Review of Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare

Title/Author: Any Duchess Will Do (Spindle Cove #4) by Tessa Dare
Publisher/Date published: Avon, May 28th 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: What’s a duke to do, when the girl who’s perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can’t live without?

Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season — or any season — but his diabolical mother abducts him to “Spinster Cove” and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.

Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn’t dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week’s employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother’s “duchess training”… and fail miserably.

But in London, Pauline isn’t a miserable failure. She’s a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure — a woman who ignites Griff’s desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won’t be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess — can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?

Seriously you guys, Tessa Dare is fast worming her way into my top-historical-romance authors list!! Also, she has pretty hair in her author picture on Goodreads. I'm slightly jealous, my hair doesn't take well to attempts to tame it, hers does it seems.

But enough about hair and more about the splendidness that is Any Duchess Will Do.

I so, so loved Pauline! She's bookish and an amazing sister and just all in all good people. I loved that she changed her dream from owning a library to owning a library filled with naughty books, because seriously, that is just plain awesome. I loved that she stands by her sister and is just fully herself with Griffin and doesn't back down in the face of all of his dukishness.

And Griff. Wow. That is one manly man if I ever saw one. I love that he is such a well-rounded character and not just a handsome vehicle for the heroine to lay her love at. He's so much more and I loved him for it. He has hidden depths and hurts and all I wanted to do was just hug him and make all the sorrow go away.

As much as I loved these two, I ADORED Griffin's mother! She brought the funny moments and she clearly loves her son and just well, I'm a fan. We meet her just after she's drugged her son and 'kidnapped' him, on the road to Spindle Cove, though he doesn't know this yet. From the first chapter:
"Do not be alarmed," he told her.
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it. Bad for the complexion."

LOVE.

And guys, THE ROMANCE! SAH-WOON! THIS is what I want from my romance novels! Tension and steamyness and a real connection and HEARTBREAK and OMG ALL OF THE GOOD STUFF! And when you combine this with laugh out loud funny moments, you've completely won my heart! There were TEARS in my eyes and sweet moments and just *sigh* It was THAT good.
So yes, if you like the genre, do yourself a favor and read this book, you won't regret it! It kept me up into the early hours of the night when I really should have been catching some beauty sleep and it was TOTALLY WORTH IT.

My rating: 5+ stars