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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely charming couple, August 31, 2011
One Night in London is a superb romance with a lovely lead couple who are just meant to be together. They form a tight bond of friendship and support.
On his death bed the Duke of Durham whispers a terrible secret to his children, a secret so devastating it could disrupt the three sibling's world. Each sibling has a unique personality and middle son Edward is the silent, thoughtful, analytical one. He has been running the estate while his older brother finds his pleasures in London and his younger brother is off on the continent fighting the French. Edward needs to hire a solicitor to assist him in discovering his father's secrets and he enlists the aid of the best barrister in London.
Unfortunately, widow Francesca Gordon also is in need of the best barrister in London and when she discovers that her barrister drops her case to assist Edward, she confronts Edward in a rage. Easily the reader could have disliked Francesca here, she was irrational and unfair but Edwards's quiet demeanor takes the wind out of her sails. When she describes her need of an attorney (she wants to find her niece and gain custody from her niece's step-mother), Edward is sympathetic but logical. He ends up assisting Francesca in locating her niece and as they spend time together the passion between them is impossible to contain.
Edward is taken by the bold Francesca who is daring but not stubborn. Francesca embraces life to the fullest. She has been a widow for two years and she had a good marriage. She likes her freedom and she enjoys her friendships. She delights in discovering Edwards' romantic side.
Edward is a rock for his family and he becomes an anchor for Francesca too. These two trust each other. They have deep conversations and form a friendship based on mutual respect. The reader can see that these people honor each other.
Their romance is extraordinary because Edward is almost another person when he is alone with Francesca. He is amorous, thoughtful, sensuous and confident when their friendship grows into so much more. Who knew this outwardly staid man could become a Casanova? It just took the right woman. This looks to be the first book in this sibling series and I hope the others are just as romantic and memorable.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
(3.5 stars) A good but somewhat unsatisfying read., September 13, 2011
Ding, dong the duke is dead. That's Francis de Lacey, Duke of Durham, who we met previously in the novella I LOVE THE EARL, when he was about 40 years old, had just inherited the dukedom, and was showing a great deal of reluctance to marry and produce heirs. Fast forward 40 years to this book and he dies on p. 6, leaving 3 grown sons, heir Charlie, middle son Edward and youngest son Gerard, and a deathbed revelation that he may have been a bigamist and his sons illegitimate. Wow! Say what? That's quite a gap in information from I LOVE THE EARL to this book. We need to learn "The Truth About the Duke".
Anyway, Edward and Gerard are in turmoil over this and feel the need to resolve the issue. Charlie, the new duke, for the moment at least, is an irresponsible dissolute and doesn't feel inclined to get involved. Edward will take care of things. He always does. So our hero Edward, who has always been the responsible son involved in the running of the ducal estates, hires a solicitor to try to salvage the dukedom for their family.
Meanwhile, heroine Lady Francesca Gordon wants the same solicitor to help her win the custody of her young orphaned niece Georgina, who is in the hands of an evil stepmother. Well, working for a duke's family trumps working for the widow of a baron, so Francesca finds herself without a lawyer.
Francesca is a bit hot-tempered and impulsive. This is due, as the book implies, to her being half Italian. (Don't blame me. I'm not the one stereotyping here.) So she's very upset at the de Lacey family taking her solicitor and barges into their house and gives Edward a piece of her mind. (So she's a hot-blooded "shrew" and he's a cold, unfeeling, controlling man. Will opposites attract?) Eventually they start working together on her custody problem because Francesca helps Edward with a public-image problem, one which never would have arisen if Edward earlier on hadn't had a TSTL moment with his fiancee.
In the book we have the de Lacey sons' legitimacy issue and Francesca's custody issue to resolve while at the same time having a romance develop between H and h. That's too much for one 373-page book to handle so everything takes a back burner to the romance. The romance is very lovely and very well-developed and the reader will grow to like both H and h, although I did find it annoying that they spent so much time somewhat aimlessly going to art shows and the theater and having sex. It felt as though Francesca lost the urgency for finding Georgina and replaced it with the urgency to bed Edward. However, the custody issue with Georgina finally does have a resolution that is somewhat unexpected but satisfactory.
But we have to stay tuned to find out the "Truth About the Duke" because that's pretty much left open-ended. Edward already has his happy ending no matter the results of the legitimacy question, but what about Charlie and Gerard? To be continued...
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly Great, September 11, 2011
I almost did not finish this book. I picked it up, started it, and nearly put it back down. I wasn't impressed. I didn't really care for the heroine. Nothing about Francesca jumped out at me as making her a heroine worth reading. I didn't really like the hero, either. Edward was cold, boring, and not at all the alpha male that I prefer reading about. I almost stopped reading.
Thank God I didn't put the book down. I told myself to keep going. I kept reading and I'm so glad I did.
The book may start slowly, but after a few more chapters, I was completely hooked. The writing drew me in and kept me flipping the pages until the end. I really warmed to the characters. Francesca was daring and sassy - the girl that every one of us wishes we could unleash upon the world. She also brought out Edward's warm, sensual side that had been hiding since the very beginning. It was a great pairing of characters that I very much enjoyed as the story went on. The plot was interesting and kept me enthralled the entire time.
I definitely look forward to adding this author to my to-read list.
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