The Duke of Presumption!!

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The Duke of Seduction  (The Untouchables #10) by Darcy Burke    
I really liked both lead characters in this addition to the Untouchables. But then I adore those women who are somewhat different to the empty headed Marriage Mart parade. Lady Lavinia Gillingham is a foreword thinking, intelligent woman who apart from being enamoured by the geological, wants to govern her own life. So far she has been able to eschew the Marriage Mart.
William Beckett (Beck), Marquess of Northam, rake at large, hides the pain of a sister scorned by society, by taking up the cause of such wallflowers and derided young woman.  He anonymously writes poems about them, catapulting them into the eyes of society. And the fickle ton, being the rapacious and untrustworthy construct it is, rushes towards the light shining on these young woman. They instantly become marriageable. Grr!
So when this attention is turned on Lavinia she is NOT HAPPY!
As she espouses to a rather shocked and chagrined Beck,
"He writes poems about ladies he seems to think require assistance on the Marriage Mart. It’s incredibly presumptuous. And pompous. And many other words that end in ‘ous,’ I’m sure.” "
She becomes determined to expose the culprit just as she is reacquainted with Beck, long a friend of her brother's. Beck of course has not even considered that some young woman mightn't want to be forced into an eligible marriage. That they might want something more, or even different.
The premise that Duke would write poems to aid a woman's marriageability was to my mind slim but worked for this story, given what I've already said about the 'ton'. And of course the tension rises as Beck and Lavinia become attracted to each other whilst the chasm of Beck's alter ego yawns between them.

 A NetGalley ARC

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