HOW TO LOVE A DUKE IN TEN DAYS
Series Title:
The Devil You Know Series, Book #1
The Devil You Know Series, Book #1
Length: 348 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperback
Rating: 5 Stars
They call him The Terror of Torcliff
Piers Gedrick Atherton, the Duke of Redmayne, has one purpose. Revenge. To attain that, he must secure a legacy as old as the empire by claiming a wife.
Lady Alexandra Lane has a deadly secret. When the specter of her violent past threatens to expose her, Alexandra learns just how much she stands to lose.
If she sacrifices her body on the altar of marriage, the terrifying Duke vows to protect her, but she fears he’ll change his mind once he realizes what she’s hiding.
Ever suspicious, Redmayne knows his wife is concealing something, but he soon realizes that the truest terror is losing the woman who’s come to own him body, heart, and soul.
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Please enjoy this excerpt from
How To Love A Duke In Ten Days
Exclusive Excerpt:
Redmayne turned to her, looming closer. Larger.
“Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t what?” “Don’t try to make me a good man.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Your Grace.” When she should have retreated, she didn’t.
Instead, she finished her whisky, enjoying the warm languor spreading from her middle to her blood.
“Good.” He became very still, watching as she licked the last of the honeyed liquor from her lips. The cool of the night suddenly disappeared, the air turned heavy with salt, and moisture, and . . . something more illicit.
Possibly dangerous.
“Have you ever really been kissed, Alexandra Lane?”
She blinked. And froze. However, the usual paralyzing terror that would have cinched around her bones at such a predicament . . . didn’t. Fear was more of a faint shimmer through veins made sluggish with whisky. It was accompanied by another more curious emotion. Not excitement, but something adjacent to it. Why did he want to know? What did he hope her answer would be? Indeed, what should she say?
The truth, of course. A lie would not serve her here, and besides, she’d too many of those on her conscience to bother with a flippant fib in the dark.
“N-no.” She wished her voice were stronger. That she’d had a different, more worldly experience to share. But alas, she’d never allowed a man close enough to kiss her. As far as she was concerned, men had long ago ceased wanting to.
“I thought not,” he murmured, setting his glass next to hers on the banister.
Alexandra forced another swallow. “How—I mean— why thought you not?” And why was she suddenly speaking nonsense?
A faint hint of arrogance brushed at his lips. “Men like me can just tell.” Her heart kicked against her lungs, evoking shorter, shallower breaths.
“Men like you?”
“Hunters.” The vibration of the word spread down her spine and unfurled in the most alarming places. “Your lips, innocent as they are, beg to be kissed whenever I am near. Your tongue moistens them. Your teeth worry at them. And when I stare, as I am doing now, they soften and part, like an invitation . . .”
Stunned, Alexandra curled her lips around her teeth as if to hide them from him. Had he really gleaned all that from her mouth? Had her lips truly betrayed her so?
He paused, glancing up. “Your eyes are always afraid, though. I think it’s because you can sense I want to kiss you, too.”
“Y-you do?”
He nodded, his own lips melting into a soft smile at the abject astonishment in her question.
“Since the moment we met on the train platform, I’ve dreamt of kissing you in more than a dozen ways.”
The sound she emitted was somewhere between a cough and a gasp. Were there more than a dozen ways to kiss? How many more?
“We . . . we shouldn’t be speaking of such things, Your Grace.” She turned away from him, suddenly trembling at the edge of an abyss, ready to leap into madness. He drew close, never once touching her. But the heat and strength of him stretched beyond his physical being, threading through the night toward her, endangering her composure.
Her resolve.
“It’s wrong, I know it,” he murmured, his voice containing an agony that tugged at her racing heart. “I’m to announce my engagement to your friend this very night, and all I can think of is what you’d taste like. I’m more of a monster than any scars or scandals I claim. But I’ve not kissed a woman since before the jaguar. I’ve not particularly wanted to until your lips drove me to distraction.”
Unable to hear any more, she whirled around.
“Would you marry me?” The idea had sparked like a fever, an idea that could fix everything. An idea that would release them all from the clutches of their sins. All it would cost was her soul
My Thoughts
There is one reason...
And one reason only, that this reviewer can and does drop everything when presented with the chance to read the latest book by Kerrigan Byrne.
In fact. It happens to be the same reason that said reviewer finds herself awake and penning this review at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m.
While still basking in the afterglow of Ms. Byrne's first offering of the Devil You Know series.
Entitled How To Love A Duke In Ten Days.
This book may be a Historical Romance at its core. But it is delightfully so much more.
Including:
1. A sisterhood built upon shared life altering childhood secrets.
2. Murder, mayhem, a marriage made by money.
3. One very, very, contrary bluestocking, Lady of a Doctor, Miss Alexandra Lane.
Determined to ply her mantra of head over heart against the ferociously tempting Duke of Redmane. One Piers Gedrick Atherton.
While doing her best to keep more than a few of the afore mentioned life altering secrets.
One of which could end up costing one or both of them their lives.
And one so horrid that its revelation could cost her the chance of a lifetime with a man that she never thought that she could bring herself to desire.
But wait...
It gets better.
Because it seems that the Piers has a few deadly secrets of his own.
Which threaten the already beleaguered couple just as doggedly as those of his leading lady.
Leading readers chomping at the bit to know.
Whose secrets will be the ones that toll the death knoll for both this couple and their future?
And...
Will one of both of them be brave enough to trust the other with the spectors that haunt their tortured souls?
And most importantly...
Who wants Alexandra and Piers dead so badly?
And why?
To unearth (pun intended) the answers to these, and many more questions. While enjoying a happily ever after custom tailored to highjack any beating heart.
Don't miss How To Love A Duke In Ten Days. Or as this reviewer likes to call it. How To Devour A Book In One Sitting.
I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for granting my the privilege of reviewing such a wonderful book. The opinions found within this review have in no way been influenced by the publisher, its author, or any agents thereof.
About Kerrigan
If you're anything like me, the best night is one spent with a brawny highlander, a mysterious werewolf, a conflicted vampire, or a hot-headed Irishman. My stories span the spectrum of romantic fiction from historical, to paranormal, to romantic suspense. But I can always promise my readers one thing: memorable and sexy Celtic heroes who are guaranteed to heat your blood before they steal your heart. Lose yourself in the enchanted Celtic Isles, you never know who, or what, will find you...
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