the whole of humanity falls below it you have simply made a mistake and drawn it too high. And you are probably below it yourself.
~Frances Partridge
Gaelen Foley is a best-selling author of over twenty books set in Regency England and Napoleonic Europe. She’s won numerous awards including the National Readers’ Choice Award. Learn more about her at:
