Cara's Book Boudoir: A Duchess in Name by Amanda Weaver Review

A Duchess in Name
The Grantham Girls #1

By: Amanda Weaver

Releasing January 18, 2016
Carina Press

Victoria Carson never expected love. An American heiress and graduate of Lady Grantham's finishing school, she's been groomed since birth to marry an English title—the grander the better. So when the man chosen for her, the forbidding Earl of Dunnley, seems to hate her on sight, she understands that it can't matter. Love can have no place in this arrangement.

Andrew Hargrave has little use for his title and even less for his cold, disinterested parents. Determined to make his own way, he's devoted to his life in Italy working as an archaeologist. Until the collapse of his family's fortune drags him back to England to a marriage he never wanted and a woman he doesn't care to know.

Wild attraction is an unwanted complication for them both, though it forms the most fragile of bonds. Their marriage of convenience isn't so intolerable after all—but it may not be enough when the deception that bound them is finally revealed.

I have never read an Amanda Weaver book before, but as I love historical romances and was intrigued by the blurb on this book but the blurb doesn’t do it justice.

As the daughter of an wealthy American business man, Victoria Carson knew from a young age that she would never marry for love, she know that she was just a pawn for her parents. Victoria has faced down public scorn all her life, because she was American born, even though she had been in England since she was 8! She was prepared to marry, just so she could have the freedom from her mother!

Andrew Hargrave (Future Duke of Waring) was never meant to inherit the title as he was the second son, so he spent his days in Italy, digging for history! But then his brother died, his father lost his fortune and he was “won” in a game of cards by Philip Carson and was going to be married Carson’s daughter in order to save his sisters.

When dark deeds were discovered the night before the wedding, Andrew assigned the blame not just to his future in-laws, but to Victoria as well! So after he abandoned her in his family estate, he fled back to his beloved Italy.

As in all things though, the truth comes to light and Andrew tries to make amends...but is it too little too late?

I don’t think that I have ever been spellbound by a book in a long time, but A Duchess In Name totally knocked me onto my butt and kept me mesmerized all the way through the story and left me with such a book hangover, that I haven’t been able to get rid of it 5 days after I read the book!

The writing, plot and characters were simply divine and left me begging for the next installment of this book. I truly loved Victoria! She was a woman of strength and really just wanted to be loved and needed. I only struggled with one very small part of this book and that was Andrews’s mistress. Yes, I am aware that having a mistress back then was common place, but the diehard romantic in me just struggled with that.

Overall that book was a beautiful tale which I simply adore and I will read this book a million times and never want it to end. A Duchess in Name earns 5 stars from me.

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Victoria concentrated on her breathing as she watched the girls disappear into the garden. When she was sure they were out of earshot, she glanced back at her husband again. He smiled at her. Smiled! A warm, casual smile, as if his appearing at Briarwood out of the blue when she hadn’t seen or spoken to him in six months was nothing at all out of the ordinary.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

He blinked and took a step back. “I…I came to visit my sisters. My wife.”

She snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. “Indeed?”

“Indeed.”

“We weren’t expecting you.”

“I didn’t realize I’d need to wait on an invitation to be allowed to visit my own home.”

Victoria’s fury, already bubbling under the surface, burst into flame. “Well, you’ve spent quite a bit of time making it clear in no uncertain terms that this is no home of yours. Eventually I got used to the idea.”

He looked almost abashed. His every reaction was so far from what she’d come to expect from him, she was left feeling caught out. But she wasn’t ready to relinquish her anger, even if he refused to meet it with his own.

“Yes, I’m sorry I’ve been so uninvolved with the house.”

“Uninvolved? You’ve been entirely absent! I’m sure the neighbors all think I’ve made you up.”

“I’m sorry,” he said simply.

She stopped and blinked at him. “What?”

“I’m sorry.” He raised his hands and let them drop. “I should have been here. I should have helped you.”

“Oh.” He’d taken the heat right out of her fury, damn him. She floundered helplessly for a biting comeback but came up empty-handed. Where was the cold, heartless man she’d come to expect? Surely any second he’d snap at her and mock her for slaving away in the countryside to rebuild this house. Or he’d attempt to lure her back into bed just so he could unravel her and abandon her again. She’d been such a naive little fool where he was concerned. Well, she was no fool now. She finally had the measure of him and she’d be damned if he’d make a fool of her one more time.

Amanda has loved romance since she read that very first Kathleen E. Woodiwiss novel at fifteen. After a long detour into a career as a costume designer in theatre, she’s found her way back to romance, this time as a writer.

A native Floridian, Amanda transplanted to New York City many years ago and now considers Brooklyn home, along with her husband, daughter, two cats, and nowhere near enough space.