“A sweet, fun nod to literary fandom, and two main characters who are perfect for each other yet never would have met if they weren’t each at a nadir in life’s journey.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Dare’s first Castles Ever After historical provides a unique twist to a fairy tale, complete with an ancient castle, a damsel in distress, and a wounded hero […].”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[A] wickedly funny and soul-satisfyingly romantic novel, the perfect launch to Dare’s new Castles Ever After series.”
–Booklist (starred review)

In the first in Tessa Dare’s captivating Castles Ever After series, a mysterious fortress is the setting for an unlikely love . . .

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.

And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one.
• Ugly duckling turned swan?
• Abducted by handsome highwayman?
• Rescued from drudgery by charming prince?
No, no, and… Heh.

Now Izzy’s given up yearning for romance. She’ll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who’s never even been kissed?

This one.

 

A sneak peek of ROMANCING THE DUKE:
The driver pocketed her offering and touched his cap. “What was yer name again, miss?”

“Goodnight. Miss Izzy Goodnight.”

She waited to see if he would recognize it. Most of the literate people in England would, and a great many of their domestic servants, besides.

The driver only grunted. “Jes’ wanted to know it, in case someone comes around asking. If you’re never heard from again.”

Izzy laughed. She waited for him to laugh, too.

He didn’t.

Soon driver, team, and carriage were nothing more than the fading crunch of wheels on the road.

Izzy picked up her valise and walked through the barbican. A stone bridge carried her over what once had been a moat but now was only a slimy green trickle.

She’d done a bit of research in advance of her journey. There wasn’t much to read. Only that Gostley Castle had once been the seat of the Rothbury dukedom, in Norman times.

It didn’t look inhabited now. There was no glass in many of the windows. No lights in them, either. There should have been a portcullis that dropped to bar the entrance—but there was nothing there. No door, no gate.

She walked through the archway and into the central, open courtyard.

“Lord Archer?” Her voice died in the air. She tried again. “Lord Archer, are you here?” This time, her call got a respectable echo off the flagstones. But no answer.

She was alone.

Dizzied from her strange surroundings and weak with hunger, Izzy closed her eyes. She coerced air into her lungs.

You cannot faint. Only ninnies and consumptive ladies swoon, and you are neither.

It started to rain. Fat, heavy drops of summer rain—the kind that always struck her as vaguely lewd and debauched. Little potbellied drunkards, those summer raindrops, chortling on their way to earth and crashing open with glee.

She was getting wet, but the alternative—seeking shelter inside one of the darkened arches—was less appealing by far.

A rustling sound made her jump and wheel. Just a raven taking wing. She watched it fly over the castle wall and away.
She laughed a little. Really. It was too much. A vast, uninhabited castle, rain, and now ravens, too? Someone was playing her a cruel trick.

Then she glimpsed a man across the courtyard, standing in a darkened archway.

And if he was a trick, he wasn’t a cruel one.

There were things in nature that took their beauty from delicate structure and intricate symmetry. Flowers. Seashells. Butterfly wings. And then there were things that were beautiful for their wild power and their refusal to be tamed. Snowcapped mountains. Churning thunderclouds. Shaggy, sharp-toothed lions.

This man silhouetted before her? He belonged, quite solidly, in the latter category.

So did the wolf sitting at his heel.

It couldn’t be a wolf, she told herself. It had to be some sort of dog. Wolves had long been hunted to extinction. The last one in England died ages ago.

But then . . . she would have thought they’d stopped making men like this, too.

He shifted his weight, and a slant of weak light revealed the bottom half of his face. She glimpsed a wide, sensual slash of a mouth. A squared jaw, dark with whiskers. Overlong hair brushed his collar. Or it would have, if he had a collar. He wore only an open-necked linen shirt beneath his coat. Buckskin breeches hugged him from slim hips to muscled thighs . . . and from there, his legs disappeared into a pair of weathered, dusty Hessians.

Oh, dear. She did have such a weakness for a pair of well-traveled boots. They made her desperate to know everywhere they’d been.

Her heart beat faster. This didn’t help with her lightheadedness problem.

“Are you Lord Archer?” she asked.

“No.” The word was low, unforgiving.

The beast at his heel growled.

“Oh. I-is Lord Archer here?”

“No.”

“Are you the caretaker?” she asked. “Are you expecting him soon?”

“No. And no.”

Was that amusement in his voice?

She swallowed hard. “I received a letter. From Lord Archer. He asked me to meet him here on this date regarding some business with the late Earl of Lynforth’s estate. Apparently he left me some sort of bequest.” She extended the letter with a shaking hand. “Here. Would you care to read it for yourself?”

That wide mouth quirked at one corner. “No.”

Izzy retracted the letter as calmly as she could manage and replaced it in her pocket.

He leaned one shoulder against the archway. “Aren’t we going to continue?”

