Regency Melodrama

Only a Duke Will Do (To Marry a Rogue #2) by Tamara Gill

                                  

The scene's set. It's the night before the big day when finally Lady Isolde Worthingham is going to say 'I do' and marry the man who holds her heart, Merrick Mountshaw, the Duke of Moore. But when Isolde witnesses her fiancé in bed with her so called best friend her heart breaks into a thousand pieces. And her best friend--nothing less than a scheming cat who goes to scandalous lengths to bag a Duke!

The marriage between Merrick and Leonora Hart is doomed to failure from the beginning.

Isolde hives off to Scotland for five years to try to mend her broken heart. After that time she is at last was persuaded to return to London. Because society is society, Isolde finds herself back in the arena of all that is fashionable--including Moore and his Duchess.

Lenora is even worse than when we last saw her, glittering, highly strung, barbed and dangerous. Merrick still calls to Isolde. But enough! Isolde has decided to find a husband and start a family. Love need not be a factor.

The man she chooses however is pursued by his own devils, and it's seems that unknowingly Lenora is heading into a marriage that will be far less far than the contract she envisages and nowhere near the polite union she's hoping for. Isolde's heart will not be involved but she hopes for at least a civil scandal free union, despite the draw that Merrick still is.

A reasonably enjoyable romantic farce with an eye opening prelude and three interesting acts. 

A NetGalley ARC

*** 1/2