Why? Because marrying Minette is an affront to his BFF (who is married to Minette’s sister) – sticking it to Minette is A-OK, though – or he just hates being “trapped” into marriage – I guess Minette’s hoochie can exert such powerful suction force that his pee-pee just has to be sucked into its depths his reasons for being all surly and mopey can change from chapter to chapter.

No kidding, Duke, one of the very few most highly ranked noblemen in the country indeed has nothing to offer a woman! Naturally, he’s very happy to stick his digits into every orifice of Minette, but he gets inexplicably offended and surly when he has to pay for the cow.

This same Duke would make me snort and roll up my eyes when he mopes and whines that he has nothing good to offer Minette. We already have a Duke openly running a brothel and gambling den when he’s not spying for the Crown. It’s not the most original thing ever, but then again, who is original these days, right? However, this story is filled with things that have me scratching my head. On paper, this story doesn’t seem so bad. Naturally, it’s up to Minette to save the day! She decides to seek out Freddy to help her, and in the process goes through a whole parade of “Hey, do I look like a heroine in an Amanda Quick story or what?” antics like sneaking into the hero’s gambling den and brothel wonderland to seek his audience.

Back to Minette, she learns that the bad guy from the previous book may be back to once again use her to strike at her sister and her new husband. Incidentally, you may not want to read this book if you hadn’t read that book, as the plot in this one takes off from where the previous book left off. Minette Rideau is the sister of the heroine of Captured Countess. Naturally, he is secretly all blue and bogged down with angst, because all this spy stuff is going to make him look like a raging slut-scum lord and, thus, the author needs to make him mope a lot in order to make Freddy “likable”. Oh, and Freddy’s also a spy, and he’s plying the hos, conducting orgies, and taking people’s money because he’s actually spying for the good of the land.

A Duke running the gambling den and brothel in town. The Duke’s Daring Debutante demonstrates that Ann Lethbridge knows all these tropes well by heart, but the way she mixes them all together here is best described, kindly, as “unintentional comedy”.įrederick, the Duke of Falconwood, is known to most people in the Ton as the owner and manager of The Fools’ Paradise, the most infamous gambling den and brothel in St Giles. Romance clichés, sorry, tropes have their place in this world, sure, but the key is putting them all together in a manner that makes sense. The Duke’s Daring Debutante by Ann Lethbridge

Captured Countess by Ann Lethbridge