“Continue what?”

“This game.” His voice was so low it seemed to crawl to her over the flagstones, then shiver up through the soles of her feet. “Am I a Russian prince? No. Is my favorite color yellow? No. Would I object if you were to come inside and remove every stitch of your damp clothing?” His voice did the impossible. It sank lower. “No.”

He was just making sport of her now.

Izzy clutched her valise to her chest. She didn’t want Snowdrop getting wet. “Do you treat all your visitors this way?”

Idiot. She cursed herself and braced for another low, mocking “no.”

He said, “Only the pretty ones.”

Oh, Lord. She ought to have guessed it earlier. The fatigue and hunger had done something to her brain. She could almost believe the castle, the ravens, the sudden appearance of a tall, dark, handsome man. But now he was flirting with her?

She had to be hallucinating.

The rain beat down, impatient to get from the clouds to the earth. Izzy watched drops pinging off the flagstones. Each one seemed to chisel a bit more strength from her knees.

The castle walls began to spin. Her vision went dark at the edges.

“I . . . Forgive me, I . . .”

Her valise dropped to the ground.

The beast snarled at it.

The man moved out from the shadows.

And Izzy fainted dead away.

Could your “castle” use a pick-me-up? Enter to win a $50.00 BED BATH & BEYOND gift card below for a home improvement happy-ever-after of your own!
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31 Replies to “Giveaway: Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare”

  1. What a great sneak peak… will definitely add this to my wishlist..thanks for the heads up!

    1. My phone is being silly..I couldn’t find is what I was saying…I woyield like to improve my daughters room and play area…I want to give them their own reading area..

  2. I am so glad I followed Beverly’s link to your giveaway. I will definitely be ordering this book when I get home!!

  3. LOL, I learned by being a single girl by myself I had to fix things on my own. SO I fixed the toilet by myself, and other minor things around the house

  4. I play mule for my mom when she putters around the garden. Moving big clay pots, planting flowers, veggies, fruits – whatever. I find that a lot more relaxing than I did 10 years ago. We’ll do small fix it projects. Painting, trimming back bushes/trees. Get up on the roof and try to find where the animals get access to the attic.

  5. My hubby is handy so he handles the “castle” projects. The most recent was propping up the sunroom and installing more supports–because it was sagging. It all turned out OK though.

  6. I try to fix things on my own, and with the internet you can usually find a resource. I like to take doors off of closets, to give the rooms a wider feeling. Recently my daughter and I took a shelf out of a closet and repaired the wall behind it. Can’t wait to read Tessa Dare’s new book.

  7. We’ve replaced flooring in most of the downstairs, putting in a cork floor, which feels great. What’s up next is a long overdue kitchen redo. Lots of work (and hired hands) in store for that one! Thanks for the giveaway. I love Tessa’s books.

  8. Love Tessa’s books. We have added on to our house and remodeled it all and made it through it, not sure how. Needs to be done again now. We lived in it while were doing the work. Not sure how the marriage survide it all. Thanks for the great giveaway

    1. My dream is to have a Beauty and the Beast library and have myself built a walk-in closet. Two things I’m highly addicted to: books and clothes.

  9. Thank heavens I haven’t had any disasters….yet! What I’d love to do though is put wood floors throughout my entire home. Love the look!

  10. I loved that excerpt. I’ve put this book on my wishlist.

    My house is over 100 years old, so there’s a lot I’d like to fix, but I’d love to start with the kitchen.

  11. I’ve tried painting walls before, just white on another wall that used to be white. I was told that I was doing a very bad job and that I needed to stop before I made things worse. I wouldn’t mind trying to fix some things around my house but I’m pretty bad when it comes to craft of any kind. Things just never turn out the way I want it to. We’ll see though, my husband and I just bought our first house and the kitchen needs remodeling too. I was told that I can do what ever I want so let’s just hope my husband doesn’t regret it after he sees what I pick.

  12. I can’t wait to read this! I love Tessa’s books. We are huge do-it-yourselfers and have done all kinds of projects to our house. My favorite one is probably the hydronic heating that we installed in our floors. It’s so much better than forced air heating, and a lot cheaper.

  13. Tessa’s book sounds great. Love the cover. We expanded our bedroom last summer and now it is my favorite room in my house.

  14. Love Tessa’s books and looking forward to reading this one. I’m planning on moving back to Michigan in March so a BB&B GC would be so very helpful!

  15. The biggest “castle” project I have done is re-tile my laundry room and bathroom after a pipe burst in the wall connecting them. It was a fun project. XD

  16. I love Tessa’s books and am looking forward to reading this one. Thanks for the giveaway!

    Painting is the only thing I have done by myself. I recently had my 2 bathrooms remodeled by a friend. One of the bathrooms was turned into a laundry room. Now I don’t have to go down into the basement to do my laundry.

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