The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo
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4.5 • 116 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Kerrigan Byrne returns to her captivating Victorian Rebels series with the USA Today bestselling The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo.
The bravest of heroes. The brashest of rebels. The boldest of lovers. These are the men who risk their hearts and their souls—for the passionate women who dare to love them…
He is known only as The Rook. A man with no name, no past, no memories. He awakens in a mass grave, a magnificent dragon tattoo on his muscled forearm the sole clue to his mysterious origins. His only hope for survival—and salvation—lies in the deep, fiery eyes of the beautiful stranger who finds him. Who nurses him back to health. And who calms the restless demons in his soul…
A LEGENDARY LOVE
Lorelai will never forget the night she rescued the broken dark angel in the woods, a devilishly handsome man who haunts her dreams to this day. Crippled as a child, she devoted herself to healing the poor tortured man. And when he left, he took a piece of her heart with him. Now, after all these years, The Rook has returned. Like a phantom, he sweeps back into her life and avenges those who wronged her. But can she trust a man who’s been branded a rebel, a thief, and a killer? And can she trust herself to resist him when he takes her in his arms?
“Byrne is a force in the genre.”—RT Book Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Powerhouse Byrne (The Scot Beds His Wife) plays with old-school romance tropes, providing this pirate adventure's violent, aggressive, and terrifyingly masculine hero with a rich backstory that makes him emotionally comprehensible while giving his gentle, naive partner plenty of agency and maturity in her resistance to being swept away. The amnesiac stranger with whom teenage Lorelei Weatherstoke falls in love while helping him heal from a nearly fatal beating returns years later as infamous rebel called the Rook, murdering Lorelei's cruel brother in vengeance and sailing away with her as his claimed bride. But she and her sister-in-law hold their own among the pirates, and the Rook begins to view her as neither prize nor inspiring goddess, but as a person. In parallel, he allows the humanity buried deep beneath his self-protective brutality to reemerge, rekindling his social connections in a delightful sort of noble bad-boy network, and becoming more of a charming rogue by the end. Readers who feel guilty about craving the thrill of a Victorian bodice-ripper will appreciate the moral reassurance of Byrne's sensitive characterizations.
Customer Reviews
Great addition to the series!
The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo was my first Kerrigan Byrne novel. The novel takes place in two different times. The first when we first meet "Ash" and Lorelei as young adults. Ash was gravely injured and left for dead. This caused him to loose his memory. Lorelei nursed him back to health and in the mean time falls in love with him. Due to unfortunate events, Lorelei is made to believe Ash's memory has returned and left her.
Twenty years later, Lorelei is taken on her wedding day after her fiancé and brother are killed. She comes to find out, the boy she knew as Ash has grown up to be the infamous pirate.
Ash and Lorelei's relationship is a test of wills. The man she thinks he is, is dead. Lorelei refuses to believe it. She knows he's in there still. The story had heart, action, found identities and betrayal. What I liked is that while there was a lot going on, it continued the story line and character development. A great first read and I'm going back to read "Dorian's" book.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc in exchange for this honest review.
Unnecessary swear words.
Once again Kerrigan Byrne does not realise how unnecessary the constant F word that peppers her writing is not in accord for the 19th Century when this word was not at all in use. It begun to be used during the Second World War.
The story is far fetched but well written and uses a beautiful vocabulary which sadly gets spoiled by these swear words!
Please in future stop using these words!
The duke with the Dragon Tatoo
Would give it six stars if there was a six start rating!!!’ Thoroughly enjoyable.
Love Kerrigan Byrne’s historical romances.