Dawn R. (dmr030) reviewed on 1/5/2016 + 47 more book reviews

Julian Fortescue never in a million years thought he would inherit a dukedom or have three half sisters to care for. But now that he is, he needs a governess. When he meets Jane Grey, a young woman who hides secrets, he finds himself tempted to know everything about her even as he tries to keep his heart off the table. Jane is actually Lady Jeanne de Falleron, a French aristocrat who is determined to find the person responsible for her family's deaths and if she has to go undercover as a governess so be it. But she never anticipated falling for her rakish employer or that the mystery of her family's death just might destroy her growing love for Julian.

This is so not your average historical romance story. It has adventure, mystery, romance and characters that just blow you away. There is scheming, politics and more that kept the story moving along with twists that had me gasping in shock as I flipped the pages. There was complexity and depth in the story that just left me breathless. The writing was tight, story flowed so smoothly and the characters...they were just so well written I was astounded. This is an author who knows how to create characters that are life-like and have real emotions/feelings like we do in real life. You just can not help but fall in love with them. The story flows so nicely I just fell into it. The romance wasn't right off the bat, it was like a slow build up that over many pages you get caught up in it and when it finally is acknowledged, you are blown away by it all.

Julian is a man who is trying to find his footing as the new Duke and guardian to his half-sisters, who are just delightful. He is sweet and sinful all wrapped up in that alpha personality. There were times you just thought what a teddy bear this guy is and when he gets Jane in his sights well lets just say sparks fly fast and furious.

Jane (Jeanne) is a delight as well. She is determined to find the answers to her family's deaths and in the meantime, help make three sisters into proper young ladies. She is direct, proper but not in a stuffy, overbearing kind of way. She speaks her mind but in a nice manner that I really enjoyed. Sometimes in historical romances, the heroine can get quite insufferable and the author does a great job in keeping her direct yet sensitive.

THE DUKE OF DARK DESIRES is more than your boy meets girl, girl has secrets and they fall in love sort of thing. It has all the markings of a great historical movie filled with action, mystery and more. It kept me glued to the pages to the very end and I found myself looking into the author's backlist for more books once I was done with this one. If you enjoy a highly entertaining story filled with complex characters, intriguing mystery and more then you will enjoy THE DUKE OF DARK DESIRES. Now all I can ask the author is more please!

This is an objective review and not an endorsement

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