A Review of The Accidental Duchess (Fairbourne Quartet Book 4) By Author Madeline Hunter

 A Review of The Accidental Duchess (Fairbourne Quartet Book 4) By Author Madeline Hunter

From the Back

When Lady Lydia Alfreton is blackmailed over the shocking contents of a manuscript she once wrote, she must go to the most desperate of measures to raise the money to buy back the ill-considered prose: agreeing to an old wager posed by the arrogant, dangerous Duke of Penthurst. At least Penthurst is a man she wouldn’t mind fleecing—and she’s confident she’ll win.

Penthurst long ago concluded Lydia was a woman in search of ruinous adventure, but even he is surprised when she arrives at his house ready to bet her innocence against his ten thousand pounds—a wager he only proposed to warn her off gambling.

When she loses to a simple draw of the cards, Lydia is shocked. Now, her problems are twofold: a blackmailer determined to see her pay and a duke determined to tame her rebellious ways. One misstep and Lydia could find herself ruined—or bound to the seductive.

Rating: 3 out of 5

 I love books about dukes, they always catch my fancy and send me daydreaming about being swept off to a ballroom to dance a waltz with a devilish rogue . I have always enjoyed this author and while I have not loved every book by her I have enjoyed many of them. This is the 4th book in the series and I have not read the remainder of the series as of yet (I have a long to read list). There are a lot of references to the past stories in the "Fairbourne Quartet" series and if they are all like this one then I will perhaps be reading them at some point I bought this one not knowing it was part of a series.

 Lady Lydia is a gambler and she is a good one until she meets the duke in our story who is a better one. The duke is a close friend to Lady Lydia’s brother and has been a part of her life since they were children this is better explained why he acts the way he does though the story. Needless to say he is always correcting Lydia and trying to remind her of how she  is supposed to act let's just say gambling and winning with reckless abandon is not what he thinks a lady should be doing.

There was a lot of character development in this story between our two main characters the Lady eventually learns to overcome her childish anger and the duke learns to bend, something that is pretty common in these stories. I thought there was too much whining involved however Lydia had been blaming and hating the duke for years over a duel. Lydia was not willing to listen to others including the duke about the reasons for the duel and its tragic result. A lot could have been cleared up right at the start if she would have simply told those she loved about her love for the departed but that would have cut down the story in the long run I suppose.

The side characters where from the previous stories and while some were interesting some were annoying to me. The Lady's Maid Sara had a lot more potential than the author gave her she was a childhood friend to Lydia but she was also quite featherbrained in this story. Her brother the Viscount Ambury who is in book two (The conquest of Lady Cassandra) annoyed me he had little interest in his sister and simply took no time or interest in interacting with her. I understand that the brother is in love and making a life with his wife and so on but his interactions with Lydia were not well thought out and made me dislike him. The duke’s aunt made me want to slap her in defense of Lady Lydia this is a good thing I was supposed to disliked her that is how she was written and I thought the author wrote her role well. 

 I get the point of the manuscript but for something so important it played a small role compared to the characters developing and overcoming their personal flaws. I think that even if the papers were released while it would have been as scandal, it would not have been to gallows with Lady Lydia so I couldn't really get into the life or death drama of this plot that much. The villains of the story also could have been better they came off rather idiotic and unprepared. I like dastardly villains as much as anyone but I did not get them in this story.

The story is predictable but really most are there is the lady who is compromised so they must run off and be married they come back and the battle for the hearts begin neither thinks they will fall in love yet they do in the end. I love the predictability I always know there is going to be a happy ending and the stories trend to move along the same but each time I enjoy reading it and feeling it. I do not read these books for deep thinking I read them for a little escape from life, kids, and laundry and they do the job.

This is a romance novel there is a lot of sexual tension and release along with the character’s personal demons and per usual the sex is what bring them together. The sex scenes were well written and not overly dramatic they were interesting especially the take the author had as using sex to feed Lady Lydia compulsive need for adventure that she was filling with gambling. There was just enough sexual adventure without becoming 50 shades of gray. I find it funny to read these parts of the story because they are just so out there they are amusing and add to the overall of the story.

I will most likely read the rest of the series with the exception of the conquest that features the brother, I was able to get the point of the previous books by reading this one and I felt that I did not lose much in reading them out of order. This was a good book it had a few funny moments that mixed well with the ones that were unrealistic. I will continue to read and buy books by this author especially the ones about a duke! You cannot really go wrong with this book as long as you understand it for what it is a light story that is not too deep and involved.