A Marriage Based On Friendship And Respect

A very good start to a new series by an author who was new to me. The well written plot is good, engaging, and emotional, with a touch of suspense and some steam.
I could empathize with Silas’ panic attacks, the emotions were very palpable.
I really loved how Clara and Silas’ relationship developed into friendship and later into love. Their characters are very likable and and fit together well, especially Clara who is compassionate, levelheaded but insecure.

Clara Woodwine is the daughter of a wealthy inventor and is soon to be engaged to Hubert Jenkins, Viscount Dilworth. But when it turns out that her soon-to-be fiancé is a gambling addict and he gambles away her dowry and her at a card game with the notorious Silas Winters, Duke of Combe, she is furious and breaks off the relationship.

Silas is known as the „Divorced Duke“ and notorious for his alleged depravities which drove his wife away, when in reality it was his wife who had violent tendencies, both physically and emotionally.

Silas is still traumatised by his toxic marriage and has preferred a reclusive life since his divorce. Ever since his divorce, he has suffered from panic attacks in public places.
Silas has vowed never to marry again and believes he is incapable of loving again, but Clara's fate touches him now that she’s ostracized by society and Silas offers her a marriage of convenience based on respect and friendship…

Overall, a heartwarming and enjoyable read which I gladly recommend!

This historical romance gives us two very different characters. Our heroine is from new money. The ways of the ton are strange to her. Our hero is a duke who suffered great heartache, and believes he'll never love again. Addiction comes in many different guises, but nearly always causes incredible damage. All around those addicts are affected by it. This story is about one man's cure and the fiesty package it comes in.
A fascinating start to a new series.
I loved it.

How can you not love a book where the heroine gets up the courage to stand up to a room filled with men who just sat back and watched her be gambled away at a card table? The moment Clara told off those men was definitely a 'get up and cheer" kind of moment. It also showed the kind of woman we would be following for the remainder of the book. And then when she stands up to Silas and doesn't let him off the hook easily just because of his rank was another great moment for her. I especially liked that the relationship between these two started off rocky and only improved because they actually spent time together and talked. I felt so bad for Clara when she received such a cold welcome from Silas's family and friends (I need some kind of resolution involving Trembley - primarily an apology to Clara). And then to have him basically remind her every chance that she doesn't quite fit in was a bit heartbreaking. When he claims that they are friends I wish Clara had pointed out all the ways in which he was seriously lacking even as just a friend. Of course we know he will finally come around and realize that Clara is worth putting himself out there but I still wanted to yell at him every time he pushed her away. I also liked the little bit of matchmaking that Clara did for Violet - I would love to have at least a short story that covers Violet and Alfred's relationship. I'm also very much looking forward to learning more about Holly's situation and how she gets to her happy ending. The only other thing I really wanted from this novel was a scene in which Clara was able to pull rank on the women who had been so cruel to her earlier in the book - I know it's petty but I've accepted that's just how I am. This book gets the series off to a great start and gives us a few glimpses at future characters.

During the 1822 London season, two people from very different and distant worlds meet over the course of a deplorable and scandalous scene, the aftermath of which changes their lives.

Clara is twenty-three, and while she’s fairly confident of her own worth and personal charm, she understands that, for the peerage, her attractiveness is dictated by the size of her dowry and eventual inheritance. Silas is close to thirty years old, and accepts that the only reason he hasn’t been fully ostracized by his so-called peers is because he’s both wealthy and a duke.

After a disgraceful private debacle becomes public knowledge, our duke proposes a fake if rather public courtship, as a means to help elevate Clara’s social standing and restore her reputation. Neither of them expect to become true friends, never mind their mutual physical attraction–though of course they should have: this is a genre romance novel.

Beware: acute social anxiety; gambling addiction; kink shaming; instalust; dominance play; evil other woman; explicit vanilla sex.

The Woodvine family’s money is very, very new; the father is either a teacher and inventor, or a tradesman and inventor, while the mother was once a housemaid to someone in the lower aristocracy. Their marriage was once exclusively a partnership, but over time their relationship evolved into deep and abiding love. As their only child, Clara hopes that her own marriage will follow a similar path, now that a viscount has declared his “undying love” for her, even if her feelings for him aren’t anywhere near that strong.

