Review: Last Duke Standing by Cheryl Bolen

 Alex Haversham, the new Duke of Fordham, has a problem.  He has the unenviable task of informing Lady Georgiana Fenton that her fiance, Alex’s brother, is now deceased.  When Georgiana finds out, she insists on viewing Freddie’s body with her own eyes.  As soon as she views his corpse, she deduces that he had been smothered to death, and the duchy’s surgeon concurs with her assessment.  

Alex never wanted to become the duke.  Now that he is responsible for his family and duchy,  he is determined to find out who murdered his brother.  However, Georgiana insists on being part of the investigation, partly because of her own suspicions about Alex. In her eyes, he stands to gain the most from Freddie’s death.

As Alex and Georgiana work together to solve the mystery of who killed Freddie, an attraction develops between them.  Can Alex overcome Georgiana’s suspicions, and will the two of them be able to find the real culprit?

I did not realize that there would be a mystery in addition to the historical romance that I had expected to read.  As a mystery, I didn’t really figure out who was the guilty party until the narrative started dropping a lot of obvious hints about the identity of the villain.  Last Duke Standing is mainly a romance that explores the relationship between Alex and Georgiana.   

I’ve previously read a title by Cheryl Bolen under the faith-based Love Inspired line (i.e. Marriage of Inconvenience), but I would classify Last Duke Standing as a secular romance.  There are no x-rated interactions between the main characters, but there are allusions to the hero’s history as a rake.  There are a couple of explicit statements that appear in a letter written by the mistress of the previous duke that might be uncomfortable for a certain audience to read. The couple share a bed, but nothing happens between them beyond heart-felt conversation because the hero is conveniently injured.  This is not a steamy romance.  Generally, Alex is fairly respectful towards Georgiana.  

I’ll admit that the cover of the book appealed to me...Alex’s appearance reminded me of Rupert Penry-Jones' portrayal of Frederick Wentworth in Persuasion (2007).  

I miss the Love Inspired Historical line.  I tried my best to snap up any Regency or Georgian story that Harlequin put out through that imprint.  As I alluded to before, this was how I recognized Cheryl’s name when I was looking through the selections on Net Galley.  

Last Duke Standing is the third installment of a series titled The Lords of Eton, which include The Portrait of Lady Wycliff, The Earl, the Vow, and the Plain Jane, and One Room at the Inn.

Disclaimer:  I was given an e-copy of Last Duke Standing by Net Galley in exchange for a review.  Any opinions stated in this review are mine.  

Net Galley Update in 2024.

About three days ago, I saw an e-mail message in my inbox from Net Galley.  Apparently, I had been inactive for about 3 years or so, and because of that, a message was sent to my address to notify me that they were going to close my account.  

Because I had my notifications on, I actually read the message within a day of it being sent to me.  I had forgotten my password at this point, so I had to dig around just to reactivate my account.  To my horror, I realized that I have titles almost going back ten years that have not been reviewed.  

As I mentioned in previous posts, I created this blog so that I could read titles from Net Galley.  I also had every intention to write reviews for every book that I had signed up for.  

However, a few things in my life happened over the past six years. 

A family member's health started to decline, and this person eventually passed on.  But the impact of her decline and death affected my family greatly, and we are still in recovery mode.  Shortly after, another family member started showing marked signs of dementia.  Writing book reviews just seemed to be beyond me at that time. 

And so, I forgot about Net Galley.  I was still aware of it, and I knew that I had books to review, but the years crept past me...and when I read the notification from Net Galley about my account closing, I received quite a jolt.  I could not believe that so much time had passed by.

By some miracle, some of the titles have still not been archived yet, and so I will probably review those as quickly as possible.  I have other titles that are still available in Kindle, even though they have been archived on Net Galley.  My goal for this upcoming year is to get through as many titles through the list.  

So, to the authors of the books that I signed up for, and to Net Galley...I apologize about not holding up my end.  I hope to get reviews out as soon as I can.