{"id":28340,"date":"2022-08-09T07:48:49","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T11:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/?p=28340"},"modified":"2022-10-16T11:37:49","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T11:37:49","slug":"review-the-return-of-the-duke-by-lorraine-heath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/09\/review-the-return-of-the-duke-by-lorraine-heath\/","title":{"rendered":"Review \u2764\ufe0f The Return of the Duke by Lorraine Heath"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-28340\" data-postid=\"28340\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-28340 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_bbbcac8 tb_first tf_w tf_clearfix\">\n\t    \t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner gutter-narrow col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t            <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-1 tb_49667e8 first\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module image -->\n<div  class=\"module module-image tb_7036296 rounded drop-shadow customBorderRad_top image-center auto_fullwidth tf_mw\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div class=\"image-wrap tf_rel tf_mw\">\n\t\t    <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/the-return-of-the-duke-lorraine-heath.jpg?resize=316%2C500\" width=\"316\" height=\"500\" title=\"Review \u2764\ufe0f The Return of the Duke by Lorraine Heath\" alt=\"Review \u2764\ufe0f The Return of the Duke by Lorraine Heath\">\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/image-wrap -->\n    \n    \t<\/div>\n<!-- \/module image --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_a1982ef customBorderRad_bottom repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">When his father, the Duke of Wolfford, is hanged for an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria, Marcus Stanwick is stripped of everything. Vowing to return honor to his family, he seeks to expose the others involved in the treasonous plot and bring them to justice. His search forces him to turn to a woman he despises for her unforgiveable betrayal\u2014a woman known as the heartless harlot.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Harboring secrets, Esme Lancaster has her own reasons for wanting to discover who\u2019s behind the conspiracy that\u2019s still afoot. She doesn\u2019t trust Marcus but can\u2019t deny the handsome devil makes her wonder if she does indeed possess a heart, one he could very easily steal.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">As their hunt for the truth leads them into danger, Marcus finds Esme isn\u2019t cold and calculating as he\u2019d assumed but fire and brimstone, with courage and determination to match his own. Soon, they\u2019re unable to deny their growing desire for each other. But giving into temptation comes at a cost, and they must decide if love is worth the risk of losing their one chance for redemption.<\/span><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-2 tb_23787e9 last\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_2d1ea91  repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25880 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-diamond-banner-1.png?resize=296%2C72\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong><br \/>Release Date:<\/strong> Jul 26, 2022<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Once Upon a Dukedom<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>3<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Scorching<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0HarperCollins<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Avon Books<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $5.99<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong><br \/><br \/>Marcus Stanwick<\/strong> was stripped of everything, when his father, the Duke of Wolfford, was hanged for treason. \u00a0Vowing to expose others involved in the assassination plot, he turns his sights on <strong>Miss Esme Lancaster<\/strong>. \u00a0Marcus believes that Esme was his father&#8217;s mistress, but she&#8217;s not what he believes. \u00a0Esme has her own reasons for wanting to know more about the conspiracy, but can they trust each other long enough to get to the bottom of things?<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is the third book in the <em>Once Upon a Dukedom<\/em> series. \u00a0It stands alone fairly well, but the first book in this series is about Marcus&#8217;s brother Griffin. \u00a0There is also a connection to the previous series, <strong>Sins For All Seasons<\/strong>, in which Marcus&#8217;s sister is the heroine of book six and the Stanwick family is introduced. \u00a0All of those characters make small appearances.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I really loved this story! \u00a0I find most Lorraine Heath books to be winners, and this definitely falls into that category. \u00a0I thought the characters were really interesting and the plot drew in right from the start. \u00a0Marcus and Esme had a great back and forth, until they finally were able to trust each other. \u00a0There were some twists and turns that kept me from figuring out the ending too easily.\u00a0 Great conclusion to the series, and bring on the Chessmen!