THE BACHELOR (Duke Dynasty #2) by Sabrina Jeffries-a review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 25, 2020

Lady Gwyn Drake has long protected her family’s reputation by hiding an imprudent affair from her youth. But when her former suitor appears at Armitage Hall, manhandling the heiress and threatening to go public with her secrets, it’s Gwyn who needs protecting. Her twin brother, Thorn, hires Joshua Wolfe, the estate’s gamekeeper, to keep her safe in London during her debut. As a war hero, Joshua feels obligated to fulfill the assignment he has accepted. But as a man, it’s torment to be so very close to the beauty he’s fought to ignore . . .

With handsome Joshua monitoring her every move, Gwyn would prefer to forget both the past and the parade of money-seeking bachelors at her coming out. But Joshua is unmoved by her attempts at flirtation, and the threat of blackmail still hangs over her. With danger closing in, Gwyn must decide which is the greater risk: deflecting a scoundrel’s attempts to sabotage her–or revealing her whole heart to the rugged bodyguard she can’t resist .

••••

REVIEW: THE BACHELOR is the second instalment in Sabrina Jeffries adult DUKE DYNASTY historical romance series focusing on the children of a thrice-widowed dowager Duchess, and her extended family of nieces and nephews, by marriage. This is thirty-year old Lady Gwyn Drake, and thirty-one year old, British Marine/gamekeeper Major Joshua Wolfe’s story line. THE BACHELOR can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Gwyn and Joshua) THE BACHELOR follows the building relationship between thirty-year old Lady Gwyn Drake, and thirty-one year old, British Marine/gamekeeper Major Joshua Wolfe. Ten years earlier Gwyn’s brother Thorn paid off one of her suitors to protect his twin and the family estate. Fast forward to present day wherein said suitor has returned in an effort to blackmail our story line heroine who is reluctant to reveal the truth, to her brother, about what happened years before. Witnessing the back and forth between Gwyn and a man he didn’t know, Major Joshua Wolfe comes to Gwyn’s defense, only to find himself hired by Gwyn’s brother Thorn to protect our heroine from a possible abduction, a story Gwyn told her brother to hide the truth. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Gwyn and Joshua, and the potential fall-out as Gwyn’s blackmailer follows the family to London, to demand more than Gwyn is willing to pay.

Lady Gwyn Drake believes she is a tarnished spinster with no hopes of love on the horizon but discovering Major Joshua Wolfe has been hired to protect our story line heroine, Gwyn finds herself falling for a man to whom she has lied, time and again. Major Joshua Wolfe is damaged goods having been injured in a battle on the seas. Surviving on a partial pension from his Marine days, Joshua gladly accepts Thorn’s offer of a job, to protect the woman with whom he will fall in love. A cross-country trip to London to present Joshua’s sister as Grey’s duchess, and Gwyn’s presentation as a potential wife, are the perfect set-up to hide the truth as to Gwyn’s need for a personal bodyguard.

The relationship between is Gwyn and Joshua is one of immediate attraction but neither one is looking for any long-term commitments. Gwyn’s limited history with men, and her age, means her prospects of finding love are few and far between; and Joshua struggles in the face of his injuries, and the possibility that he may never be able to afford a wife. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

We are reintroduced to Dowager Duchess Lydia Fletcher; Gwyn’s twin Marlow ‘Thorn’ Drake, and their half siblings Sheridan Wolfe, Heywood Wolfe; Fletcher Grey and his wife Beatrice Wolfe (Project Duchess #1). The requisite evil is Captain Lionel Malet- a man willing to sell anything for a price.

THE BACHELOR is a story of betrayal and vengeance; deceit and blackmail; romance, relationships, family and love. The premise is captivating; the romance is seductive; the characters are charismatic, feisty and energetic.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one PROJECT DUCHESS.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy