Dubious About The Duke (Second Sons of London Book 2)

A shy, but dedicated, young woman volunteers to act as an impromptu governess to two unruly six-year-olds on a ducal estate. Seraphina Nicholls recently returned to England from Upper Canada to rejoin her newlywed twin sister, Araminta, now the Marquess of Kingston. Minta’s husband, Percy, is one of the Second Sons of London, a tightknit group of comrades who all happened to be second-in-line to their respective peerages. His dear friend and cousin, Winston Cutler, the Duke of Woodmont, desperately needs help to look after the two by-blow sons of his late elder brother. Sera and Win warm to each other at first sight. When Win turns to his friends Percy and Minta for advice regarding his difficult wards, Sera takes charge with an alacrity that astounds her twin.

Jane Austen meets The Sound of Music! The opening drags with the manufactured ambiguity of Sera and Win being amicably matched but hampered by her own lack of self-confidence and his insistence on seeking a traditional loveless marriage while keeping multiple mistresses for his own personal pleasures. The two children, Freddie and Charlie, inject much needed humor and fun when they are introduced midway. They are quite adorable, and one wonders if it is necessary to refer to them as by-blows and bastards quite so repeatedly. Just as Sera succeeds in winning over his nephews, Win realizes that he has changed his mind and he wants nothing less than Sera as his Duchess and only love. But is he too late to stop Sera from fleeing in heartbroken angst? An easily likable period romance with a happy ending!

Joan Lai