A review by balletbookworm
Between the Duke and the Deep Blue Sea by Sophia Nash

3.0

Well, I was going to give this four stars until the

Spoiler

convenient-death-of-Roxanne's-skeezebag-husband obligatory plot twist followed by that monstrously silly courtroom scene where everybody and nobody confessed to killing him - Nash should have just let Paxton steal Alex's water-shy horse, get thrown off/drowned, and been done with it instead of having him steal the horse AND someone shoot him

. Actually, that sounds suspiciously similar to my complaint for the next book in the series [b:The Art of Duke Hunting|11823059|The Art of Duke Hunting (Royal Entourage, #2)|Sophia Nash|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1326486656s/11823059.jpg|16777518]. Hmmmm.

Beyond that complaint, this was an enjoyable romance. The prologue - the regrettable morning after a terrible evening of absinthe imbibing

Spoiler

(side note on that absinthe: as a drink it was not popular until the 1840s and the major distilleries in France opened only a few years before this novel opens in late 18th/early 19th century; the likelihood that Alex's fully English cousin had a cellar-full both in London and the Mount when it needed to be smuggled I find a little implausible; I read a lot of papers on absinthe and opium when writing a paper about addiction in Victorian literature)

- sets up both books nicely with the promise of books for Candover, Abshire, Sussex, and Barry. And maybe Isabelle if she doesn't end up the heroine in one of their books. Nash even kept them around to give us a taste of their different characters - a nice touch.

Roxanne and Alex made a nice couple.