Any Duchess Will Do (Spindle Cove)

Any Duchess Will Do - Tessa Dare This kind of review very hard for me to write because I’ve been a fan of Tessa Dare’s Spindle Cove series since the beginning. Each book before Any Duchess Will Do expanded on characters we’ve known from the start and it was fun to see them grow, change and find love that would take them from the small seaside town into the greater world. However there was less appeal in a story featuring characters Pauline Simms and Griffin York as romantic leads since neither one was a particularly memorable character to me from their previous appearances. In fact Griffin was slightly repellant in A Week to be Wicked, so Ms. Dare had her work cut out for her in making him sympathetic and lovable and getting me invested in Pauline as a leading lady. I give her an A for effort, a B in execution, but the book was more a mid-grade read for me.

Reaching her wits end with her son the Duke of Halford, the dowager duchess decides that it’s about time for him to marry. Taking advantage of his penchant to drink, she drugs him and kidnaps him into traveling to the seaside community of Spindle Cove, known in London as the hideaway for spinsters who will jump at the chance to marry a duke. Griffin York has personal reasons for not marrying, none of which he is comfortable sharing with his mother, and he isn’t about to let her force him into an engagement on her terms. When the dowager makes the claim that she will turn any of the women in the room into the ideal Duchess of Halford, Griffin meets her challenge by selecting the woman least likely for the position, the serving maid Pauline Simms.

For the full review, please go to http://www.thewindowseat13.com/2013/05/tessa-dare-any-duchess-will-do.html