Author Sara Bennett put together a very interesting storyline with some intriguing characters and some surprising dark plot twists that keeps the reader guessing to the very end of her book. Her character depth makes this a book that was not boring.

I thoroughly enjoyed this enemies to common purpose storyline with Sophia instantly snagging my attention with how as a widow she overcomes much adversity caused by her deceased husband and his band of debauched friends. After her husbands death she turns her life around in spite of the gossips and becomes well loved by those close to her when suddenly Nicholas enters her life and starts to disrupt the calm life she created.

Nicholas Blake starts to spend time with Sophia when he comes seeking her help with a friend that is dear to him, but his hidden agenda is what drives him and causes him to be so focused, which annoys Sophia. The reader will enjoy the tension between them because it is well executed.

To be honest there isn’t much I can say in my review without giving away the plot other than you need to read this. The description on the book cover is only a small part of this story. It is not what you suspect it is about, as much as it’s about love and redemption.

I enjoyed this enemies to lovers story. It's well written and fast-paced with twists, suspense, plotting villains, steamy love scenes and very likeable characters. The two have good chemistry, but I was expecting more tension, banter and bickering between them. The ending was also a bit too quick and not entirely unexpected, but that didn't really bother me.

After years of marriage to a vicious, controlling man and a year of mourning, Sophia, Dowager Duchess of Oldney, is enjoying her newfound freedom and the chance to mingle again.
But then Nicholas Blake, a man she has loathed for years and with whom she had an anonymous, passionate tryst at a masked ball in Vauxhall, asks her to infiltrate her late husband’s vicious set of friends to save his boyhood friend who has recently been hanging out with them.
Nicholas Blake is a man to call when there is trouble who also works for the government and the prime minister. For years now, he has been trying to find his sister who disappeared a decade ago in the middle of the night. When his boyhood friend suddenly finds himself in sinister circles, he has no choice but to ask Sophia for help, a woman he has loathed for years because of her lifestyle at the time, even though he has always secretly desired her...

If you like steamy enemies to lovers romances with a touch of danger and suspense, you will enjoy this book!

I received a free ARC of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and left voluntarily.

The setup for this book was hinted at in book 2 where we were introduced to our final sister. Sophia was in a marriage and around people where she had to guard herself for her well being. Her husband was not kind and nor were the people he surrounded himself with. Which lead to animosity between her and a man named Nicholas. Nicholas is a righteous man who is focusing on searching for his sister but taking a detour cause a dear friend has been getting mixed up in Sophia's former husbands friend group. We open with him asking her for help to save his friend. I liked that they were already in lust when the book opened and that they already knew each other as it is such a short book that helped us jump right in to the growth of their relationship. My only issue is I do feel like the resolution was a little rushed, I wanted something a little more satisfying to happen to the old friend group. I really liked the side character of her butler, he made me laugh a few times with her descriptions of how snobbish he was. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Her mother, determined to marry each of her three daughters off to Dukes, managed to do the impossible. Sophia was married to the Duke of Oldney and now ten years later, is his widow. While married, she was part of his group of despicable friends which she never liked but felt was the only way she could survive the marriage.

Now a widow who has just ended her official mourning period, she is quite content with her life alone with her help. Until that is Nicholas Blake seeks her help to return to the friends her late husband used to socialise with. He is seeking her help to rescue his young friend Gordon, from their clutches. He does not believe their intentions towards the young man are good.

Sophia was hoping she had left that life behind but now she must return to the madness, to try to be someone she used to be. The group welcome her back with open arms thinking she is the same woman she used to be.

At the same time, Nicholas spends most of his free time trying to find his sister, Fern who went missing from school when she was seventeen and has not been heard from since!

All in a delightful story that I enjoyed. I received an ARC from the publishers and NetGalley and submit my honest review voluntarily.

This story just sizzles as Sophia a widow and Nicholas, her past nemosis come together to solve a bit of a mystery. Fast paced, well defined characters and hot steam make for an intriguing read. Will the two burn out or will they find a HEA? Make sure you read this third book of the series as it's splendid.

