Duke acquires a lady knight-errant!

Always Be My Duchess (Taming of the Dukes #1) by Amalie Howard 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

1865. French emigre, feisty ballerina Nève Valery wasn’t going to rescue the three-sheets-to-the-wind toff stumbling around on the outskirts of the rookeries area of St Giles well past the witching hour, but she couldn’t leave him to be robbed and worse.

Lysander Blackstone, Duke of Montcroix, hadn’t had this reaction to a woman for sometime. Yes of course he’s a duke with a history! Dreadful father, horrid upbringing, snake of a step mother, and now he finds himself intrigued, fascinated and pulled towards the fascinating Nève. It can’t be love because he rejects that feeling.

Lysander needs a fiancé and it turns out Nève needs employment. Lysander, “Stone” to his acquaintances, is trying to close a deal on a strip of land, complete a with Castle. All necessary for the railroad he’s trying to build. The owner though has a sentimental attachment to the castle and is not about to sell it to someone he regards as a rake. So Lysander needs to show a “rake turned respectable” face to the ton to secure the deal. Thus the need for a bride-to-be.

The mix of characters—the heroes and the villains, the tension between them all, the lighter moments, the discovery of secrets, the rise of passions—all blend well to make a truly satisfying read.

A Forever - Grand Central ARC via NetGalley. Many thanks to the author and publisher.