{"id":11006,"date":"2018-08-12T09:45:44","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T13:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=11006"},"modified":"2024-06-07T17:10:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T21:10:05","slug":"the-duchess-deal-girl-meets-duke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11006","title":{"rendered":"The Duchess Deal: Girl Meets Duke"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Duchess Deal: Girl Meets Duke<\/a><\/em> (2017) Tessa Dare<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Set in England in the early 1800s<\/p>\n

The Duke of Ashbury is in need of an heir.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I died tomorrow, everything would go to my cousin. He is an irredeemable prat. I didn\u2019t go to the Continent, fight to preserve England from tyranny, and survive this\u201d\u2014 he gestured at his face\u2014\u201c only to come home and watch my tenants\u2019 lives crumble to ruins. And that means those laws of primogeniture\u2014 since I don\u2019t intend to overturn them\u2014 require me to marry and sire a son.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That right there redeems most everything rude and awful the duke does and says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly one act is required on your part. You must permit me to visit your bed. I\u2019m well aware of my distasteful appearance. You need not fear any crude or lascivious attentions from my quarter. All encounters will be as dignified as possible. No lights, no kissing. And of course, once you are pregnant with my heir, we will be done.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Emma Gladstone is a vicar’s daughter working as a seamstress after being thrown out by her father six years before. She needs money to survive, but has standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not be your mistress. My body is not for let.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThat can\u2019t be entirely true. You\u2019re a seamstress, aren\u2019t you? Your fingers are for let.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t know the difference between a woman\u2019s fingers and her womb, I would definitely not share a bed with you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I like a lot about this book. Ash is scarred from war. He’s a good man who worries about his tennants. Emma is strong-willed and unwilling to be cowed. Both have been hurt by their pasts. Both are flawed. But each tries to listen to the other, and understand their past hurts and protect them from future harm.<\/p>\n

But I especially liked the dialog.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now I must ask you to leave. I need to be getting home.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can accomplish both those things at once. I\u2019ll take you home. My carriage is just outside.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, I prefer to walk.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMore convenient still. My feet are even closer than the carriage.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s modern, but it’s not completely over-the-top and feels like the author translating the dialog of the time into modern cant rather than pasting historical settings upon a modern story. <\/p>\n

But mostly it’s fun, and I’m a sucker for good dialog.<\/p>\n

There is a lot of boinking in this story, much of which I could have done without, although some of the boinking related directly to Ash and Emma working out their difference and misunderstandings.<\/p>\n

This is possibly the most generic cover, unrelated to the content, I’ve seen in awhile. I don’t think the publisher was even trying. It’s possible the man on the cover could be Ash, showing only his unscarred side. Except that the light shining through the window on his bad side is something he wouldn’t allow. Especially while disrobed. I suppose this is supposed to be a scene from the end of the book, but… bleh. <\/p>\n

All in all it was a fun story that I enjoyed because of the dialog and the situation the characters. <\/p>\n

Publisher: Avon
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Duchess Deal: Girl Meets Duke (2017) Tessa Dare Set in England in the early 1800s The Duke of Ashbury is in need of an heir. \u201cIf I died tomorrow, everything would go to my cousin. He is an irredeemable prat. I didn\u2019t go to the Continent, fight to preserve England from tyranny, and survive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[193,30,33,26,56],"tags":[403,50,548,183],"class_list":["post-11006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10","category-british","category-historical","category-romance","category-sexual-content","tag-addiction","tag-boinking","tag-regency","tag-tessa-dare"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2Rw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24331,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24331","url_meta":{"origin":11006,"position":0},"title":"The Duchess War","author":"Michelle","date":"March 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister #1) Set in Leicester, England in 1863 \u201cYour Grace,\u201d Stevens finally said, \u201cyour concern does you justice.\u201d The man\u2019s toad-eating did him none. Robert met Stevens\u2019s eyes. \u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s called basic human decency, and I deserve no credit for doing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Duchess War","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Duchess-War.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9179,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9179","url_meta":{"origin":11006,"position":1},"title":"The Duchess War","author":"Michelle","date":"August 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan Set in England in 1863. Minerva Lane has been hiding. Hiding from her past and her childhood, and even her name, going by another name, Wilhelmina Pursling. No one but her great aunts knows of her past, not even her best friend Lydia, whose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Duchess-War.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12758,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12758","url_meta":{"origin":11006,"position":2},"title":"The Duchess War","author":"Michelle","date":"April 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan Set in England in 1863 Minnie has spent her adolescence learning how to be quiet. Unnoticed. Unexceptional. When she was taken in by her great aunts, she agreed with them this would be the best path for her, but now she has reached the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Duchess War","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Duchess-War-e1511010919935.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12230,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12230","url_meta":{"origin":11006,"position":3},"title":"The Wallflower Wager","author":"Michelle","date":"November 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Wallflower Wager (2019) Tessa Dare Lady Penelope Campion is all but a recluse, hiding in her family home and collecting abandoned animals. As a person who wanted to like everyone, it hurt to know that not everyone liked her in return. Her new neighbor is Gabriel Duke, the so-called\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bad Cover"","block_context":{"text":"Bad Cover","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/bad"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Wallflower Wager","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/The-Wallflower-Wager.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4803,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4803","url_meta":{"origin":11006,"position":4},"title":"The Duchess War","author":"Michelle","date":"August 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan This is the first(ish) book in the series, and the third book I read. Wilhelmina Pursling has a past she is desperately hiding from. She's changed her name and hidden with obscurity with her two great-aunts, and pushed down everything she once was, to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"The-Duchess-War","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Duchess-War.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25919,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25919","url_meta":{"origin":11006,"position":5},"title":"A Novel Disguise","author":"Michelle","date":"March 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A Novel Disguise (2023) Samantha Larsen (A Lady Librarian Mystery #1) Set in England in ~1783 Miss Tiffany Woodall knows she is lucky that her half-brother has allowed her to remain to keep house for him, even if she didn't love or even like him. But after his unexpected death\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Novel Disguise","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A-Novel-Disguise.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A-Novel-Disguise.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A-Novel-Disguise.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}