Nowhere Book Bingo 25: Recommended by a friend (see, Des, I finally read it!)
Buzzwords 2025 Cover Challenge: Foliage
Peter Kent has lived most of his life in America, and certainly never expected to inherit a dukedom. Now he’s the Duke of Stanhope and desperately trying to be granted custody of his younger half-siblings, both of whom treat him with disdain and claim they are perfectly happy living with their decrepit guardian. It doesn’t help his case that Peter’s inexperience with English high society keeps inadvertently landing him in scandalous situations. He needs help to rehabilitate his reputation and turns to the cleverest woman he knows.
Lady Selina Ravenscroft has an impeccable pedigree and a flawless reputation because no one knows that she organises and runs a circulating library of erotic literature for women. The way to clean up Peter’s somewhat shaky image would be for him to court and preferably marry a thoroughly respectable woman, preferably before the court hearing about the custody of his siblings. Selina quickly makes a list of three perfectly suitable young women and tries to coach Peter on how best to court them. Unfortunately, the only woman Peter feels any sort of interest in is Selina, and the more time they spend together, trying to make him fall for another woman, the more certain he becomes that the only woman he wants to marry is her.
My friend Desdemona has been nagging me to read Alexandra Vasti for absolutely ages, since long before this novel was even published. I did take her advice and read the first of Vasti’s Halifax Hellions novellas last year and enjoyed it, but then got distracted by something else shiny on my ever-expanding TBR list, and I never got around to reading any more. When I was granted an ARC of Vasti’s second novel through NetGalley (so exciting!), it seemed natural to read this one first. As far as I understand, that novel’s heroine is Selina’s best friend Lydia (also the name of my best friend!), who here features as one of Peter’s potential brides-to-be. Unfortunately, Lydia has crippling social anxiety, frequently vomits in potted plants at balls, and can’t seem to manage to speak to anyone outside her immediate family and friends – so doesn’t really respond too well to Peter’s advances. Plus, it’s obvious to her and everyone who sees them together that Peter is mad for Selina, and he doesn’t have eyes for anyone else when she’s nearby.
Crossposted on my blog.