DESPERATELY SEEKING A DUCHESS

A duke forced to become a fortune hunter is attracted to a lady who resolutely refuses to be caged.

Raised among the working classes, Cailin Audley feels trapped by the change of her circumstances when her father, a duke, decides to acknowledge her and her siblings as his children. She moves to London expecting visits to the museum and walks in parks but is doomed for disappointment when she’s instead carted from one social obligation to another. Painfully unaware of societal rules, Cailin gets into trouble when she accosts Keir Balfour, the identical twin of Courtland Balfour, the Duke of St. James, in a bid to make up a previous injustice done to him by her family. However, considering that Courtland was pretending to be his brother at the time, Cailin inadvertently lands herself, and him, in an even trickier situation. Courtland is enamored by Cailin’s curious mind, but he has other worries on his plate: His degenerate father’s death has left him swimming in debt, burdened with the responsibility of caring for his four siblings. When he realizes that the only way he can find himself out of the mess is by marrying a wealthy woman, he wonders if he should pursue his attraction for Cailin. But the young lady is not only deeply disdainful of life among London’s upper classes—she's also reeling from a previous heartbreak. The second installment in Caldwell’s All the Duke’s Sins series is packed with familial warmth and peppered with humor. Cailin and Courtland’s camaraderie hits the right notes, and their love for their siblings—harried, reluctant, and sweetly intense—rings with honesty. But since the obstacles keeping them apart are hardly insurmountable, the stakes of their story often do not seem high enough.

An endearing romance sails unencumbered to an uplifting conclusion.