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Book Review of The Duchess and the Desperado (Harlequin Historical, No 421)

The Duchess and the Desperado (Harlequin Historical, No 421)
reviewed on + 419 more book reviews


Here we have a Victorian Duchess who is a bit wilful and almost innocent, Sarah Challoner, Duchess of Malvern.
Queen Victoria wants her, no insists, to marry an older Duke.
Instead of taking a European Grand Tour as most male nobility do she insists on visiting the Great American Wild West.
Ah, but someone is trying to kill her, she is saved by the outlaw desperado, Morgan Calhoun. Actually he turns out to be a very honorable man with dark secrets.

After several close brushes with death, Morgan agrees to take the Duchess to her secret beloved, Thierry, a French count in Santa Fe of the New Mexican Territory.

Of course, all hormones break lose when they spend some time with the Apache tribe of Naiche, the brave Morgan and Sarah rescue from some scumbags. I forgot to mention that Morgan drilled Sarah in handling a gun.

Morgan and Sarah stole away from her Uncle and her entourage to hit the trail with her bay thoroughbred mare, Trafalgar and his pinto stallion, Rio. Of course there is going to be a foal. [grin - just mentioning this because of the way it fits into the story]

Needless to say, that Morgan get caught by the law and Sarah insists on traveling the next 900 miles to Texas, she intends to reward Morgan by hiring the best lawyer possible. And by now she wants to see the ranch that Morgan grew up on and got stolen from him.

Really enjoyable story - we get to make the wild trip with great characters - of course the mystery was not hard to solve but the conclusion worked out a bit differently than expected.