Harriet Gardner was on a fast track to the gaol when a rich noblewoman took pity on her and brought her to her finishing school instead. Years of hard study later, Harriet has a genteel accent and accomplishments, and expects to spend the rest of her life as a school teacher. But after she snaps at Lady Powlis, she is unexpectedly offered the position of companion to her ladyship, who is bored and looking for amusement. From there Harriet becomes entangled in the Boscastle family shenanigans, from morbid young Edlyn to the stormy duke.

I quite liked this! The author has a better handle on the period than most, from Harriet's amazement at the waste of beeswax candles to the lurid cartoon broadsheets. Not all the scenes take place amidst the ton--London is portrayed not as a whirlwind of fancy balls, but as hierarchies of class that interlock but rarely meaningfully interact. I could see why both Harriet and Griffin were attracted to each other, and I liked the way their power imbalance colored their romance. Also, there's an actual plot! Ye gods, I didn't know regency romances were allowed to have actual excitement in them. ( )

This book was pretty good. Other than the lack of realism in a duke marrying a girl from the ghetto (come on, please, Cinderella stories are nice, but PLEASE), it was well written and enjoyable. I'd read more books by this author in a pinch. ( )

This book was pretty good. Other than the lack of realism in a duke marrying a girl from the ghetto (come on, please, Cinderella stories are nice, but PLEASE), it was well written and enjoyable. I'd read more books by this author in a pinch. ( )

Rated as 1 star because I couldn't find an option for negative stars. Why do I do this to myself? In this case it was because of the word "wicked". I knew he'd get reformed or something boring in the end, but I thought it could be fun in the meantime.

But it was not to be.

Look, when you see the words "wicked duke" in the title of a book (even a romance that has to obey certain conventions) doesn't it make you think that this duke must have done (at least in some far-distant past) something wicked, amoral, or at least perhaps not completely Done? Even if he doesn't eat virgins for breakfast or steal candy from babies, at least he must snap at his servants and lance cruelly witty rejoinders at Our Heroine.

The eponymous duke in this novel, however, has done nothing worse than be in the vicinity of his brother's accidental death and thus reaps the faintest of suspicion by some people who don't matter in any scheme of things that it was murder. Oh, and be shy of how every woman in the world jumps him at the first opportunity. Also he's a good uncle, a devoted nephew, and a perfect lover and gentleman.

Dear Author: I do not think this word means what you think it means. ( )