I will always love a Lenora Bell romance, she has made each book in this series so far match up to the perfection of the covers. I love how strong her female MCs are, and how they make the male MCs melt. Of course there was such smart banter and excellent dialog in this installment, and I really loved the progression of the plot. It felt natural and emotionally realistic.

Another A+ read from Lenora Bell!

The Devil's Own Duke
Troupe: Enemies to Lovers, Class Difference, Older Heroine

The Devil's Own Duke is the second book in the Wallflowers vs. Rogues Series for Historical Romance. It can be read as a stand alone or in order. I honestly, have not read the first book and did not feel lost. I do want to go back and read the first book. I thought this book was an easy read. I liked the humor Lenora Bell put in the book. It was witty, cute and sexy.

The main character Hetty, is the daughter who wants nothing more than to make good wine and grow her Winery. She has goals she wants to accomplish and no time for opportunist men. Ash is a gaming den owner, will do whatever it takes to get the title and station. He doesn't think much of aristrocracy, but has no qualms about using his new title to change the child labor laws to improve lives of children so they do not suffer like he did. The characters meet and have an initial spark until Hetty learns who Ash is. They are forced to marry, Hetty promises Ash will never win her love or trust.

I loved the throw in of the cats, it added cute humor to the book. The chemistry between the two characters was great.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book.

I have said it before but I do love a strong, independent female in regency era england that has single-handedly helped her family's wealth expand meeting a roguish, rakish, handsome man. A forced marriage and a battle of wills between spouses? Yes please, more. I cannot wait for the next book in this series.

Delicious and robust historical romance!

I’m a sucker for a wallflower/bad boy romance and Lenora Bell did NOT disappoint with The Devil’s Own Duke!

The chemistry, emotion, fun facts about wine, and the dash of intrigue and danger combined to make this one of my favorite historical romances of the year. And the narration for the audiobook was top notch!

Compared to other Lenora Bell books, this one pleasantly surprised me. I think what kept it from following the other books was the fact that there wasn't time for the 3rd ABU. Both of the characters were strong in their convictions but I don't feel like we lost them in personality when they came together. Slow burn for the sex, but still enjoyable.

Hetty is determined to make her family vineyard a financial success. Two problems. As a female she can't inherit the property to keep running the vineyard, and to be successful, she needs a good review of her English wine. Ash has had a hard life growing up orphaned. As a child he was part of a child ring of thieves and cons. Now, his biggest con ever. Convince Hetty's father and the crown that he is the true missing heir. Hetty agrees to marry him if he will give her six months to prove she can be a financial success before he tears down her vines to build a horse breeding stable. Now, a man who loves his adopted cat can't be all bad, right? His motto is "never fall in love with a mark" but Hetty might be his downfall. Smart and funny with insight into women's struggle to be accepted as a capable business person.

Bell's romances are always light and fun and this definitely delivered on that. We also had really engaging characters and a unique backstory.
This fell a bit flat for me in a few ways, unfortunately. One was that a lot of the plot points seemed to be items a modern writer needed checked off a box, if that makes sense. Another was a lack of chemistry between the characters. After enjoying the romance in the first book of this series, I was surprised at how much I didn't care about this couple.

**Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review**

I love that Hetty is strong, independent, full of conviction and unwilling to kowtow to society's role for women. The women she has surrounded herself with are awesome. They bring additional layers to the story and moments of out loud giggling.

Ash, well...he took some warming up to. While his goals were worthy, his methods of attaining them was rather low. He was thrown off kilter so vastly by Hetty, but he dug in not wanting to have anyone change his point of view or beliefs.

The background parts of the story, the wine and Ash's past were wonderfully woven in and intertwined. With both our hero and heroine being stubborn there were moments I was tempted to shake them both. Thankfully, Ms. Bell kept things moving and they got out of their own ways. When I did put the book down, I found myself down a rabbit hole looking into wine history. When I picked up the story again it was with more understanding of Hetty's goal.

