Detective Sergeant Mitchell Simpson is recovering from being shot on a case. Bored in recovery, he takes a job that leads him to a beautiful baroness. Lady Corrine Addington made a mistake. To save her family, she married in haste to a baron for money. Isn't it always money that can lead to lies, debt, blackmail and murder? Many secrets and surprises surround the case. Above all a detective and a baroness fall in love. Mild descriptive sex.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book from NetGalley.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dragonblade Publishing for this arc copy of "The detective and the Baroness" by Karyn Gerrard.
The plot line, story, mystery of the book was great and intriguing. I really enjoyed the story. However, the characters felt a bit flat to me. The writing was good but there are scopes for improvement. I was easily losing interest while reading this book.

I enjoyed the book to a point. There was plenty of intrigue in the plot and a few twists and turns. But I found the relationship between the two main characters a bit too on the instant lust side of things. I believe it would have worked a bit better with him falling first and harder as it started. All in all it was a fun story to read as it unfolded and things clicked into place.

This first book on The Duke's Bastards series was a captivating, exciting, and well written story. A Baroness, a detective, illegitimate family, past shocking atrocities committed, including so much drama, action, intrigue, mystery, suspense, death, intense plot twists, and highly emotional issues all kept me very entertained and very engaged with how everything would work out. I enjoyed the relationship that grew to a beautiful love by overcoming every obstacle. I highly recommend reading!

Enjoyed the story but I had some difficulty following initially due to all the different characters.
Mitchell had previously been injured and Corrine who was a married nurse helped him get better.
Her arranged marriage was somewhat in a shambles but their relationship is strained due to secrets and twists.
Lots of action and potential for further stories.

This is a Victorian historical romance. Although this is the first book in a new series, you might have met some of the characters in a previous series. Discovering previously unknown family can sometimes be good, other times it can be really bad.
Our heroine is trying to find a way out of her marriage. Our hero is a detective who is still recovering from injury. They are fascinating characters with very unusual families. There is a mystery to solve and danger to face. The story kept me engrossed from the first to last page.
Great fun.

This was my first book by Karyn Gerrard and it was a little disappointing. First the writing style, it was a bit too liberal for the time period. The talk of marital relations, the fact that the hero and heroine just randomly met, the divorce, the father all too modern. Second the development of the romance was a bit lackluster. Travis, the husband had a bit of depth in character, even though it was not good. The hero and heroine themselves were a bit bland.

#netgalley #TheDetectiveandtheBaroness

I couldn’t get into this authors writing style. Which made me not very interested in either main character. Also sone of the manners in which the story we’re told were just hard for me to get over. For example, the way thought about her husband and discussed their intimacy, I was just shocked, it felt almost crude. Which I suppose makes sense as it was to be a true marriage of convince. But even the prologue, how the premise of the series was described. It was not for me.

I read Karyn a long time ago and remember liking the books. I felt this one dropped me in the middle of a story. Maybe I should have read another book before reading this one but did not know. I was excited to read the story. Mystery and romance. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. The mystery wasn’t mysterious and the romance was just talked about – I did not get the feeling that they were really enamored with each other. It is light on sex, no real description, which I thought was in her earlier stories. Not that that makes a story but I wasn’t expecting pretty much none. I love the idea of the Duke’s Bastards and really am interested in the other two brothers we met in this story but am now hesitant to read them.

I am generally slow to express my disappointment in a book as I am very aware of the fact that authors pour themselves into their writing, and any negative review is similar to criticising their children. Having said that, I found this novel's approach to divorce in the era surprising, and in many aspects, the novel could have been set in the present time rather than the Victorian era. In some ways, Corrine was a stronger character than Mitchell; however, if one takes into account his background, one can accept that he may have had some insecurities. I also found that the onus was on Corrine to provide for her family. This was a rare occurrence in the era, especially as women had very low earning power. To a large extent, the plot was led by dialogue, and at times, this frustrated me; however, the book does come to a successful conclusion, and Mitchell and Corrine finally have their dreams fulfilled. I received a copy of this book as a gift through Dragonblade Publishing and NetGalley, and this is my honest and voluntary review.

Lady Corrine is a former nurse who is in a bad marriage. Mitchell is a detective who is recovering from an injury and is now on a quest to find his other siblings. His father had sired children far and wide.
Finding his half brother Drew was a great addition to the story and I hope Drew gets his own story told.
The disappointing thing about this book is the character with actual ace rep turns out to be villainous. Why??
Thank you to Dragonblade for the copy of this book. Opinions are my own.

So many things going on....

This one is packed with a lot to unload...
Mitchell is a detective, who just found out he is a duke's by-blow, he's been shot and was tended to by Lady Corinne, a nurse who tended to him, Lady Corinne is married and now is a baroness. Lady Corinne is he newest client, as she wants to hire him, he's temporary PI while recovering from being shot. Whew.