I found the main characters in this novel interesting, especially as they had previously been in opposite camps with a great deal of enmity between them. Sophia is finally able to shake off the shackles of the past and is leaving the cesspool that was her marriage behind her. That is until Nicholas Blake intrudes on her solitude and requests her assistance in a matter he is trying to resolve. Nicholas and Sophia have an unspoken secret hovering between them, making it difficult to keep their feelings out of their negotiations. Little does Sophia realize, but she can offer Nicholas more than one solution to the matters he is investigating and when he takes up a protective stance towards her, the blinkers come off. The novel comes to a satisfying conclusion with justice being served and all their questions answered. I received a copy of this book as a gift through Dragonblade Publishing and NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

Widowed duchess Sophia is trying to move on from her husband’s cruel influence and his crony friends, but an investigator Nicholas asks for her help in finding out if his old friend is in trouble. She goes back to visiting with and gaming with her late husband’s friends to see if the young man is in danger. As she reports back to Nicholas about the friend, she recalls a time when she had a masked intimate encounter with Nicholas at the pleasure gardens. She believes that he didn’t know who she was and never discussed it, but of course he knew exactly who she was and they renew their dalliance in the present. This book was short and steamy with a tiny bit of mystery and intrigue, especially when we find out that Nicholas has been searching for his sister who has been missing for the past decade. A quick read that was entertaining.

After a ten year marriage to the Duke of Oldney, Sophia is now a widow, living quietly without the society intrigue and gossip she once craved. But when Nicholas Blake, asks for her help to save his young friend from Oldney’s vicious friends, Sophia agrees to return to a world she now despises. Nicholas has always found Sophia fascinating, even when they were sworn enemies, but suddenly blazing anger has turned into unstoppable passion.
A quick but captivating romance with some intrigue & a missing sister to try to find. I really liked both Nicholas & Sophia the chemistry between them sizzled even though they were enemies. I loved that Sophia was willing to change from the woman she’d been & Nicholas was a man who was desperate to find his younger sister. I was also drawn into what Oldney’s despicable friends were planning for Gordon. A well written romance which I thoroughly enjoyed & the epilogue rounded it off beautifully. I was puzzled as to why Sophia was still managing the dukedom as this would have passed to the next Duke.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a special copy of this book; all thoughts and opinions are my own

He needs her help...

Sophia is a widow and quite happy about that.
Her world is turned upside down when Nicholas asks for her help to find his missing sister.
There's a lot of action and drama, enemies to lovers.

This was a lovely short read in your usual Sara Bennett writing which I enjoy. I won't go into what the book is about as this can be read in the book description.
I liked how the roles were reversed and Nicholas wasn't part of high society and Sophia was, which is often not the case in HR novels. This book is the third in a series that I've also read and enjoyed.

Nicholas is lovely and I enjoyed his character and his loyalty to his family and friends. Sophia was a little harder to like, and I feel like if the book was just a little bit longer and we got a bit more time with Nicholas and Sophia and them getting to know each other on a sociable level, it would've been great.

Overall a lovely read and I would recommend this book and the series.

This was a well written love story with many different and exciting plots. It had intrigue, drama, action, mystery, and much more interest that kept me engaged. The characters were strong-willed, complex, and interesting. I enjoyed the delicious passion that developed and evolved into much more despite many past and current issues. The ending was absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend reading!

This book was sizzling! I don’t normally read rom coms so if I do it’s not very I come for practical plots but rather to lose myself and to be swept impossibly off my feet which I was with this book.

Sophia, the Dowager Duchess ofOldney is approached by Her husband’s old enemy Nickolas for help with a friend. We watch the transformation of Sophia and the relationship develop between them. I enjoyed the characters in this story, but the plot was a bit predictable and there was a definite happily ever after.

Thank you, Net Galley. Nicholas is asking the Duchess for help with her husband's friends to find out what they are up to as the are a rotten group. Her husband was also but he died a little over a year ago. They have an attraction to each other. Nicholas's sister has been missing for ten years, and he is looking for her. She doesn't want to be mixed up with them again, but she'll help until she finds out what they are up to. Can they find love?

