A review by xandrarama
The Duke I Tempted by Scarlett Peckham

4.0

This was very good, well written with excellent character development. The female protagonist is a self-taught botanist wary of marriage due to the loss of autonomy it would entail; the male protagonist is a Sad Widower who needs an heir but is determined to Never Love Again. Mutual attraction leads to a marriage of convenience halfway through the book. The second half is nice and angsty, although it felt like it was getting dragged out unnecessarily by the end (could be me, reading at 4am). One thing that struck me is that the book doesn’t engage to a strong degree with the historical context. The spoken and inner dialogue sometimes feels very modern day (“me too”, “he was her person”, etc.) - there is generally little sense of place and time.