The Confessions of a Duchess -Brides of Fortune 1

✍ Scribed by Cornick, Nicola

• Book ID: 108942769
• Publisher: HQN Books
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 170 KB
• Series: Brides of Fortune 1
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9781426833960

✦ Synopsis

When an ancient tax law is invoked requiring all unmarried ladies to either wed or surrender half their wealth, it's not long before the quiet village of Fortune's Folly is overrun by a swarm of fortune-hunting bachelors. Marry again? Never! Not after what Laura, the dowager duchess, was forced to endure. Even if the arrival of her onetime paramour, Dexter Anstruther, is oh-so-tempting, she knows the secret she's kept from him would destroy any chance at a future together. Young, handsome and scandalously enticing, Dexter suspects Laura has a hidden motive for resisting his charms…and he intends to expose her, by any means necessary.

From Publishers Weekly

Cornick (Deceived) introduces the small village of Fortune's Folly in the nondescript launch of her Brides of Fortune Regency romance series. When unscrupulous Sir Montague Fortune, jilted by a rich woman, reinstates the medieval Dames' Tax, the population soars with impoverished men seeking wealthy spinsters and widows who would rather marry than pay half their money to the odious squire. Sent to the village by the Home Secretary to investigate a murder and determined to find a well-dowered wife, Dexter Anstruther encounters his feisty ex-lover Laura, the dowager duchess of Cole. While Dexter follows clues to the murder mystery and Laura unites the single women in a humorous war against Sir Montague, the two are distracted by lust and endless opportunities for verbal sparring. Witty but lacking historical depth, this romance is neither disappointing nor outstanding. (June)
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From Booklist

After one of the women living in Fortune’s Folly rejects his proposal of marriage, Sir Montague Fortune gets his revenge by reinstating an old law requiring any unwed woman in the village to surrender one half their fortune to him. Even though she has very little to lose financially, Laura, the dowager Duchess of Cole, would rather fight Sir Montague than marry again, until Dexter Anstruther suddenly arrives and threatens to upset her carefully planned counter-campaign. Officially, Dexter had come to Fortune’s Folly to catch himself a rich wife. Unofficially, Dexter is investigating the suspicious death of a local magistrate. While neither one has anything to do with Laura, Dexter finds he still can’t forget the only woman he ever loved. One of the secondary characters from Unmasked (2008) is given a second chance at romance in this wonderfully original, sinfully amusing, and sexy Regency historical by the always entertaining Cornick. --John Charles