samharlow85 's review for:

Second Duke's the Charm by Kate Bateman

4.0

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Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reading copy! Kate Bateman is a must read for me, and this book overall did not disappoint in this new series. Tess is a widow after her first husband, an elderly duke, dies on their wedding night. Her friends and her start a women’s detective agency, and she also decides to enter into a marriage of convenience with the new Duke Justin. So overall this is a romance, combined with a mystery/friendship/adventure plot. I liked this book, but it was not my favorite Kate Bateman novel. The things I liked about it were that it’s swoony, sweet groveling at the end, nice steam between the two main characters, great female friendships, and a fun adventure plot with the female detective agency. My problems with it were that the ending felt rushed, there was a lot of talk about her virginity (not ever a fan of that), the Duke was kind of mean towards Tess and his misconceptions of her, and the grand gesture at the end was sweet, but fell a little flat for me - though the groveling was good. Overall I definitely recommend this for fans of historical romance and Kate Bateman, it just wasn’t my favorite of hers (she has really written some amazing historical romances).