My Dangerous Duke

My Dangerous Duke by Gaelen Foley 903

When Kate Madsen is kidnapped from her home and held for weeks she is terrified but nothing prepares her for her first meeting with "the Beast." When the man who paid to have her kidnapped disappeared, the local smugglers who were his hired guns panic and decide to drug her and give her to their Lord, the Duke of Warrington so that he will be involved in the problem as they are. They suspect that she is the daughter of the famous pirate, Gerald Fox and though many believe he is dead, they fear his wrath if he is indeed alive. Rohan Kilburn is furious when he returns to his drafty castle to discover that his tenants have been getting into trouble, but is slightly appeased when they gift with a beautiful young woman whom he thinks is planning on becoming a courtesan. However, his feelings rapidly disappear when on the next day he is told the truth about his present and he agrees to help her if she helps him.

Rohan is quite imposing physically but Kate finds herself very attracted to him and he certainly wants her, but he is wary of getting close to her as she is descending from members of the Prometheus Council. As a member of the Order he and his colleagues are dedicated to stamping out the scourge of the Promethean College before they can take over the world in tyranny. Because of a curse laid on his family by a Promethean Warlock, who happened to be an ancestor of Kate, Rohan thinks that he is destined to kill any woman he marries, so he is determined to remain single. The more he gets to know Kate the more he thinks he cannot live without her in his life and the joy and light she brings into his dark and dangerous existence as an assassin. But the Promethean Council wants to find the grave of the Warlock and think Kate holds the secret so Rohan must risk everything to save England and the woman he loves.

This is a sequel to My Wicked Marquess which I very much enjoyed and really drew me in to this whole Promethean Council plot. However in this story it completely took over and just got so crazy out of control that is really detracted from any romance that may have been supposed to occur in this story. Nothing was resolved about the most interesting aspect- the agent who had been tortured and his memory erased so he became a Promethean follower and really it just seemed so crazy to me. Halfway through everything that happened stemmed from trying to to find out some crazy secret code (which was ridiculously horrible and yet so easy for Kate to solve obviously) and get to this tomb. It also was not discussed as much in this book why the Prometheans were so intent on gaining all this power and what they planned on doing with it- so a whole secret organization kind of seemed non-functioning.

Kate was a little too perfect of a romance hero for me as she was amazingly smart (she could solve these crazy impossible riddles that were supposedly designed to be impenetrable) and she was saucy and feisty. Rohan was incredibly dark and brooding and it got a little irritating but too be honest I liked that he was an assassin and didn't shy away from killing because he didn't want to taint himself like so many other romance novel heroes. However, Kate falling in love with him was a little out of the blue as it really just came to her that he was deserving of love and needed someone to love him unconditionally. Of course this happened after she met with several of the numerous women he had slept with. Huh? Despite the immense attraction between them the sex was lukewarm at best and really pushed into overly flowery territory which did nothing for me.

Rating: A huge downhill turn from the previous installment in this trilogy. Found myself wanting to skim about 1/3 of this book. Not recommended.