<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Tropes:<\/strong> Enemies to Lovers, Revenge, Spy\/Govt Work, Secret Job, Fake Relationship<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Leslie<\/em><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_eb0616c customBorderRad repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3QpTmk4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/3dgrzo2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">iBooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/return-of-the-duke-lorraine-heath\/1140378824?ean=9780063114609\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">B&amp;N<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/the-return-of-the-duke-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Kobo<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Lorraine_Heath_The_Return_of_the_Duke?id=KoVKEAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Google Play<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n            \t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When his father, the Duke of Wolfford, is hanged for an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria, Marcus Stanwick is stripped of everything. Vowing to return [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,106,113,48],"tags":[155,183,305,307,404,405,485],"class_list":["post-28340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avon-books","category-harpercollins","category-leslie","category-reviews","tag-5-stars","tag-avon","tag-historical-romance","tag-historicals","tag-recommend","tag-recommended-reads","tag-top-picks"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review \u2764\ufe0f The Return of the Duke by Lorraine Heath - Smitten by Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/09\/review-the-return-of-the-duke-by-lorraine-heath\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review \u2764\ufe0f The Return of the Duke by Lorraine Heath - Smitten by Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When his father, the Duke of Wolfford, is hanged for an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria, Marcus Stanwick is stripped of everything. 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Vowing to return honor to his family, he seeks to expose the others involved in the treasonous plot and bring them to justice. His search forces him to turn to a woman he despises for her unforgiveable betrayal\u2014a woman known as the heartless harlot.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Harboring secrets, Esme Lancaster has her own reasons for wanting to discover who\u2019s behind the conspiracy that\u2019s still afoot. She doesn\u2019t trust Marcus but can\u2019t deny the handsome devil makes her wonder if she does indeed possess a heart, one he could very easily steal.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As their hunt for the truth leads them into danger, Marcus finds Esme isn\u2019t cold and calculating as he\u2019d assumed but fire and brimstone, with courage and determination to match his own. Soon, they\u2019re unable to deny their growing desire for each other. But giving into temptation comes at a cost, and they must decide if love is worth the risk of losing their one chance for redemption.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-diamond-banner-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong><br \/>Release Date:<\/strong> Jul 26, 2022<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Once Upon a Dukedom<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>3<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Scorching<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0HarperCollins<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Avon Books<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $5.99<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong><br \/><br \/>Marcus Stanwick<\/strong> was stripped of everything, when his father, the Duke of Wolfford, was hanged for treason. \u00a0Vowing to expose others involved in the assassination plot, he turns his sights on <strong>Miss Esme Lancaster<\/strong>. \u00a0Marcus believes that Esme was his father's mistress, but she's not what he believes. \u00a0Esme has her own reasons for wanting to know more about the conspiracy, but can they trust each other long enough to get to the bottom of things?<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is the third book in the <em>Once Upon a Dukedom<\/em> series. \u00a0It stands alone fairly well, but the first book in this series is about Marcus's brother Griffin. \u00a0There is also a connection to the previous series, <strong>Sins For All Seasons<\/strong>, in which Marcus's sister is the heroine of book six and the Stanwick family is introduced. \u00a0All of those characters make small appearances.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I really loved this story! \u00a0I find most Lorraine Heath books to be winners, and this definitely falls into that category. \u00a0I thought the characters were really interesting and the plot drew in right from the start. \u00a0Marcus and Esme had a great back and forth, until they finally were able to trust each other. \u00a0There were some twists and turns that kept me from figuring out the ending too easily.\u00a0 Great conclusion to the series, and bring on the Chessmen!<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Tropes:<\/strong> Enemies to Lovers, Revenge, Spy\/Govt Work, Secret Job, Fake Relationship<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Leslie<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3QpTmk4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/3dgrzo2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iBooks<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/return-of-the-duke-lorraine-heath\/1140378824?ean=9780063114609\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;N<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/the-return-of-the-duke-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kobo<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Lorraine_Heath_The_Return_of_the_Duke?id=KoVKEAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28515,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28340\/revisions\/28515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}