“Of course, she would say yes. He was a viscount, for heaven’s sake. An eligible, handsome, charming viscount who was close to her own age. He had all his hair, his teeth were straight, he didn’t seem moody or ill-tempered, and while she suspected that he was in desperate need of funds, her dowry should be more than enough to smooth that trouble away, and then there would be nothing to stand in the way to their happiness.” (Chapter 1)

After it all goes to hell on a card table, Silas feels somewhat guilty for his role in Clara’s humiliation; despite his own struggles with social anxiety, he pays a visit to apologize to her personally, and is intrigued against his will when she doesn’t fall all over herself to absolve him of all wrongdoing. It’s not that she’s rude, but now that he’s paying closer attention, it turns out that on top of being rather unimpressed by his rank and consequence, she’s rather attractive–and in her company, the debilitating anxiety that’s been his constant companion for more than a year is barely noticeable.

Still, Silas has his own problems, and would have happily kept his distance from Clara, to suit both their preferences, if the blasted bet hadn’t become public knowledge. Once it has, his protective instincts immediately rise to the fore. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that spending time with Clara would give Silas the opportunity to explore what is it about her that helps calm his anxiety.

“And it wouldn’t hurt her reputation if it was reported that she had caught the attention of a duke. Scandal-ridden though he was, his title still carried weight. It could provide her with some protection.” (Chapter 6)

Clara, however, remains unimpressed; if it were up to her, the family would return to their country home, and she would remain unmarried; who needs the attention of men who consider themselves her superiors and want only her dowry? Alas, her father’s business ventures require him to stay in town for several months longer, where there are many impoverished younger sons and other fortune hunters willing to importune the family for the duration; eventually, she agrees to the fake courtship.

“It is a smart plan and I don’t find you objectionable. Besides, you said you wouldn’t leave until I agreed. I agree, which means you may leave.” “Are you only agreeing to get rid of me?” “Possibly.” (Clara and Silas, chapter 7)

So far, this is more or less standard genre romance fare, but the author took some risks that elevated the story for me. One of the most interesting aspects is that the main conflict between the protagonists is less about class differences, and more about emotional intimacy.

It turns out that Silas’s first marriage had revolved mainly around sexual kink; he enjoys dominance play, and his first wife is a true masochist who craves physical pain and emotional chaos. She would provoke Silas, including cheating on him, then he would punish her, momentarily satisfying her needs; lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually, their needs diverged too far; when she essentially demanded that he share her with another man, full time, Silas finally reached the limit of what he would do to make her happy.

“Soon Silas had learned the true depth of her depravity. Her pain tolerance was unlike anyone he had ever met and Silas still wasn’t sure if he’d genuinely enjoyed inflicting so much on her, even when she begged for it.” (Chapter 4)

It is important to note that the word “depravity” is used to signify kink, in the sense that it’s not “normal” to have such desires; Silas is riddled with guilt over his own proclivities, as he blames his sexual desires for the ugly cycle of abuse the marriage became.

When Silas broaches the possibility of offering for Clara, she doesn’t jump to accept him, but instead asks him to clarify what the marriage would entail, specifically on the matter of sex, and he’s all, “I’m over the need to dominate”, and she’s all, “But you don’t need to be”; only it’s all oblique remarks and half-voiced sentiments, and it’s such a great way to address the issue when neither of them have the words to discuss kink with each other–especially Clara, whose entire sexual experience consists of a few kisses.

Silas, who has grown to care for her, but who also conflates love, sex, and harm, is determined to never hurt her. He’ll marry Clara, and he’ll bed her–he is a duke and requires an heir, after all–but he won’t love her, and therefore, she won’t be hurt. And he most definitely will not indulge his “baser needs”.

