The Duke's Daughters: Lady Be Reckless
A Duke's Daughters Novel
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The Duke’s five daughters have beauty, breeding, and impeccable reputations. Or at least, they did. Now that two have chosen to follow their hearts, can the others be far behind?
Lady Olivia refuses to repeat her siblings’ scandalous mistakes. Instead, she will marry the lord rejected by her sister and help with his good works. When he resists, Olivia forms another plan: win his lordship’s admiration by helping his illegitimate best friend find a bride. How difficult can it be to transform the rakish Edward Wolcott into a gentleman? To ignore his virile good looks? To not kiss him in a moment of impulsive madness? Apparently, very difficult indeed.
Edward Wolcott promised his ailing father he would marry well, and it appears Lady Olivia wishes to assist him. The sparkling firebrand intends to smooth his way through London’s ballrooms, parlors, and eligible ladies, while all Edward’s thoughts suddenly revolve around bedrooms . . . and Lady Olivia herself. Only a scoundrel would seduce the duke’s most dutiful daughter. And only a truly reckless lady would risk everything to be in his arms . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Frampton's second Victorian-era Duke's Daughters novel (after Lady Be Bad) sparkles with wit. It begins with a Gone with the Wind reference: Lady Olivia proposes to Lord Carson in a private room during a ball and he gently declines. She heaves a bit of bric-a-brac while he leaves, at which time Edward Wolcott, Carson's friend and the illegitimate son of a financier, pops up from behind the couch. Frampton takes her leave from Mitchell here: Wolcott is remarkably kind during their introduction. Olivia decides to make a project of getting him accepted in high society, to prove her wifely bona fides to Lord Carson. Her plan goes awry in the best way, and they fall in love instead. The author elevates a standard plot with crisp writing, witty secondaries, and unpredictability. Olivia's effervescence attracts Wolcott before her beauty does, and Frampton plays with the do-gooder trope in ways that recall Jane Austen's Emma. Leads who genuinely enjoy each other's company and the obligatory love scene in a storm-battered shed will delight fans of historical romances.
