My Review:Lady Kate Fairchild is willing to go to desperate extremes in order to free her brother from prison. As the Lyle parish vicar, Stephan is accused of withholding information regarding the identities of the arsonists that burned the Duke of Lyle's seat to the ground - killing several family members. Knowing that her brother will martyr himself before revealing the names of those that Lyle seeks, for he'll surely be sending the accused to their death, Kate turns to blackmail. As the widow of a once affluent politician, Kate has mentally retained many incriminating anecdotes that could easily bring down a few members of the peerage. After exhausting all other avenues, blackmail appears to be the best and last choice, that is until she incurs the wrath of the Home Office and the Duke of Lyle himself.Working his last mission for the Home Office due to his recent defaulted inheritance as the new Duke of Lyle, Maxwell Brooke is determined to acquire the identities of the arsonists that destroyed his ducal seat in addition to several family members - unfamiliar people to Max but nonetheless family. Determined to imprison Lady Kate's stubborn brother for as long as feasibly possible, Max hopes to hurry matters along by seducing the lady in question into convincing her brother to spill the information he so desperately seeks. However, he never anticipated his lustful but inconvenient reaction to the clever minded, gorgeous slip of a woman. Kate's quick intelligence both infuriates and fascinates Max while her sharp tongue and bald remarks ignites his temper right along side his flaming desire. Determining that Kate is entirely too smart and too desperate for her own good after revealing her plans to print a tell-all memoir, Max fears for her safety and swiftly organizes his procurement of said memoir as well as the Lady Kate herself.Initially, Kate worries that her spotless reputation faces irreparable damage in the hands of the duke whom of which has the shocking ability to turn her sharp mind slow with lust. Never has she felt a passion this sharp, not even with her phantom lover. Sexually repressed within her loveless marriage, Kate took her pleasure in a diary that documented all her erotic fantasies. There she found solace in the arms of her made-up lover but what Max makes her feel surpasses all of her fantasies. Terrified by her rampant emotions, Kate thinks of nothing but escape until her many refusals of Max's ardor leads her straight towards a killer's embrace. When Max's falsities for abducting Kate turns to reality and she truly does become the prey of a killer, he's convinced that his ill-timed lust prevented him from ensuring her proper protection and resolves to maintain distance. Emotional entanglements are never conducive to a successful mission but Kate's vulnerabilities and overall shock after near death propels them both into each others arms seeking comfort and release. When the details of the Kate's stolen diary reveals not the incriminating facts that she's threatened, but rather years worth of pent up sexual frustration, Max becomes convinced that his lust is to blame once again since it's obvious that he's gone about his carnal pursuits all wrong. Kate's documented her wants of a slow and sensual lover not the fierce ravishment he's subjected her to, treating her as though a common trollop. Resolving to treat Kate like her phantom lover as well as that which her station deserves, Max fights to restrain the dark possessive nature within him that demands release. Kate, confused by Max's sudden cooling ardor, fights to build confidence and explain to him that she rather experience more of the possessive, overwhelming love making he'd originally demanded. While he still sates her every desire, somehow she's left unsatisfied. While a distance inevitably begins to expand with Max's clamped hold on his lust and Kate's fear of what his reaction will be to her dark needs, an enemy soon gains the upper hand forcing them each to face who they really are or loose each other forever.My Thoughts:THE DANGEROUS DUKE, while a seamless romance with a wonderfully developed hero and heroine, unfortunately became a bit overshadowed by two very interesting secondary characters. Lady Louisa, Max's sister, and Jardine, a Marquis whose connections led him to work for the Home Office, are embroiled in a thrilling game of cat and mouse. Jardine's extremely possessive nature combined with Louisa's desperation to maintain distance, soon propels the reader's own desperation to speed to the next scene containing the two. The forbidden passion and underlying current of a deep history leaves one begging for more, thus thrusting Max and Kate into the background. Jardine is one of those magnetic characters that commands full attention of the reader whenever he walks on stage. One