A Duchess By Midnight

MY REVIEWEveryone deserves a happy ending… even the ugly stepsister who thinks she doesn’t deserve it.Drew has always been awkward and out of place. A starling trying to find acceptance and ensure its survival with underhanded tactics. How could she possibly feel anything but less than when the stepsister she tormented has become a princess and forgiven her for her past cruelty? And now her former stepsister is giving her a chance to reclaim her value, a chance to give back to the world and carve out her own destiny. Now Drew has to transform the two nieces of a reclusive duke into society belles. It doesn’t help her situation that the very man being compelled to hire her is the same one she castigated during the melee in the palace waiting room. It doesn’t help that she noticed him even before the melee, that she noticed his broad shoulders and nearly became lost in the blue of his eyes. It doesn’t help that he isn’t the rabble-rousing, disreputable client she expected. Ian doesn’t know how to get through to his sister and his nieces. They won’t speak of the calamity that brought them to his doorstep seeking refuge. His sister seems as oblivious as always, and he knows he has to make some sort of provision for Ivy and Imogene. As much as he wants to bury himself in the problems of his estate, he’s stuck in London. And now he’s stuck with a willowy governess/miracle worker who is determined to segue the transformation of his nieces into swans as her cachet for a successful business. He is skeptical to say the least.Drew takes on the challenge of Ivy and Imogene with aplomb. Her kind heart even brings their mother out of seclusion. Ian finds himself captivated. When her efforts result in a breakthrough he would have thought impossible six months ago, he can’t help but kiss her. That kiss is like a lighted match, and they both lose awareness of anything but each other. And then they are interrupted in the midst of their passionate embrace.Of course a marriage of convenience is the only answer. Drew is a lady after all, and sister to a princess. The situation suits Ian just fine, though, because he can’t stop thinking about how she would look tumbled across his bed. Their alliance may be one of convenience, but stolen moments in unlikely places, even cluttered storage rooms, reveal that there is much more between them. I absolutely adored this Ugly Duckling retelling, and am ever grateful to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.MY FAVORITE QUOTESShe put him in the mind of a tall, thin book that poked above the others on a shelf. The book that said, Pick me. The one with colorful illustrations and maps. She was like a very rare book that was best enjoyed when laid open on a desk and poured over. A book for which you wet the pad of your thumb to turn the page, where you glided your fingertips down the foolscap to fully appreciate the engravings.

Finally she said, “There is a difference between having someone worry on your behalf and having someone restrict you for the sake of control.”

“That’s one of the many wonderful things about love, isn’t it?” Timothea sighed. “It’s instinctual. It is waiting, latent, inside all of us, like a seed. You needn’t be shown. It helps, perhaps, but love can erupt inside you, a wellspring, even if you’ve never heard of it before in your life.”

“Being broken, in contrast, has made me able to see others—to see myself, first and foremost, and sort out all the bits I didn’t like. That heartbreak also made me able to see girls like the two of you. And I’m ever so grateful. Can you see? You may be uncomfortable and uncertain now, but eventually you’ll be grateful for the times you were not on the tip-top of the world.”

He pulled her against him and she went, tucking her face into his chest. He opened the sides of his overcoat and wrapped the two of them together inside it. The feel of her body curled against him, the rain pouring down, the sheer, breathtaking relief of finding her, felt like—nay, it was—the pinnacle moment of his life, when the earth spun and the sky raged, and billions of people went on about their lives, but his heart cracked open and love poured out.