“Regardless of how much he wanted to, he didn’t want to pull her into his depravity.” (Chapter 9)

And so they marry, and while their sexual relationship is good, nothing else between them really is; Silas may indulge in passionate, if vanilla, sex with her every night, but he ignores her during the day, and Clara is increasingly unhappy. Eventually it is her, once again, who forces the issue, which in turn sets the stage for the happy resolution to the last-act crisis.

“What could she say? That she wanted him to open up to her? That she needed to understand the evident pain he carried within him? That she wanted to help? Good lord, it all sounded too dramatic to put into words. And yet, she needed to tell him everything or she would explode.” (Chapter 14)

This turned out to be a more interesting story than I thought it would be, even though the writing voice is rough and the pacing is uneven, and overall the book needed tighter content editing and a good copy editor.

I have two main problems with the book. One is that there are too many threads in the story that lead nowhere.

There’s Silas’ mother’s disapproval and coldness thrown in, then never touched upon again. There’s the sequel bait involving his two oldest friends, one of whom disapproves of the marriage, and then never shows up again. There’s the plot thread involving Clara’s childhood friend Holly, who’s destitute and also supporting her younger twin siblings, and therefore on the verge of marrying a much older man–who, it’s barely insinuated, is probably gay.

I should note here that homosexuality is not treated like a sin or beyond the pale in other ways by either main character; there’s even a fleeting implication that Silas may be bisexual–and that, too, is left unexplored.

The second problem is that the author chose to bring back the ex-wife for angry confrontations with both Clara and Silas, in order to force the later to not only realize his feelings for Clara, but to actually express them to her. Up to that point, and despite Silas’ negative feelings about his ex-wife, the text had granted her a modicum of humanity and respect; we are who we are, and “unusual” desires don’t make us evil, after all.

That final twist is not only contrived, it flattens her character into “evil other woman” in a way that left a bad taste in my mouth.

There are other issues that a good editing pass would have solved; to better integrate some of the more modern sensibilities present in the book (gambling addiction is not a new phenomenon, but the term itself was not in use during the Regency period, anymore than the term “alcoholism” was), and to eliminate some of the most egregious instances of repetition of facts, as well as to fix some of the strange word choices, outright typos and missing words in the text, which may have been addressed in the published text.

On balance, I may eventually give the author another try, but probably not soon.

A Duke Makes a Deal gets a 7.75 out of 10

This book comes out today, June 11.

I loved this book very much: it was intriguing and compelling and I really couldn’t put it down. Both main characters are wonderful and vivid and their relationship is a perfectly handled slow burn. Clara is a wonderful character, a commoner who isn’t afraid to stand up to Society and to fight for the people she loves. I loved her strength and her no-nonsense attitude. I loved Silas as well, who had a very toxic relationship with his first wife (but I felt for her too at the end) and couldn’t seem to escape from his past. I would have liked to see him explore his dominant side with Clara more, but the glimpses we were given were very hot and satisfying. I can’t wait for the next books of the series!

I enjoy the books of Matilda Madison, and was eager to obtain an ARC of this book. While I read "A Duke Makes a Deal" in a single sitting, it was not as good as some of the other works from Madison that I've loved to date. I wanted some of the BDSM hints more fully explored (not necessarily explicit scenes), and even the dynamic between the romantic couple seemed slightly under-developed.

This is still a very enjoyable read, but I found it a bit uneven in pacing and scope, somewhat lacking in the great emotional exploration I've come to expect from this author. 3.5/5

Clara & Silas - she’s an heiress who grew up much more modestly, he’s a disgraced divorced duke suffering from ptsd after his first marriage. They meet at her first society ball after her wannabe fiancé just gambled her away in a card game.

He withdrew from Society for a year because all the commotion and scandal surrounding his failed marriage caused him great anxiety. He still isn’t fond of crowds.
If being the daughter of a successful inventor and a former maid seeking entry into Society didn’t stir enough gossip, a very public argument in Hyde Park certainly did.
Feeling guilty about “winning” her in a card game, at the same time strangely protective of her and also a little selfish because she soothes his anxiety, he offers her a fake engagement to rescue both their tarnished reputations. Their acquaintance turns into friendship and more. Only, he’s not willing to give her more, yet he’s also not willing to let her go… so he offers her a marriage of friendship - which she accepts.