can't help but have their eyes completely captured by his beauty, his dangerous bad-boy appeal so a warning: Be prepared to fall in love.Unfortunately by the end, I cared little for Max and Kate but instead held bated breath between theirs and Jardine's and Louisa's scenes. It was their romance I became desperate to read and therefore sadly - yet successfully - ending my connection with Max and Kate. Their trials became trivial in the face of Jardine's and Louisa's complicated connection.Aside from the above, I'm still in awe of Christine Wells and her unbelievable talent as a writer for she brings a distinct authenticity to her novels. Her grasp of the language, culture and rules whisks you wonderfully away to a whole other time and place. I imagine that she must toil over each and every sentence because from beginning to end, this novel is supremely polished and complete. A wonderful diversion, THE DANGEROUS DUKE, combines thrilling action, sweet romance and two brilliant secondary characters that make it a complete pleasure from start to finish. Enjoy! Reviewed for queuemyreview.com; book release Sep08During the late regency period in England, there were fears of a ‘British Revolution’. Remember that not so long before this time the ‘colonies’ had successfully achieved their independence and established a democracy, throwing off the bonds of a monarchy. France had their ‘Glorious Revolution’ and did away with their monarchs via ‘Madame Guillotine’. In any event, the regency period encompassed more than the blissful excesses of ‘Prinny’ and the ton, but it’s very rare to read anything about this in a regency romance novel. “The Dangerous Duke” by Christine Wells opens with the plight of a vicar imprisoned under suspicion of sedition because he refuses to name the rebels accused of burning a peer’s home. The fire killed four members of the aristocracy and is assumed to be a prelude to revolutionary activities. I personally (History geek alert!) found this fascinating, but the author quickly moves on to more salacious events involving: the theft of a scandalous diary, a headstrong widow, and a hardboiled Home Office investigator who has become a Duke.The vicar’s sister, Lady Kate, is the widow of a politician. He was apparently a cold fish so she began a personal diary where she wrote about her ‘dream’ lover. The diary is quite spicy for an upright regency widow and each chapter heading is a short quote from her diary. She decides to free her brother (even though he has repeatedly asked her to butt out) by whtever means necessary including threatening to publish a scandalous tell-all book about the secrets she knows about current politicians. In those times (unlike today?) this was a particularly BAD idea as safeguarding the status quo meant anything up to and including murder was condoned! Threats and attacks by an unknown assailant/s occur and she ends up with no choice but to trust the handsome Duke of Lyle to keep her safe. How convenient.The brand new Duke of Lyle is the one who (unbeknownst to Kate) put her brother in prison in an effort to get him to spill the names of the rebel conspirators. Since the vicar won’t talk, he decides that kidnapping Kate and holding her hostage until her brother talks is the most expedient way to get what he wants. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s VERY attracted to Kate. The history and the fluid writing made reading the book a pleasure. Unfortunately, I found Kate to be a bit of a twit. Loyalty to family is important, but if her brother has (repeatedly!) asked her to butt out, can she not assume he has a plan and doesn’t intend to die? One of them is stupid and either way that kind of irritated me throughout the book. The villain is hinted at fairly heavily throughout the book, but there are a few red herrings thrown around in an effort to be less blatant. The hero has definite flaws…he’s not a particularly good guy through most of the book. His plans for Kate were fairly clear and it irritated me again that Kate couldn’t figure this out. The sex scenes were, I must admit, pretty darn hot for a regency. But a senseless misunderstanding regarding their sex life could have been prevented with a simple conversation! Another irritant for me. I read Christine Wells first novel “Scandal’s Daughter” and had some of the same issues with miscommunications and not-so-bright characters. I do think “The Dangerous Duke” was a better read than her first and I’ll likely pick up her next release when it hits the shelves. If the above mentioned irritants for me don’t bother you, then you’ll likely really enjoy the story of a shady Duke and his feisty widow.
What do You think about The Dangerous Duke (2008)?
No character development to speak of, and a fairly silly plot. Hard to believe this won an award...
—Kariisings
