He is all that is heroic, prim, and proper, and she is a walking scandal.
This couple enchanted me! They were so unique and yet, so relatable.
After Dark with the Duke is book #4 in the Palace of Rogues series but can be read as a standalone.
Our thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader’s copy.
Book Details
Title: After Dark with the Duke
Publisher: Avon (November 30, 2021)
Page count: 384
Language: English
ASIN: B08XMMZD43
Book Description
Sparks fly when a daring diva clashes with an ice-cold war hero in the newest thrilling romance in USA Today bestselling author Julie Anne Long’s Palace of Rogues series.
She arrives in the dead of night, a mob out for blood at her heels: Mariana Wylde, the “Harlot of Haywood Street,” an opera diva brought low by a duel fought for her favors. But the ladies of the Grand Palace on the Thames think they can make a silk purse from scandal: They’ll restore her reputation and share in her triumph…provided they can keep her apart from that other guest.
Coldly brilliant, fiercely honorable, General James Duncan Blackmore, the Duke of Valkirk, is revered, feared, desired…but nobody truly knows him. Until a clash with a fiery, vulnerable beauty who stands for everything he scorns lays him bare. It’s too clear the only cure for consuming desire is conquest, but their only chance at happiness could lead to their destruction.
The legendary duke never dreamed love would be his last battleground. Valkirk would lay down his life for Mariana, but his choice is stark: risk losing her forever, or do the one thing he vowed he never would…surrender.
From the Publisher’s Blurb
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Review
Marianna was an opera singer who inadvertently caused a duel between two young lords and became the main subject of all scandal sheets.
James was the son of a farmer that raised to the loft position of Duke thanks to his heroic military career. He was a national hero and a role model who had written a whole book about honor.
What a delightful story!
I love how these two different people went from judging to love each other and how they found strength in their differences.
There was an age gap, but I could hardly notice it, as the heroine was mature for her age.
There were so many memorable passages that I highlighted on my Kindle. I love when a book is insightful and witty. I don’t want to give spoilers, so I will quote just one:
I instinctively could not picture it, because… I think extraordinary circumstances are, for better or worse, the lot of extraordinary people.
Lovely book! Highly recommended!
Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
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About the Author
Julie Anne Long lived in San Francisco for more than a decade, usually with at least one cat. She won the school spelling bee when she was in 7th grade; the word that clinched it was ‘ukulele.’ She originally set out to be a rock star when she grew up (she had a Bono fixation, but who didn’t?), and she has the guitars and the questionable wardrobe stuffed in the back of my closet to prove it.
But writing was always her first love.
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