The grand gesture was very well done...stubbornness to the very end. I enjoyed the process of each getting to that point. The surprise twist made me cheer...scared my husband with the whoop! I am looking forward to more of the Wallflowers and their rogues.

Disclaimer: I received a complementary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in anyway.

I liked the first book in the series more, however The Devil's Own Duke makes for fun read. Lady Henrietta Prince will keep her family's vineyard running and be successful! When Ash Ellis claims to be a very distant heir to her family's farm, Henrietta knows she will stop at nothing to keep it, even if it means marrying Ash.

The Devil's Own Duke was a fun quick read! If you love historical romances with HEA, you can't go wrong with Lenora Bell.

This is so completely cliched, but the hero is a cat dad so it gets 3.5 stars. There are two cats actually, Lucifer and Bacchus, and they’re hilarious, I just wish the romance was better. I couldn’t like Ash after he condescendingly called Hetty “girlie” among other things. I like a gruff hero, but he was a bit of a jerk. The story moved way too quickly and it seemed like the insta love didn’t fit at all with Hetty’s no nonsense personality and attitude towards Ash in general. I’m still glad to have read this one. The cats are the best ever. I need more historical romances with cat dad dukes, please.

* I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher. I was not obligated to provide a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. *

Since her mother’s untimely death at the beginning of her first season, Lady Henrietta Prince has devoted herself to reviving the grapevines her mother so loved and turning them into a profitably wine business. She values her independence above all else, but she does indulge in a kiss with a stranger at a midnight ball in a moment of enchantment, only to be horrified when the man turns out to be a very distant cousin and the heir to her father’s dukedom.

Lifelong gambler Ash Ellis has pulled himself up from nothing and won’t let anything get in the way of his goal of making real child labor reform a reality. When her father suggests a match between Hetty and Ash, both are immediately reluctant, but Hetty fashions it as a business arrangement once she realizes this is likely the only way she'll have any chance of saving her vineyards.

Hetty is determined their arrangement will be for mutual gain only, regardless of her physical reaction to Ash’s presence. Ash had never planned to marry, and he demands everything from Hetty, only to realize that he’s unwittingly given her just as much of himself.

I really enjoyed this story. Hetty was independent without being annoying about it. Though I did find her insistence on rigid adherence to planning a bit frustrating, I think that’s because this is a trait I too possess and looking in the mirror isn’t always pleasant. Ash was one of those heroes who has never experienced love and has no idea what to do with it, so I loved that. I’m always a total sucker for the hero who has to learn how to give and accept love. Both Hetty and Ash were so afraid of their feelings, despite their obvious attraction, and watching them fight it was quite entertaining. There’s also an element of threat from Ash’s past that keeps things interesting and gives Ash the hard edge to go along with the soft sweetness at his core. Ash wound up being a genuinely good man with a gruff exterior and I loved that Hetty was so determined to peel back his layers to find that goodness at his heart, no matter how much he resisted her. I also loved that Ash did the same with Hetty, peeling back her defenses to get to the same desire for love and connection that he was also trying to ignore and overcome. These two made an excellent pair as opposite personalities who had much in common and wound up being a great match with excellent chemistry and I really enjoyed their story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I picked this book out of order, having not read the first in the series, but having enjoyed Lenora Bell’s books in the past. On that, this book read well as a standalone.

This is a romance with class differences where our hero, Ash, is the owner of a gambling hell and the heroine, Hetty, is a lady of society in need of an heir to the title in her family so they don’t lose everything. Her original plan was for her father to remarry and have a son. But conveniently, and much to her dismay, Ash seems to have a claim to the title.

There are some things you can certainly expect in this story. A total cinnamon roll hero, a marriage of convenience, a heroine determined to make her vineyards and English wine recognized for their quality

But while this story was fun and the characters sweet, it was missing something for me. A bit boring overall in execution and pacing. There was a lot of potential with the plot that I don’t think was ever developed. The bad guy storyline felt like an afterthought and honestly I would’ve loved to see some of the hero’s passion and motivation explored further. We spent a lot of time with our heroine and her vineyards and I think spending a bit more time with the hero, his backstory and the kids he was trying to help would’ve given this story a bit more depth.

