The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne

 

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After finishing The Highlander, I couldn't help but jump right into The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne. I am reading her Victorian Rebels series as a read-a-long with the Romance Book Squad, hosted by  Alecia, Natasha, Krystal and Kerry. 

Another 5-stars! After absolutely loving The Highlander, I couldn't help but immediately jump into The Duke. Book 4 centers around Cole, the not-so-secret spy and Duke of Trenwyth and his former lover and nurse Imogen. Going into this book Cole was teased a little, but the reader still didn't know too much about him. When on Goodreads to mark it as "currently reading," I did glance at the reviews. I just skimmed the first couple that were featured, at I was nervous going into this book due to the reviews mentioning horrible things he said to Imogen. I was expecting bad (because this is Kerrigan Byrne and she's not afraid to go dark), but it didn't really seem that bad to me. There's only one part really where he seemed abnormally mean, but at the same time he was also coming out of septicemia and surgery to help his wrist where he lost his left hand. Plus, he was at the point in his recovery from being a pow and tortured, that he almost wished he wasn't alive, and so took it out on the nurse that diagnosed him correctly and saved his life.

He was also snarky with her at the charity dinner, but so were other members of the high nobility that were there so it didn't seem that bad to me. Just stereotypical duke haughtiness. Anyways, I loved this book. Read it in one sitting and really enjoyed how it played on my emotions when he just didn't recognize her! The only thing I could've done without, was the dead kitten. Just, no. Also, I was surprised with whom the villain ended up being. After finishing The Duke and seeing we were headed back to Scotland for The Scot Beds His Wife, I immediately jumped in. I have to say, I now understand the hype around this series. I just wish it would've been a little more hyped that it's the later books that really up the ante. Or maybe it's just me that loves these later books. *shrugs*

Have you read The Duke?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Duke, Kerrigan Byrne, 5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 377 pages, Published 2017