Did I mention Corinne, a nurse, now a baroness wants to hire Mitchell to follow her husband. Newly married and already separated, she knows her husband is up to no good, hence, Mitchell. Then, she's widowed...

I really liked how Mitchell was enchanted by Corinne and very much infatuated by her. But first, she's married, then she's widowed, there is a class difference and she's in danger from the baddie who offed her husband.
Recommend.

This was a tricky one to mark for me. The premise was right up my street as I love some mystery with my romance and that side of it was good. Also the characters were likeable but the instant love bit didn’t feel very believable for the period and neither did the talk of divorce after such a short time. It was an enjoyable enough read though if you got past the above. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This one didn’t really work for me. The lack of descriptive detail made it hard to get immersed in the story, and the plot felt convoluted. The instant love between the main characters was frustrating, and it didn’t feel very believable for the period—especially the ease of getting divorced among the peerage. Overall, it just wasn’t the book for me.

3.5*
A lady marries for the sake of her family and then discovers her marriage is not what she expected. Hiring an investigator that she trusts to follow her husband and try an understand his reasoning for not making their marriage a full one seemed sensible. However I was surprised that a lady who had only been married a couple of months would have been so blasé about considering divorce. Whilst she might not have known what constituted the grounds for such an action, she must have known that it was scandalous and would have her considered persona non grata.
I enjoyed the story, though it appeared both characters had appeared in a previous book that I haven’t read but the prologue to some extent helped to cover that but felt it would have been nice if I had read that book first.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Detective Sergeant Mitchell Simpson’s only purpose is his job with London’s Metropolitan Police. But when he’s seriously injured in the line of duty, he has no idea what to do. So, when he’s offered a private investigation to work on while he recovers, he jumps at it. After tirelessly working as a nurse for a decade, Lady Corrine Addington entered an arranged marriage to save her family from financial ruin. But it’s not long before she realizes her estranged husband is up to something, so she hires Mitchell to follow him. Then a murderous turn of events changes everything.
The start of a new series & I love that characters from previous series make appearances. A well written book which I found hard to put down, the characters have depth whether you loved them or disliked them. I loved Mitchell & Corrine who were attracted to each other from their first meeting when he was injured & their feelings deepened as she helped to nurse him but she was married. She was unhappily married but wouldn’t break her vows. The series gets its name from the illegitimate children of Duke & there were lots of them so this could be a long series. There were twists, turns, mystery & murder plus two people who fell deeply in love. I thoroughly enjoyed their journey to a HEA & look forward to the rest of the series
I voluntarily read and reviewed a special copy of this book; all thoughts and opinions are my own

3.5 for me!

This was a much more detailed book than I expected. It was a lot of setup with many characters and it felt like a lot at moments. But I appreciated the detective work and that the characters had depth. It was also surprising to see the characters with such modern views of society - that doesn't always happen in books like this. Appreciated the dual POV, but it all felt a bit forced overall. Still a decent time.

I really enjoyed this! It has a great mystery and romance.

I was super intrigued by the plot of this one and the forbidden, slow burn romance. I thought the plot was unique and interesting. I have not read many romances where the heroine is still married for the first part. I was curious to see how the romance was going to develop. I did like the main couple here. The mutual pining and attraction made for great angst which I love. The chemistry is fantastic too. Plus, the main characters were great individually as well.

I thought the mystery was well executed. It kept me guessing.

A fascinating series starter. I'm eager to see what else is in store.

Book one of a new series is incredibly filled with historical detail. In addition, the story has a number of open plots that all end up merging together into one amazing story. The primary characters, Corrine and Mitchell are a unique pair. The secondary characters such as Drew, Liam and others add great depth and dimension to the overall story. Filled with twists, turns, mystery and murder, this story will hold your attention until the very end. I am hoping this author includes Liam or Drew in her next book. She has left herself quite a cast of characters to pull from so I expect this could be a fully packed series.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and found myself wanting to read just one more chapter before putting it down for the day. The summary lets you know something will happen that will allow Corrine and Mitchell be together so it was just a matter of seeing how that would unfold. It wasn't a huge surprise how that did end up happening, but the character of Travis was just full of surprises throughout the book. I think my opinion of him was similar to Corrine's - at first you feel bad for him and then just more and more disgusted by his actions as more about him was discovered. I will say the greatest surprise in the book had to do with the fact that he had a spine and was tougher than he initially seemed. The only aspect of the book that didn't quite work for me was the dialogue - it just never felt natural and given the time period the way divorce was discussed seemed way too matter-of-fact. Even though a new century was approaching, I am pretty sure one did not talk of divorce as lightly as Corrine did. Having not read the book that proceeded this one I did feel at times as though I had been dropped in the middle of Mitchell's story without a lot to go on. There is some explanation of what occurred in that book, but I felt like he was already fully developed by the time I got to meet him rather than someone I got to know as the book went on. I also wished we could have learned a little more about some of Travis's motivations. My concerns with this book will not prevent me from wanting to pick up book 2 and find out more about Cecilia and Liam.