This one is a delicious fixer-upper, and the lady has an uphill battle ahead of her - especially when his vicious ex joins the party - but she will be victorious in the end! Even if that ending is a bit too abrupt for my liking… Somehow their story feels unfinished to me. I would have appreciated another chapter or two before the epilogue.
That said, this is a captivating story! Silas is the perfect reluctant hero - traumatised, wary, with a frozen heart and possessive - and Clara is the exact anti-freeze he needs - brave, clever, patient and perceptive. I like his vulnerability and her perseverance. Both are very interesting and lovable characters, even miss vicious is fascinating.
Well written and nicely paced with some steamy interludes, this was an entertaining read and a nice starter for this new series!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful book. I enjoyed it a lot!

Thanks NetGalley. Clara is so excited she will be making an announcement with her fiance tonight at the ball. She is all new to this and to London. It is a thrill to get attention so fast but then her dowry is good size. Little does she know her fiance is a gambler and down in funds but thinking he will do well with her money. He gambles away her to the Duke of Combe and she happens to be upstairs looking down on them as this happens. Clara is furious at them all and leaves to go home. The next day Silas the duke comes to apologize. He is divorced and does not want another wife. They make a deal to help each other and in the end they wind up married. Silas is attracted to her but he tries to stay away so he won't be tempted. Then the ex-wife comes along to cause trouble. Silas and Clara develop a tight close relationship.

There were several aspects of this romance that I enjoyed and others that irritated me. The heroine is an independent-thing young woman. Her family is newly rich because of her father’s invention. For some reason, her family tries to launch her into high society even though they have no connections there. Her mother was formerly a maid and her father a teacher. So, of course all the mean girls in society are going to be mean. And she’s going to be the target of unscrupulous fortune-hunters. Knowing that, why would this genuinely loving family even undertake this endeavor instead of looking for a spouse for her amid the rising middle class?

It was never clear exactly when this is supposed to be taking place.The hero is a duke who has endured a calamitous marriage and since divorced his wife. Well, a wealthy duke could get a divorce if he got a bill passed in Parliament, but it wasn’t until 1858 that a law was passed in Great Britain that allowed divorce when both people could remarry. There is talk of the evil former wife planning to remarry, so I would think that this was set later, but there is no mention of anything that would place the tale in the mid 19th century. They don’t travel by trains as they would then. And there is no mention of the Queen. So my conclusion is that the author just didn’t do much research into this.

The duke is likable at times and too arrogant at other times. And I didn’t like the hint of his proclivities for the D in BDSM sex. And his lovely new wife seems to be a bit okay with that. It’s not overt, but just hinted at.

I do like romances that involve a couple working out their problems after getting married, but those problems seemed to have been resolved too quickly.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

When nouveau-rich Clara Woodvine attends her first high society ball, she’s expecting it to be the most wonderful night of her life as she’s expecting a proposal from Viscount Dilworth. Unfortunately, it turns out to be the worst, when Clara overhears her would-be fiancé has bet her and her dowry away in a card game to the Silas Winters, Duke of Combe, aka the Divorced Duke. Silas has spent over a year brooding in misery after the end of his marriage. Silas proposes to Clara a marriage based on friendship and nothing more. Clara accepts, but only on the condition that she understands this is a marriage of convenience because Silas is determined never to love again
The first in a new series & a new author to me. I really enjoyed this book, the pace was good & the characters had depth. I loved Clara from the beginning & she grew in my estimation when she took a room full of lords to task, she also never gave up on Silas & was always there for him. I really liked Silas & loved how he gradually put the past behind him & realised what was right before his eyes. I loved the chemistry between the couple & how their relationship grew & deepened
I voluntarily read and reviewed a special copy of this book; all thoughts and opinions are my own

I thought the book was cute. The romance was nice but I wanted more of them after they admitted they loved each other. I liked the anxiety rep

A new author for me to read and a new series. The beginning of the story was great with Clara standing up to the ton both men and women. I found myself cheering her on. I was still cheering her on at the end as well. Bravo! Clara!. Silas on the other hand, I had mixed feelings about. He is a very complex person who seems to struggle alot with both his personal internal demons as well as those he acquired from his first marriage. This author did a great job, skating around and through the darker side of intimacy without being specific or graphic, well done, as I would have dropped it completely. My sense is that Silas's friends and Holly will be in future books. I'm looking forward to reading them as Derek as tapped my imagination a bit.

