The Duke Gets Desperate
A Novel
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- £1.99
Publisher Description
Diana Quincy returns with a steamy affair between an Arab-American woman who inherits a run-down castle in the English countryside and the duke who asserts the castle is his, in the first book in a brand-new Victorian historical romance series.
Anthony Cary, Duke of Strickland, inherits his spendthrift father’s title and can finally restore the family castle to its former glory. But at the reading of the will, Strick is stunned to learn that his father has secretly disentailed him, leaving the family manor—home to twelve generations of dukes—to Strick’s American stepmother. Everyone knows Strick detests the dowager duchess, and when she dies mysteriously, damning rumors start to surface.
When Raya Darwish unexpectedly inherits her glamorous late cousin’s castle in the English countryside, she clashes with the charismatic young duke who insists the castle is rightfully his. The estate is practically bankrupt, so she must find a way to work with the duke in order to save both of their futures.
The two cannot stand each other, but mutual disdain soon gives way to desire. When questions arise about how her cousin died, Raya cannot help wondering if Strick’s sudden unbridled passion for her is part of a scheme to get his castle back...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Quincy (The Marquess Makes His Move) launches her Sirens in Silk series with an overstuffed Victorian romance. In 1886 Yorkshire, Anthony "Strick" Carey, Duke of Strickland, has been disinherited. The entail having lapsed, Castle Tremayne, the Strickland family seat for 400 years, has been bequeathed to Strick's stepmother's cousin, Raya Darwish, an Arab-American businesswoman from New York. Ducal finances, already under stress, threaten to disintegrate unless Strick, who still owns the land around the castle, can come to terms with the interloper ("neither of us can exist without the other"), whose eye for "crass" profit is trumped only by her luscious curves and virago's mouth. Quincy surrounds their Taming of the Shrew dynamic with stock bits of suspense—was the stepmother murdered? Is Raya next?—but these plot points are strewn erratically, quashing potential tension. Meanwhile, romance is too often reduced to lust: Strick, contemplating marriage with Raya, thinks, "The prospect of lots of good sex overcame the numerous obstacles." It's hard to swoon at such an observation. The Arab-American heroine, meanwhile, is a welcome face in a still overwhelmingly white genre, but she's underserved by cookie-cutter characterization. The prospect of a series based on this setup is not encouraging.
