Food for thought!

Never Seduce a Duke (Mating Habits of Scoundrels #5) by Vivienne Lorret      

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Well here’s a jolly romp from England over to France, Germany down the Rhine, then across the alps to Italy and then fleeing back to England, all to escape a maddened boulanger, whose recipes the aunts have filched. Margaret Stredwick has decided to take a holiday on the continent to get over her broken heart. Accompanied by her two madcap, recipe gathering aunts. Enroute they stop at the Duke of Merelton’s castle, Caliburn Keep. Supposedly said the aunts to view the gardens, in reality to steal recipes from the family recipe book reputedly to harken back to King Arthur. Of course things go amiss. Meg smacks into the Lucian Ambrose, the seventh Duke in a darkened corridor. He later thinks she’s a certain mysterious Lady Avalon who’s stolen the family book of recipes, and pursues her across Europe. All good fun, the whimsical bordering on the inane, in this enemies to lovers, rationalism vs romanticism  trope. Although I must admit to being exasperated by both the Duke and Meg, and my goodness, by  those cunningly, conniving aunts. Superlatives don’t do them and their light fingered ways with recipes any justice. I had already decided who the thief was way before it happened but not the depths of chilling planning involved, the madness of it all. Still an enjoyable read if one suspends any belief in the accuracy of the characters interactions.

An Avon and Harper Voyager ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.