The Trouble with Dukes

I love it when the scoundrel gets their comeuppance! Meggie and Hamish touched my heart and tickled my funny bone. ❤️❤️❤️🔥🔥 R. K. Carulli

A great writer wrote a great story and had a great proofreader. Well-developed characters. The 3 male cousins brought fun and a sense of reality to the story.

Hamish MacHugh, the very reluctant new Duke of Murdoch, can’t wait to leave the sweltering ballrooms and stuffy clubs of London behind. Admitting he needs to give his sisters at least one season among the Ton to let them choose husbands, he enlists the help of Megan Windham, niece to grand old Duke Percy and his duchess Esther Windham, to teach him the dances and etiquette his new rank requires. When Megan is bullied by Sir Fletcher, an old flame and bearer of evidence proving Megan’s youthful indiscretion, Hamish intervenes. Sir Fletcher is ruthless in his pursuit of Megan’s substantial settlements to pay off his gambling debts and threatens social ruin if she doesn’t marry him. What follows is a slow building of trust, respect, affection, and finally love between Hamish and Megan. Hamish bears emotional scars from his own past, having served during the war against Napoleon, surviving capture and torture. As much as Megan brings Hamish to life and sanity, Hamish encourages Megan to see solutions when she is bereft of hope. There are enough twists and turns in the storyline (as is common in Ms. Burrowes books) so that it is at first impossible to see a resolution that will give Hamish and Megan their happy ever after. Then, just when you are certain you know how it is going to end, Ms. Burrowes comes up with a denouement totally out of the blue, completely satisfying and awesomely perfect. Ms. Burrowes’ writing is beautifully descriptive, without being overly wordy, choosing the ideal words to convey the circumstances. Characters from past books in the Windham family series make appearances, though this book is a standalone. That said, it was like a family reunion to revisit Valentine, Westhaven, Percy, Esther, Rosecroft and the rest of this loving clan as secondary characters who assist, but never intrude on, a lovely romance. But given a taste of Ms. Burrowes stories, you may well want to read the rest of the Windham’s saga! I highly recommend!!!

An excellent well written love story! Hamish MacHugh has become a duke. Him and his brother,Colin and sisters are in London for more than just clothes. Now Megan Windham is related to many well connected people who enjoy a bit of matchmaking. She has a problem which needs solving and through meeting Hamish will be resolved ! Such interesting plot twists and surprises! The mystery is excellent, the humor is outstanding and the romance is perfection! Megan will surprise you but the book will keep you entertained!

Make character does t make sense, very slow moving, not very romantic for a romance novel, very boring.

Very poorly written. The author was trying too hard to make the story a romantic tale. I found myself wondering if it was the authors first book and if she had simply followed the “romance formula” for book writing. The book needs a rewrite.

One of the best romance novels I have read in many months. I would say it's the best I've read all year but it's January 4th and that does not give Grace Burrows the honor she is due. It's an unusual story line and I had a bit of trouble following the military terminology but once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed every page.

The Trouble with Dukes is an engaging and entertaining historical fiction romance. Megan felt bullied by Sir Fletcher. He was blackmailing her, saying that there would be consequences if she refused to marry him. He was just about to drop and break her eye glasses, when Colonel MacHugh, the new Duke of Murdoch, came to her rescue. Hamish MacHugh wasn’t looking forward to his newly acquired responsibilities as the Duke of Murdoch. He was especially agonizing over the duty of escorting his sisters to the balls during the London Season. Hamish didn’t have the slightest idea of what the proper rules of etiquette in polite society were. Megan Windham, however, saved him from embarrassment. She agreed to teach him the fine art of small talk, and how to waltz. The more time Megan spent with Hamish, the more attractive, she found him. She was aware of his troubled past and his ruthless acts in war. Megan knew that people referred to him as the Duke of Murder, a barbarian with a violent and unstable temper. But, to her, the Duke was an honest and true gentleman, and Megan was quickly falling in love with him. Hamish was homesick for Scotland but didn’t want to leave London, without the woman he loved. He would do anything for Megan, even murder. The author immerses the reader deep into the world of aristocrats, Dukes, Earls, Lords, and their wives. The Trouble with Dukes is a well-written and captivating story. Many thanks to the publisher, and NetGalley, for my advanced review copy.

I received an advance copy from the publisher in a drawing and I'm so glad! Poor Duke of Murder has a bad rep thanks to another officer who came home all spit and polish from the back of the lines. He never expected to inherit and suddenly he's managing about as well as any of us would if suddenly shoved onto one of those Real Housewives glamor shows. Add a duke's daughter who ran afoul of getting herself into her century's version of sexting and you get great lines like, "They exchanged That Look, the one that said he'd Done It Again, though nobody ever bothered to tell a man what IT might be." The author could have turned this into a farce or a romp. Because she played it straight and you feel the impact on her characters' lives and live it with them, it's simply AWESOME. Pages into it, I locked the door, turned off my phone and indulged in a marathon of reading, surfacing only for bathroom breaks and snatched munchies. No wild action or breathless chase scenes. This writer paints the sort of self-centered, thoroughly entitled villains that any of us could meet or date today while keeping them true to their time and culture. The characters are both relatable and addictive. We all know veterans with hearts of gold and PTSD who would need more than a change of clothes to fit onto the society circuit. I wish I could leave a review as glowing as this author's words. She makes you FEEL the people of her stories. Don't start her book on a weeknight unless you have time off coming to you. This book starts so quietly and you think, "I'll just read a chapter" and suddenly it's tomorrow and you're late for everything.