Nevertheless, I do enjoy this author’s writing and I’ll be picking up more of her books in the future. I know she’s always good for a sweet historical romance.

I am a huge fan of the series a d other books. I love the premise, and had high hopes for the couple. About halfway through the book it began to feel rushed. I felt there were some missed opportunities to dive deeper in to the story. I would still recommend the book as a huge Lenora Bell fan and wanting to know all her character's stories.

3.5 stars on this one! I enjoyed the characters and the story and although I haven't yet read book one of this series, I don't think it took away from the story at all. With that said, I will definitely be going back to check it out.

This book has an independent heroine (Henrietta) and a hero (Ash) who is gambling everything on a chance that no one will challenge him on who he is to get what he wants. I enjoyed the way the relationship developed between these two and the story itself kept me turning the pages to see what would happen next.

I'll definitely be picking up more books by Lenora Bell in the future!

Lenora Bell is such an amazing author! Her writing style is extremely engaging, and every element within the story she is telling jumps right off of the page.
If you enjoy historical romance, I highly recommend this book! It kept me turning the pages into the very early hours of the morning to see what would happen next and I can't wait to read what Lenora Bell writes next!

This ARC was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for my honest review

This book was ok, but not great. We have a fairly boring heroine Hetty, she annoyed and Ash the so called Hero, I could have done without both of them to be honest. I think my favorite out of all the people in this book was Ash
s friend. So all in all, if you have nothing to do, read it, but if you find a better one-grab it 2 1/2

The difference between The Devil's Own Duke and Love is a Rogue is that I actually felt the chemistry between the main characters in the first book. This book is more focused on Ash's do-gooder agenda and Hetty's struggle with being taken seriously as a wine-maker. The romance was secondary and their lines were so cheesy. No spark. I have no idea why the characters are in love.

This story is not quite what I was expecting, because to me if you have the only child/daughter of a duke, who loves wine and a long-lost heir to a dukedom, that sounds like the perfect pairing – but sadly, for me, that was not the case with this book.

Since the death of her mother, Lady Henrietta Prince, the only child of the Duke of Granville, has preferred life in the country, where she tends the vineyards her mother loved so much and plans to make the wine produced into a profitable venture. Everything would be perfect if only she had been a boy and the heir, but she has hope that her father will remarry and produce a much needed heir to keep her precious Rosehill Park and its vineyards from reverting to the crown on his death. But her wish for an heir doesn’t mean that she will accept just anyone – especially not the gambling-hell owner (whom she just happened to kiss) now claiming to be the long-lost heir!

Life has not been easy for Ash Ellis, he has dragged himself out of the rookeries and is now the co-owner of the gambling-hell, The Devil’s Staircase. Understandably, Ash dislikes the nobility and would love to make them pay for the suffering and many others endured – so he hatches a plan, because what better revenge is there than becoming a duke and making them bow to him? And it seems like his plan will work, because not only does the duke accept him as his long-lost heir without question, but he wants him to marry his daughter too!

For me, this book just didn’t work, I know it is fiction and authors need to be granted a certain degree of creative license, but things in this book just stretched my “creative license” tolerance a bit too far. I didn’t really like any of the characters and didn’t feel any real connection between Henrietta and Ash, add that to the suspect plot of the book and this one was not a keeper for me. This is the second book in the series, but it could definitely be read as a standalone title with no issues.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*

I enjoyed reading about Henrietta and Ash - two absolutely wonderful characters. How they met and how they fell in love. The wines - I learned so much about wines. This is such a well-rounded book with excellent characters, just enough backstory, and development. Just a feel-good romance! I recommend it highly!

Thank you Avon for an early copy of The Devil's Own Duke. I really enjoyed reading this book! I will definitely have to read the first book in the series. I am looking forward to what comes next as well!