This was super cute & quick and I loved hearing the MMC’s French accent in the narration. You don't normally get to hear a French accent from a MMC very often so this was unique. The story was fun too.

This was a fun Regency romance. The journalist and the locksmith with a secret are an unlikely pair, and despite their efforts to fight it, it makes for an interesting tale.

I would like to thank netgalley and Spotify Audiobooks for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I found the narration a little twee, but the story was enjoyable. I liked the uniqueness of having a French hero.

The Duke’s Embrace (12 Dukes of Christmas #7) was a great read by Erica Ridley. Journalist Miss Eve Shelling always has a trusty notebook and her overprotective bullmastiff, Duenna. Local blacksmith Monsieur Sébastien le Duc is the pillar of his community. He has two secrets; one that he has an international smuggling operation, and the other that he is losing his heart to Eve who is determined to expose the truth at any cost. I enjoyed reading this book and can’t wait to read more by the author.

This 12 Dukes series by Erica Ridley is very hit or miss. I really liked the first book but the other two I've read I haven't liked as much.

The town of "Christmas" is almost its own character in this series. In this book, Eve Shelling and her father write a local newsletter. Eve wants to be more of a serious journalist and when she gets to know the le Duc family, Basien in specific, she decides to write an article about them in the hopes of helping them sell their smithy so they can move back to France.

Bastien starts to notice Eve when she is too busy working on her paper to fawn on him as most of the ladies in town do. Eve starts to notice him about this time as well. He offers her a "favor" of getting a friend to illustrate her newspaper article and she repays him by working on the article about his smithy.

The story involves Eve fighting with her father about the status and future of the paper, and Bastien and his brother working to be able to move back to France. The issues are almost solved when Eve discovers Basiten and his family are doing illegal things. She decides she can't work against him and doesn't really want to be a serious journalist.

Then quickly there is a HFN/HEA with Eve, Bastien and her father all getting what they want. The story was a bit too short to handle all of the things thrown at it, and there were too many unnecessary twists for a novella. I may read more, but I'd have to need to read something similar for a book challenge ;)

I received a promotional copy and am giving an honest review.

This was such a fun regency romp! I've read other titles by Erica Ridley, though not in this series, and was very excited to get approved for this audiobook.
The voice actor was wonderful! She handled both the male and female perspective with ease and I liked how she handled the French accent.
Very fun story! It was a quick listen and I wouldn't hesitate to read more from this series.

I really loved this. Erica Ridley's books don't always hit for me, but more often than not they do, and this was definitely one of them. As I've said before, her greatest strength as an author lies in her ability to make her characters feel real and three-dimensional. You care for them, you want them to succeed in their aims, you find yourself rooting for them. Even when the plot occasionally moves too fast and is too convenient, and rough patches are too quickly smoothed over, as happens a few times in this one, the charisma of the characters wins out and I find that I don't even mind.

The Dukes of Christmas books are always fun, and I always find myself anticipating where the story will lead. You know from the start that nothing too bad will happen, and that everything will be resolved happily. But that doesn't take away from the fun of getting there. Eve and Bastien were such endearing characters, and Lucien was as well, though he tried his best not to be. I felt for both Eve and Bastien, with their dreams and struggles, and I thought they had delightful chemistry together. By the end, I found myself wishing we'd seen more of Lucien, because when he wasn't being sullen he turned out to be funny and rather delightful.

The narrator wasn't my favorite at first, but grew on me as the story progressed. I enjoyed her performance of Eve, but her performance of Bastien and Lucien was my favorite part. Their French accents were just a touch comical, and clearly at least partially consciously put on, which fit with their characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Spotify Audiobooks for providing an early audio copy for review.

This was the second book I've read in this particular series, and while I enjoyed both well enough, I felt myself wanting "more", and I suspect this is a case of "It's not the book, it's me". Novellas are just too short - there isn't enough time for me to get invested in the story and the characters. I liked the characters but wanted to know more about them. The story was good - there was a bit of intrigue that created issues for the two main characters - but again things were resolved a bit too quickly. I'm realizing that this is a series I'd enjoy more if I binged the books over a short period of time - there's overlap between characters and reading it almost as one big long book would probably be more satisfying for me than spacing them out. And I enjoyed the two I've read enough to keep them on my TBR list to do just that - read (or listen to) two or three at a time. I did listen to the audio version, and enjoyed Rosie Ackerman's narration.
Thanks to Netgalley and Spotify Audiobooks for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

This is the seventh installment in Ms Ridley's delightful 12 Dukes of Christmas series. I listened to this as an audiobook and absolutely loved it. The narrator did a lovely job of bringing the story and the characters to life. Eve is quite serious about her journalism responsibilities for the local paper her father owns. She is passionate about bringing more substantial articles to the people of Cressmouth. But her father only wants her to write fluff articles about Christmas. When she argues and stands her ground with him, he agrees to let her write one non-Christmas article and she uses this opportunity to write about the local blacksmith, Sebastien de Luc. Sebastian is planning to sell the smithy and enlists her help in trying to make an advertisement that will make the smithy more appealing to a potential buyer. She agrees and in spending time with him they both begin to develop deep feelings for each other. But as her feelings deepen, Eve also discovers some shocking truths about Sebastian, forcing her to choose between the man she has fallen in love with and telling the truth.
An absolutely delightful read! I enjoyed the story and the narration and look forward to catching up with more of this series.
Thank you to Netgalley and Spotify Audiobooks for providing a complimentary copy. This is my honest and voluntary opinion.

