Book Review: Only a Duke Will Do by Tamara Gill

Only A Duke Will Do by Tamara Gill
Book 2 in the To Marry a Rogue Series
ARC, Paperback, 266 pages
Entangled Publishing
February 20, 2017
★★★★ ½☆

Heat Rating:

 

Genre: Historical Romance

Source: Received from the author for review

Without a Season, Lady Isolde Worthingham captured the Duke of Moore’s heart at a country dance. But on the eve of her wedding, a scandal that rocked the ton and sent her fleeing to Scotland alone and unwed, leaves her perfectly planned future in a tangle of disgrace and heartbreak.

Merrick Mountshaw, the Duke of Moore, loathes the pitiful existence he portrays to the ton. With a scandalous wife he never wanted, who flaunts her many indiscretions, life is a never-ending parade of hell. When the one woman he loved and lost returns to London, he knows he can no longer live without her.

But vows and past hurts are not easily forgotten. Love may not win against the ton when a too proper lord and lady play by the rules.

**This review was previously posted at Romantic Historical Reviews**

On the eve of her wedding, Lady Isolde is thrown a major curveball when her fiancé Merrick, the Duke of Moore is found in a compromising position with another woman, who happened to have been one of her closest friends. Merrick had no alternative but to call off his wedding to Isolde and marry her friend instead. Isolde ran away to Scotland to lick her wounds, but now, five years later she has come out of hiding from the shame of that ignominious day determined to find happiness again and move beyond the love she still feels for Merrick. But her every step is plagued by the machinations of the wife who stole her place, and the continuing presence of Merrick in her life. Because her heart still belongs to him, Lady Isolde must find out if she can move on and be content in a marriage without love while also discovering if it is possible for her to have any type of relationship with the man she almost married.

It’s obvious, right from the first pages of Only A Duke Will Do, that the romance is going to be an uphill battle. The heroine loses her man to someone she thought she could trust, so not only does she lose the love of her life, but also loses a long-established, close female bond. Isolde is crushed, to say the least. Her decision to return to society after five years is a brave one, but she wants the security of a husband and family and going about in London society is the best way to find both those things, even if love is no longer possible. Isolde is one strong woman as she handles seeing her former love move among her friends, deals with the hatred that his wife spews her way, and tries to balance the expectations of the ton. I give her kudos for not falling apart completely, because I would have! We also see things from Merrick’s point of view and learn of the poisonous relationship that his marriage has become. He loves Isolde even now and while he wants the best for her, it also kills him to see her moving on. The back and forth of wills between these two is well done as they both struggle to do what is right.

The relationship, or what remains of it, between Isolde and Merrick is the driving factor in this novel. The romance is primarily the smolder, the yearning, and the question of whether they can ever find their happily ever after. I was rooting for these two from the beginning, but even more than halfway through I wasn’t sure if there was any future for them.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this book is that the drama and conflict are established right from the start. The reader doesn’t really have a chance to get behind Isolde and Merrick as a couple before they are ripped apart, and it’s natural to side with Isolde in the early stages. As the book progresses, Merrick’s situation begins to become clearer, and that’s when you start to want to see them together; I believe that this mirrors Isolde’s understanding of her situation nicely. (I should probably point out here that there is no cheating in this story; Merrick and Isolde still love each other, but they don’t commit adultery). While there is no defined “good” character in the novel, although I suppose it could be argued that Isolde is representative of it, there is a very defined “bad” character and she just oozes malice with her every word and move. I was not a fan and was very happy with her character’s outcome.

I raced through the pages of this novel, staying up much later than I should have to finish reading it because I needed to know if Isolde and Merrick would work it out or not. I will be looking forward to the next novel that Tamara Gill puts out as I have thoroughly enjoyed her work thus far.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Lindsey Gray

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by Tamara Gill:

Tamara Gill has written many books (complete listing here), but those in the To Marry A Rogue series include:

Only an Earl Will Do (Book 1)
[My Review]

Only a Viscount Will Do (Book 3)
Coming in May 2017

Find Tamara Gill: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest |Goodreads

 

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