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If you don’t pick up The Duke Gets Desperate by Diana Quincy, you are missing out! This new series is off to a ripping start with enemies-to-lovers featuring an Arab American FMC who inherits a castle and a starchy duke who thinks it should have been his. These two are butting heads basically from first meet. Raya is the daughter of textile merchants in the States (and to borrow a phrase), she’s got a head for business and a bod for sin.
Raya embarks on a plan to use her business acumen to whip Castle Tremayne into shape and make the estate some money after years of neglect. Anthony, Duke of Strickland, can barely keep up, and truthfully he’d rather focus on his Saxon research and artifacts. These two bicker and banter constantly and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to watch that bicker turn into heavy breathing the moment either gets within arms length. (Say less, am I right?)
I loved that the cultural rep was more extensive than in previous DQ books. I loved Raya’s ish talking auntie and as always, I love a hyper-competent FMC. The MMC who realizes how amazing she is (even if it takes him a minute), he’s not bad either. This may be Diana Quincy’s spiciest novel yet, with Strick’s penchant for, ahem, coarse language, and the fact that these two can’t keep their hands off each other. But I wouldn’t have it any other way!
4 stars
The Duke Gets Desperate is out tomorrow, September 26.
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Check out other recent historical romance reviews:
Marry Me By Midnight by Felicia Grossman
A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin