Second Duke’s the Charm
By Kate Bateman 
Her Majesty’s Rebels Book 1 
Book 167 of 2023

Thank you to SMP Romance for the gifted ARC! 

This is my second Kate Bateman series, and I just love her historical romances! The men are always so swoony (and smitten) and the women tend to get a life outside of the home, which is my personal favorite.

We meet Tess Townsend on her wedding night to a much older man that she has been forced to marry. Nothing happens between the two of them though, because he passes away…leaving Tess as the 19 year old widowed Dowager Duchess of Wansford. The real story begins two years later, as lawyers search for the heir to the Dukedom and Tess and her friends have established themselves as a private detective agency. 

Her love interest, Justin Thornton, is a wealthy businessman returning from making his fortune in the fur trade in Canada who is – surprise – the next Duke of Wansford! 

The two of them have delicious chemistry, and he fully respects the way she has run the properties for the past couple of years. I love a man who respects his partner’s brain as much as her beauty! 

I also love when a romance series fully introduces all of the main characters that we’ll see throughout the series, so you’re already invested in them before you get to their love story, so I hope that the series will continue with Tess’s friends and their detective agency! 

There are a few aspects of the book that some readers may not love, which I will add to my goodreads under a spoiler tag. (Very mild spoilers.) Neither bothered me, but they might annoy you! 

While I overall really enjoyed the book, I do think it lost a bit of momentum in the last third. I find that to often be the case with romance novels, since I trust the author to give me an HEA and if they have done their job well, I understand what the characters need to overcome in order to reach that place! 

QotD: What series are you hoping to read next? (Can just be one book that is in a series!) Not a series reader? What’s your last, now, or next read?

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