It's release day for THE HEART OF A DUKE! Yippeeee! Victoria Morgan has enjoyed a stellar debut year...her first novel FOR THE LOVE OF A SOLDIER won first place for BEST FIRST BOOK in the Golden Leaf Contest at NJRWA. It was also nominated for Best First Historical at RT Book Reviews. THE HEART OF A DUKE is Morgan's follow-up novel with Berkley.
Stephanie Kay will be reviewing this lovely book today. And I'm giving away a free copy to one lucky commenter. Please leave a comment after the review to be entered in the give-away, and let me know your email address.
Take it away, Stephanie!
❊❊❊
A
Review of The Heart of a Duke by Victoria Morgan
❊Review by Stephanie Kay❊
Have
you ever read a debut author and when you finished the book, it felt like you
were reading a book written by an author who had been published for years? Well
that is how I felt when I read Victoria Morgan’s first book, For the Love of a
Soldier. If you haven’t read it, you definitely should. She just won the NJRWA
Golden Leaf award for best debut novel and is nominated for an RT award for
best first historical. She should totally win!
But
I’m not here to review her debut novel…I just like any opportunity to promote
it, since I LOVED it!
Back
to her second book, The Heart of a Duke. Which I also LOVED. This book is
another example of a great historical romance. The plot is well developed, and
filled with mystery and suspense. I loved the sharp and witty dialogue. The
pacing is fast and I found myself sucked in by the opening scene.
Mistaken
identities and kissing. How can you go wrong with that?
Lady
Julia, headstrong and stubborn heroine (my favorite type) is tired of waiting
for her betrothed, the Duke of Bedford to marry her. She finds him alone one
day and taking matters into her own hands, she kisses him. Only it turns out to
be his twin brother, Daniel. Our hero. He is adorable, protective, and enjoys
taunting her. I love the combination of teasing and sexual tension that carries
through the entire novel. Daniel is determined to protect Julia from his
villainous brother, and she is determined to protect him at the same time.
What
I love about Victoria’s characters is how well written they are. They come
alive on the page. I feel like I’m reading about real people, not just
characters in a book. But it is not just the hero and heroine that come alive,
but her secondary characters as well. I really hope that a few of them get
their own story next. Preferably Brett (Daniel’s business partner) and Emily
(Julia’s sister).
I
definitely recommend this to anyone looking for an enjoyable historical romance
with a happy ending that will make you smile. Victoria Morgan is a new author
to watch and I can’t wait for the next book.
The
holidays can be stressful, so take a break from all that cookie baking and
present wrapping to read this book! (Apparently exclamation points mean
yelling, so I’m ordering you to read this book ☺)
Grade:
A
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Stephanie, thank you so much for this great review!!!! (note the exclamation points, Stephanie's favorite punctuation). It sounds like another winner from Victoria Morgan!
Please leave a comment to enter the give-away. Contest open until Friday December 6.
Ciao!
Penny