What an intense book this turned out to be! I found myself being pulled into the plot from the opening pages and was unable to put my Kindle down, as I became engrossed in reading this romance. Silas, the Duke of Combe is a damaged hero, a product of a wild youth and an unfortunate and disastrous marriage. Clara, on the other hand, grew up knowing she was loved and valued by both her parents, with a strong sense of her identity and her worth. Thrust into the London social season, Clara is expected to make a fortuitous marriage, but overhearing that her betrothed was in the process of gambling her dowry away, had her taking a stand in the most unexpected manner. When Clara's reputation is smeared by the press and the ton, Silas realizes that not only does he owe her an apology but he persuades her into a fake courtship. Despite her background, Clara has common sense and wisdom that confounds Silas, and he finds that the tight bands in his chest are beginning to give way to a peace that he had not felt for some time. It is unfortunate that just as their relationship is being cemented, Silas's past comes back to haunt them and once again it is Clara's determined spirit that sees them through. The novel comes to a wonderful conclusion, bringing forth new beginnings for the whole family. I received a copy of this beautiful and heart-warming story as a gift and this is my honest and voluntary review.

I have a difficult time resisting the opportunity to read the first title in a historical romance series and I’m so glad that I didn’t resist when it came to this series starter. After beginning, I was so engaged by the story that by the time I put my kindle down, I noticed that there were 28 minutes left in the book.

Spice wise - I don’t know that this story knew exactly how it wanted to come across. As a result, the spice is more spoof, imo, but I still liked this.

Ms Madison is a new to me author and I will definitely be reading more of her work 🙂

An enjoyable first title in a new series and I’m already looking forward to reading the next book.



Thank you to Dragonblade Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC

I thought that this was a really good book. There is a very seductive and tension filled balance between desire and doubt in this book that gives not only your heart but also your mind a workout as you read it. Once I got a taste of the steamy/sweetness that this couple generated I was addicted.

Their deal was to be for their mutual social benefit, and it did but not in the way they intended. It is easy to empathetic with the hero due to his past and admire the heroine for her caring and understanding. Together they are triumphant against the threats tot their HEA.

This regency romance is characterized by a “strong” female character and a traumatized Duke in need of saving.

The Duke of Combe is suffering PTSD after his first marriage. After being pressured by his friends to come back to the social scene, he participates in a card gane where he wins a potential fiancée. On the other side there is Clara Woodvine, against her will she is participating in the social activities his parents take her to. She is about to get engaged to a member of the peerage when she discovers her so called future fiancé is gambling her away to a Duke.

This is an entertaining book about a love story more than a regency historical book. Expect to see second chances, determination and the possibility to survive anxiety after years of emotional abuse.

I just reviewed A Duke Makes a Deal by Matilda Madison. #ADukeMakesaDeal #NetGalley

I really enjoyed this book, I read it over a couple of days as I was so interested in the story. It’s a bit different to the usual historical romance in a good way, as it covers topics not typically mentioned. Clara and the Duke Silas are well written characters and we see their flaws as well as their strengths. Anxiety, divorce, control and power are all included and the Duke’s ex wife is quite wicked. I was glad there was no third act break or misunderstanding as Clara stood her ground and fought for her husband.
This is the first book in the Gambling Peers Series and I look forward to the next one.

A Duke Makes a Deal is a very enjoyable book in the first book of the series Gambling Peers. Matilda Madison has written a book with a good plot, the characters come to life as you find yourself drawn into their story, angst and with detailed scenes that paints an incredible backdrop that makes you feel like you are one with the story.


I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.