Cute story of young overnight heiress who must marry within a year to inherit her fortune. Enter the wicked duke of St. Cyres who needs a fortune asap! Cute story!

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2009/06/w... ( )

The Wicked Ways of a Duke returns to familiar territory for Guhrke - at least for a long while it seemed a lot like The Marriage Bed to me - only here we get to see the whole sad story of betrayed love and lost innocence enacted before our very eyes, rather than having it considered in retrospect as the characters recover from the lies ten years down the road in an attempt at reconciliation. In effect, Rhys de Winter, the Duke of St. Cyres, impoverished and debt-ridden, pursues Prudence Bosworth, a former working girl turned million dollar heiress. He takes advantage of her and encourages her love, all the while keeping his own heart inviolate. A right sneaky bastard, no?

The first half of the book - the wooing part - was kind of like watching a train wreck for me. One part fascinating, two parts horrible - not out of any moral sensibilities outraged by the hero's blatantly devious machinations. He's very good at playing the poor girl. He’s a consummate actor and crafty plotter, so I was more impressed by his evil skills than scandalized. It also helps that, even though he manipulates Prudence with more deliberate, elaborate intent than John from The Marriage Bed, Rhys is also a lot more accessible and human than John, and I can tell from the start that his fall is inevitable, if not imminent. And a hard one it will be too. (With John, such comeuppance is a big question mark. But why am I rattling on about John and The Marriage Bed… back to the review.) Of course there are also hints at Rhys’ tortured past to tug at my heartstrings and make me appreciate the act he puts on, not only for Prudence, but for everyone, including himself, so that he can keep the past and its dark secrets at bay.

So it’s established I like Rhys. Too bad I can’t say the same about Prudence. Blech. With regards to Rhys’ wooing of said milquetoast, really where's the fun in victory over such an easy target? For most of the book Prudence is such a push over, a Mary Sue goody two shoes doormat mooning over her white night and so so happy that she's found twue wuve. She's gullible and silly and i just wanted to shake some sense into her, she so got on my nerves. And at the same time I felt sorry for her, that she's so naïve. Is she really supposed to be 28?? Add in her bland personality (in a nutshell, she's "sweet," that's it) and she's completely outmatched, intellectually and in terms of maturity, by a hero who is also very charming, debonair, and oh so wickedly witty. The fallen angel type. Usually that description is used far too liberally throughout romance novels, but here it suits Rhys, particularly since his well hidden/smothered romantic side is so believable. Even while he's busy with all his scheming, you can tell that Rhys is falling for Prudence, if only because she is the epitome of goodness and innocence, sweetness and decency, an ideal that has been completely lacking from his own life.

Then, on page 250 the book does a complete 180, switches gears, and knocks me off my feet. I'm reading a different book, not what I thought I was reading. It becomes more than a boring, one-sided farce of a romance and starts to shine. How could this have happened? Well, I got a better idea of why Rhys is so tortured, and it's enough of a reason, and handled sensitively enough to make him more than your average rake. (Maybe his big secret was obvious, but I didn’t completely catch on till this point.) It also helped me understand why he would be paired with a heroine like Prudence, why she appeals to him, why she's even perfect for him, maybe. She's still annoying, still cloyingly sweet, still just a prop for the emotional upheaval and healing undergone by Rhys, but for a long while now, the book has been all about Rhys for me, so I don't mind, even if it makes for an unbalanced story and romance.

But the book barely rises above the morass of mediocrity before, about 50 pages later, it slips back in, overcome by its tired plot. We have a train wreck with which to proceed, after all, re: their love is based on lies and the truth will out. Through a fortuitous circumstance that’s as awkward as can be, Prudence finds out about Rhys’ duplicitous courtship, and then oh the screaming, the melodrama, the pain and horror, the lies lies lies! By now I am sick of the book, and I'm just slogging through because I've made it this far so I might as well finish. In past books I've read, Guhrke has done some nice turn abouts for heroines who wake up to their pathetic state, grab life by the horns, and change themselves for the better, making the hero come to heel, so to speak, in the process. But here I could care less for Prudence's half assed, belated efforts to grow a backbone and brains. It's too late in the game for her "awakening" to be remotely believable or meaningful, and it's not like she's not going to take him back anyway. Not to mention it's just as much her fault that Rhys got up on that pedestal in the first place. It seemed like each of them fell in love with impossible ideals. However, the reality beyond their rose colored glasses is never explored once everything is out in the open, so I, in turn, can’t believe in their happily ever after.

Nor did I like the fundamental premise that brings Prudence and Rhys together: her miraculous inheritance, which of course comes with stipulations in the will that dictate the plot. It seemed contrived to begin with, (even though Guhrke tries to play around with it a little in the end) and the issue of money was never more than superficially addressed - the cursory (albeit dire) warnings not to let money change her for the worse are really unnecessary because there's no danger of Prudence being anything other than a "sweet," innocent child.

I'm so disappointed because for a moment things were looking up for The Wicked Ways of Duke. But it's far too brief a moment to salvage the pages of mush that came before, or the mundane, slap dash resolution that came after. 3 stars, but only for the readable prose. I really am a sucker for how Guhrke writes, and I'll be reading the next in this series, ever hopeful. ( )

**Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques**

An inheritance she never expected from a father she never met comes with a surprising stipulation: Prudence Bosworth must marry within the year to collect the staggering inheritance willed to her. Not only that, but the man she marries must meet with the approval of the trustees of the estate in order to qualify her to inherit.

Having lived her childhood as the illegitimate daughter of a poor woman and her adulthood as a lowly seamstress barely scraping by, Prudence is ill-prepared for the new world she is thrust into as news of her good fortune spreads and the fortune hunters begin to surface.

One man is blessedly oblivious to her new status as heiress, and fortunately he is the only man she is interested in as a husband. Prudence once met the Duke of St. Cyres while still a seamstress, and is happy for him to remain ignorant of her fortune as their courtship commences.

But the Rhys De Winter has secrets of his own – and when his perfidy is unveiled, Prudence stands to lose everything she holds dear.

There are books whose back cover blurbs simply do not do them justice, and I tell you that THE WICKED WAYS OF A DUKE is just such a book. While I was certainly interested in this story from the synopsis I read, I was not prepared for just how delightful a story this is. Mere plot points in a synopsis cannot accurately convey the feelings Laura Lee Guhrke engenders in her readers as she spins this captivating story of romance and betrayal.

Granted, there are reasons for the betrayal Rhys commits upon Prudence, and those reasons are understandable, albeit still hurtful. In the end, the question is whether Prudence can forgive her beloved Duke and whether he has truly changed his wicked ways.

It is actually Rhys’ transformation that I found most compelling throughout THE WICKED WAYS OF A DUKE. When we first meet him, Rhys is a veritable cad, even if he is an honorable one. Yes, he is quick to rescue a damsel in distress from an uncaring rapist, but he is just as quick to accept that damsel’s gratitude in the form of her own seduction later.

He has lived his adult life as a spendthrift, gadding about Europe with nary a care until his money was gone and the generosity of his friends began to wane as well. Finally forced to face the pile of mounting debt he bears, Rhys resigns himself to the unthinkable – marriage to an heiress. Discovering that the same seamstress he’d found so attractive very recently is now one of the richest women in the world seems an opportunity to fortunate to forgo.

Of course, Rhys could never have expected that the simple lass he intends to woo will have such a profound effect on him, inspiring him to divulge the most painful secrets of his past as he actually falls in love with Prudence. That love, and her faith in him cause Rhys to want to be a better man, to live up to the ideal she has of him until finally we see an evolved man we can truly admire, as much as we loved his wicked ways before.

Prudence is even more admirable than Rhys turns out to be. Never losing her head to the glitz of wealth and elite society, she craves nothing more than true love and the company of her friends, no matter their social standing. But as noble as she is, Prudence is never boring or high and mighty. She sparkles her way through this story by benefit of a winning personality and a true heart rather than from the silks and jewels she now dons.

THE WICKED WAYS OF A DUKE will sweep you off of your feet into a romantic historical world sure to make you long for your very own duke. This inspiring romance will grip you at page one and enthrall you through the very last paragraph in this page-turner!

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Truly an enjoyable read. It was a nice change from the normal villain-filled romances. The characters were terrific. I loved both Rhys and Pru. A great love story. It left me in a wonderfully happy mood. Pru was a strong heroine and brought out the best in those around her. It was a joy to watch her grow through the story. ( )

When seamstress Prudence Bosworth finds that she's inherited millions from her absent father, she instantly becomes wary of fortune hunters. Luckily Rhys de Winter, Duke of St. Cyres, knows nothing about her windfall. Or does he? Likeable characters and inventive plot. Recommended. ( )