It's raining Dukes!
Need a good romance to tide you over before the next Bridgerton installment? Check out a romance novel of royal proportions.
The heiress swap
Michaels, Maddison, author
2023
Bringing down the duke
Dunmore, Evie, author
2019
England, 1879. Brilliant but destitute Annabelle Archer is one of the first female students at Oxford University. Her scholarship demands that she recruit men of influence to champion the rising women's suffrage movement. Her target: the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery, commander of Britian's politics. Montgomery wouldn't be the kingdom's greatest strategist if he couldn't turn the tables and confront Annabelle with an altogether different offer. Locked in battle with a rising passion and impossible attraction, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke.
Duke seeks bride
Carlyle, Christy, author
2023
Miss Evelyn Graves has never had a holiday. She is much too busy as the personal secretary to the Countess of Waverly. But the Duke of Ballymore Castle in Connemara, Ireland, has invited the countess to visit—and as the countess cannot travel, she has insisted Evelyn go in her stead. Except when Evie arrives, everyone mistakes her for the countess—and it’s clear the family who owns crumbling Ballymore were hoping to match the widowed countess with Alexander Pierpont, Duke of Rennick. Though Alex knows the truth of Evie’s identity, he has an unusual request. He’ll happily show her hospitality if she’ll agree to let others think she’s the countess during her visit. There’s just one problem: as time runs out on their arrangement and Alex increasingly fears he must in fact marry an heiress to save his family’s fortunes, he finds that his heart now belongs to Miss Evie Graves…and he can’t bring himself to let her go.
The duke undone
Lowell, Joanna, author
2021
"When an artist and a duke cross paths in the bustling London slums, an unlikely love story begins and their lives will be forever changed. Royal Academy painting student Lucy Coover quickly comes to the aid of the naked drunkard she stumbles upon one evening in the Shoreditch slums. If only she could banish his lovely form from her dreams as easily. Instead, she finds herself compelled to paint the man in his natural form. Little does she know that her impromptu subject is none other than the seventh Duke of Weston, Anthony Philby. According to his deceased father's will, Anthony is restricted from doing anything to bring further discredit to their scandal-ridden family. So when the duke is confronted with his nude portrait and accused of betraying his father's will, he goes searching for the mysterious artist, L. Coover. He must convince this artist to destroy the painting before it's seen by high society. Stunned to discover the unconventional and bewitching Lucy, he's further amazed when she tries to convince him to help save her aunt's dressmaking shop from ruin. But Anthony is game, and agrees to aid Lucy if she does him a favor in return: assisting him in searching for his disowned and missing sister, Effie. Continually thrown together, an unexpected passion blossoms between the two. Then the hunt for Effie puts Lucy in danger, threatening her career as an artist, and a surprising betrayal imperils all Anthony holds dear. Facing numerous obstacles, it will take all their strength and will to fight for their love."--Provided by publisher.
The duke's best friend
Ashford, Jane, author
2023
Henry Deeping and Kate Meacham seem to clash every time they meet, but soon they agree to an exchange-Henry will serve as Kate's escort to important events to which she is no longer invited, Kate will introduce him to the important people she knows so well.
The governess and the duke
Drake, Lydia, author
2024
Suffering an injury near the home of the Duke of Huntington, whom she's been pining over for 10 years, governess Miss Viola Winslow, staying under his roof until she heals, convinces the duke that love is real, until he discovers a secret that changes everything.
Not that duke
James, Eloisa, author
2023
The Duke of Huntington has no interest in an eccentric redhead who frowns at him over her spectacles…until he realizes that she is the only possible duchess for him. Bespeckled and freckled, Lady Stella Corsham at least has a dowry that has attracted a crowd of fortune-hunting suitors--which definitely doesn't include the sinfully handsome Silvester Parnell, Duke of Huntington, who laughingly calls her "Specs" as he chases after elegant rivals. And then--The worst happens. Marriage. To the duke. To a man marrying her for all the wrong reasons. How can Silvester possibly convince Stella that he's fallen in love with the quirky woman he married?
Second duke's the charm
Bateman, Kate, author.
2024
The wedding-night death of her much older husband left Tess Townsend the Dowager Duchess of Wansford--and still a virgin. Now she and her two best friends investigate London's most scandalous crimes, and while Tess longs to experience physical pleasure for herself, she can't risk losing her treasured independence... Cynical shipping magnate Justin Thornton never expected to inherit a dukedom, but he'll do his duty. When the ravishing woman he kissed at a party turns out to be the Dowager Duchess, Justin sees an obvious solution: a marriage of convenience that will suit them both. But the passion that sparks between them is anything but convenient. As Tess works on a new case at the request of Queen Charlotte, her increasingly suspicious behavior makes Justin question her motives--and her past.
What's a duke got to do with it
Britton, Christina (Romance fiction writer), author
2023
The last thing Katrina Denby expected to find in her garden is the body of the man who ruined her three seasons ago. No matter that his death is a tragic accident, the rumors are enough to kill any woman's prospects. With two scandals now hounding her, the best she can hope for is a hasty marriage of convenience--until her first love shows up in her drawing room, reminding her of all the reasons why she wanted a love match. If only he weren't already engaged. . . Sebastian Thorne, Duke of Ramsleigh, knows what he has to do to save the dukedom from the crushing debts and scandal his father left: marry and marry well. He's picked the lady, too--a baron's daughter who is pleasant, if a little boring. But seeing Katrina again makes him want to throw all those perfectly laid plans out the window. The first chance he had with her, he chose his duty over his heart. Doing so again might prove utterly impossible.