The Confessions of a Duchess
The Brides of Fortune’s Folly – Book One
HQN, June 2009, 369 pp
ISBN-13: 978-0373773770
Regency
$7.99 (US) $8.99 (CDN)
Reviewed by Mary
July 2009
The unmarried women in the Village of Fortune’s Folly have long retired a Dames’ Tax imposed upon them as retaliation from a man spurned by the woman of his choosing. What occurs is chaos as all unmarried women must either marry or turn over half of their earnings. This also creates a scenario where these lovely women must fend off every fortune hunter trying to marry a woman with money. But oh you silly men to think any self respecting woman would just say okay to that – guess again.
Laura Cole the dowager Duchess of Cole felt she was exempt from this, and after having survived an abusive and neglectful relationship with her late husband she is not anxious to enter into another loveless marriage. Laura decides to fight back with her own outdated laws and turn the tables on the men. She is not aware that one of the men is the one man she truly loved, Dexter Anstruther. They shared a night of reckless and explosive passion that produced a daughter he is unaware of and she has a longing for him that never dissipated.
Dexter has always longed for and hated Laura for what had happened the next morning after that single night of love. He now is a government worker come to investigate a suspicious murder in Fortune’s Folly and never expected to see Laura there. But once he sets his eyes upon her all the hurt, anger and grief of losing her are forgotten and replaced by the passion and love he felt the first moment he saw her. While Dexter pursues and Laura runs they have more than one occasion to be forced into one another’s arms causing them both to realize that the secrets they hold inside them must come out no matter the cost. But Dexter is as distracted by Laura as he is in trying to capture the man who is a murderer but when both their pasts come to face them in the present they try to reconcile what they feel for one another from what they are now.
The Confessions of a Duchess is a wonderful novel with plenty of romance and a little mystery. Both Laura and Dexter shine with their independent character and their determination to have what they desire most. While at times you may think there is too much going on and a few too many characters this I think will prove itself to be worthy as the series continues. It’s a great read and a great start to Nicola’s summer trilogy "The Brides of Fortunes Folly". I can’t wait to read the next book.