This is a quick romance, but I think it needed more substance. There was a very simple plot of Eve writing a paper column and her subject Sebastian had some undercover secrets going on.

The part that I liked was Eve's strength and being an Entrepreneur. The paper was her idea and she really put it all together despite her father wanting to control the content.

I listened to this as an audiobook. Usually the Audiobook enhances the book, but this time it was the opposite. I really struggled with the narrator's poor French accent that was used for Sebastian. It grated on me real fast.

Overall this book was OK, but not as good as some of Erica's other books. This one won't sway me from picking up others though.

Thank you to Spotify Audio and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this Audiobook for my honest review.

I listened to the audio for this one and I love it. It was a short historical romance, one that I hear in about four hours. It's a great book to listen to while doing chores, cooking and something you can get done in a morning or afternoon. Maybe even a train/plane ride.
There are french characters in this story and our narrator has done a great job with the accent. She does all tones well, it was easy to figure out who's talking, even with the different french characters.

The story, like I said was a short one, a novella, but it was still sweet and had all you need to be swooned and captivated by the characters. I loved the dilemma our FMC was in, and she had to choose between her career of her love. It's always nice to see them work it out and get both of those things.

I was given an ALC from NetGAlley in exchange for an honest review

A nice Christmas novella. Eve is trying to make her mark as a journalist. Sébastien is a French emigre working as a blacksmith. His only goal is to return to France.

Eve decides to help him sell his workshop, so he and his brother can go to France. By writing an article. Along rhe way, the h and H fall in love.

I love this author and this series is also hit or miss for me. This one had some strong moments but it felt too fast and not enough to get me investing in them.

I listened to the audio of The Dukes Embrace which the narrator was a bit high pitched I found it hard to follow at first. However it got better. The story itself had the heroine as a self assured working woman, with the restraints of the era and society she was born into. The Duke, due to his circumstances in his upbringing, saw her qaulities. He recognized an independent woman. It really was an entertaining story of how unexpectedly they fell in love.

As a whole, I think this was a relatively fine romance and a pretty good audiobook experience. I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest fan of MF historical romance, so if you are a fan I think you’ll enjoy this book a lot more. Still, I found the book pretty readable and the audiobook made it a nice way to spend an hour or so while I was doing some post-holiday chores. The romance is a bit insta-love, once the two main characters actually meet they’re basically head-over-heels ready-to-do-anything for one another. Since the book is so short, we don’t get a ton of development with them as a couple, but there is actually a little bit more development of the individual characters and their world that I enjoyed.

As far as the audiobook goes, I think that Rosie Akerman does a pretty good job of narrating, especially Eve’s POV. The biggest problem that I had is since the male lead, Sébastien, had a French accent when he was speaking but not when it was one of his POV chapters, there was a disconnect where I genuinely could not tell who was the love interest for the first few chapters of the audiobook. Other than that choice. I think this was a solid historical romance on the shorter end, and if that’s your thing I think it’s definitely worth picking up!

This short and very basic novella lacked depth and character development. I had a hard time to finish listening. The narrator and her strange French accent were really off-putting.

Thank you Netgalley and Spotify Audiobooks for this ALC!

- I think the first thing I struggled with was the MMC's French accent.
- The conflict felt a bit ridiculous, especially with how the FMC goes back and forth. The dad was really annoying in that as well.
- I did like the aspiring journalist storyline!
- I haven't read the other books in the series, and I wonder if I would have been more invested in the story if I had?

This lovely story takes us a step away from the norm of aristocracy. A bit of six degrees of seperate if you will. Our hero may be aristocracy, he may not… that you’ll have to read to find out. What he is, is a French blacksmith with a big heart who also happens to be a dandy. I know, spangled waistcoats are typically not the attire of most blacksmith fantasies. But that doesn’t stop him from becoming all Eve can think of. Their story is one of standing up for your own rights, for staking a claim on what you want and demanding it be yours. The story of fun, with a healthy dose of teasing attraction and plenty of chemistry. I enjoyed listening to this one, the French accents made for another change from the norm and it was delightful.

I loved this book. I have really enjoyed the 12 Dukes of Christmas so far and The Duke’s Embrace did not disappoint. I enjoyed continuing the antics of such a fun little town!

Cute Christmas audiobook where the narrator does a great job of voicing each character. There are a lot of accents and it takes a bit to get into it without seeing the text in front of you. It was still worth the listen especially if you enjoy a wholesome romance set during this period in time. 3.5 stars