⭐⭐⭐ Was I hooked by that book? Sort of. It’s a fairly standard historical romance where the Duke falls in love with what seems to be an inappropriate woman.

BLURB

Tessa James certainly is no governess, but that doesn’t stop her from applying for the position anyway. She desperately needs the money to open her own shop. The man looking for the governess is Guy Whitby, the Duke of Carlin. His unruly 4-year old daughter has run off every single governess so far and he is at his wits’ end. Tessa doesn’t come with references and Guy is quite suspicious of her, which is as it should be. But he employs her on a trial basis and she definitely has more success with Sophy than anybody else before her. And that is how a seamstress in a milliner’s shop became a governess. Oh, and Tessa sees this as an opportunity to try to figure out who her father is.

MY THOUGHTS

Guy has a lot to make up for when it comes to Sophy. He basically neglected her for the first 4 years of her life and then uprooted her whole existence when he took her from her grandparents’ home. No wonder she was acting out. He was just clueless, really. Tessa helped him to reconnect with Sophy.

Tessa was very resourceful and committed. She talked her way into the position and the entire time she teetered on the edge of discovery, but by the time her secrets were revealed, Guy didn’t really care about all that anymore. Luckily for her. I quite liked Tessa for her straightforward ways. Guy didn’t really make an impression on me either way. He was very dedicated to helping Tessa and to investigating all the accidents that seemed to plague him lately.

I would have liked to see more of Tessa connecting with her newly-discovered family.

The story was fine, not brilliant, but I enjoyed it enough. This is part of a series, Unlikely Duchesses, but stands on its own.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Genre: Historical Romance

Were you hooked by that book? Let me know in the comments below.