Sophia and Nicholas have lives that are intertwined with family and friends.
Sophia’s husband, the Duke, ran in a circle of difficult and cruel men.
Now that he is dead, she can regain her own principles and life.
Nicholas is a fixer and he helps people with their problems but he cannot solve his own issue of finding his sister after 10 years.
He asks Sophia to go back to the Duke’s circle to help a young friend who has gotten in too deep in their gambling.
Their relationship develops but is fraught with twists and turns leading to dangerous decisions.
Ongoing action makes reading easy.
Enjoyable series.

What I like liked about this book was the solid writing style and a fab hero. Nicholas is a great guy. He's committed to standing up for justice. He's committed to finding his family, and just amd overall good dude.

The heroine was weak and a coward, though. She walks through life pretending that the evil that her dead husband and his cronies committed were just something she could ignore for 10 whole years. She's obsessively hates the hero despite having met him a handful of times and has never spoken to him before.

Okay then, so suddenly this long-term hate just disappears, and there's a love story. Oh, and Sophia suddenly has a conscience!!!

I could have liked this book if the heroine was a little bit more relatable.

#netgalley #DalliancewiththeDuchess

Tropes: enemies to lovers; class difference; MC's must solve a mystery
Steam level: 3-4
Part of a series, but works as a standalone.

3.5 stars I ultimately did not round up. The writing style is solid, the plot has potential, and there is a decent twist toward the end. However, I wouldn't read this again, primarily due to the cold and aloof MFC. She does have a character arc, but it takes a while. I found her dislike of the MMC tedious and it felt fabricated. There was no explanation as to why she considered him her nemesis; he was the enemy of her late husband but her late husband was a nasty guy whose behavior she abhorred. I guess MMC made her feel guilty about the fact that she never stood up for the women her husband and his buddies bullied?

I will probably read the next book in the series, but this is an example of a book that relies too heavily on the lust/hate vibe for me. However, if that's your trope, and if you're in the mood for plenty of steam, this might be the book for you.

What a great book! I like that this time, the woman is the duchess and the man is the commoner instead of the other way around, like in so many books. Sophia is a dowager duchess, having married an elderly, dominant duke. She had learned early on to hide her feelings, and now that her husband is dead, she slowly lets her guard down in favor of her true self. But after suppressing her emotions for so long, it’s hard to know who you really are. This is beautifully described in the book. I like it when there are so many layers in a book. The characters are clever, smart, strong and really draw you in.
Besides these real, honest characters there is a mystery; Nicholas has been searching for his sister for ten years. He feels hunted and compelled to find his sister and can't stop searching. This too, adds another layer.
The entire book is beautifully written. The one minor comment one might have, is that Nicholas and Sophia are supposed to hate each other, but you don’t get why. Maybe that is explained in previous books? After reading this book, I’m curious about Sophia’s other sisters, their love stories, so I’m going to look into those. But this book can be read as a standalone, and I can definitely recommend it!
I would’ve preferred a little less spice but I’m glad the story did have depth to it. The story has great pace and is captivating from beginning to end. Everything is brought together perfectly. The epilogue is a fitting ending to the book. I will definitely keep author Sara Bennett in mind for future reads.
Thank you Dragonblade Publishing, Netgalley and Sara Bennett for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Scoundrels, Scandals, Sensational Story:
This is my favorite kind of romance story.
Super magnetic characters Sophia and Nicolas that had a love hate relationship, yet they couldn't keep their hands off
each other from the spellbinding beginning.
This story is short, sizzling, sensually seductive, stimulating, saucy with lots of sparks, and a serendipitous spectacular HEA.
💖Mature Advisory🔥🔥

For this review, I am going to deviate from my usual book review format because the book was painful to read. A year after her husband's death, the Duchess Sophia of Oldney is approached by her husband's nemesis, Nicholas Blake, for help. His friend has fallen into the old company the Duke of Oldney kept.

Unfortunately, the plot is flat. The only time it turns is when Nicholas's friend Gordon reveals that he is not blinded by Chatham and his crowd but has motives of his own. But the plot fizzles out quickly after that.
Right from the first few pages the novel turns phonographic and lust is kept at the forefront of the novel.
The ending is tedious as if the author got bored with the book.

I would rate Dalliance with the Duchess by Sara Bennett 1 out of 5.