A Spinster’s Guide to Danger and Dukes
by Manda Collins
Rating: 4.5/5 Genre: Historical Romance Steam: Explicit Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub Date: 27 December, 2022 Thank you so much Forever and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC. All opinions are my own. Available: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop
A Spinster’s Guide to Danger and Dukes Synopsis:
England, 1867: Miss Poppy Delamare is living a lie. To escape an odious betrothal, she fled to London where she’s been hiding as the unassuming secretary Flora Deaver. However, when her beloved sister is accused of murder, Poppy cannot leave her to the wolves. Only a most unexpected—and unwelcome—collision interrupts her journey home . . .
Despite a rather dismal first meeting, Joshua Fielding, the Duke of Langham, has no intention of abandoning a lady in need. But he’s not above asking a favor. A fake betrothal will give Poppy and her sister the power of the dukedom and protect Langham from the society misses intent on becoming his duchess.
Yet the longer the ruse goes on, the more Poppy and Langham realize how false their first impressions were—and the less pretend their engagement feels. But before Langham can propose in truth, their search reveals a tangled web of lies and betrayals. With time running out, can Poppy and Langham find the real culprit—before Poppy becomes the next victim?
A Spinster’s Guide to Danger and Dukes Review
I have read the first two books in this series and while I wouldn’t consider them a necessity to read before this one, you’ll definitely understand some of the references in this book. But I also fully support chaos reading, so you do you friends. Overall, this book was fun!
Specifics:
If you want an engaging and enjoyable historical romance with pieces of murder mystery then this is the book for you. Manda Collins is a queen of combining mystery and romance perfectly in one book. These happen to be the two genres I love the most. Between the emotional character development spurred on with the romance and then the mystery pushing forward the plot, there are very few slow parts.
Poppy/Flora is such a stunning character. She knows her worth and doesn’t back down. This made for some exceptional moments in the book where she easily holds her own against other characters. Adding her personality in with Joshua’s more stoic duke-ism, made for a lovely romance. He definitely falls first her which was spectacular. And the way that they helped each other through some heavier moments was the absolute best. Both had their moments of weakness, which severely helped the book when you’re dealing with a decent power differential, that and Joshua was so kind. I do think there should have been a bit more build up in their romance, but that’s just a personal opinion. Some more longing would have been just the icing on the cake. I do think even without that, it was a well balanced romance.
The murder mystery of the cult and Joshua’s history was morbidly fun. I was guessing about the mystery and who did it until the very end. Adding this kind of weirdness/morbidity to the plot I think really made there book. I *needed* to know how it ended. So I stayed up all night reading it… RIP work. I’m not going to go any further into this because I need you to go in blindly into this because it would be a disservice to the book if I ruin it.
Long Story Short
Do I recommend this book? YES! I do especially if you’re wanting a nice balance of romance and mystery. I think that it makes for a perfect weekend read with a nice cup of tea and some nearby food because you won’t want to put it down. This was my favorite book of the series simply because I loved Poppy and Joshua so much, just well crafted characters.
If You Like This One…
This book would be great if you liked the earlier books in the series, if you like Emily Sullivan’s League of Scoundrels Series (A Rogue to Remember, The Rake and the Rebel, The Hellion and The Hero), Evie Dunmore’s A League of Extraordinary Women Series (Bringing Down the Duke, Rogue of Ones Own, Portrait of a Scotsman) , or Elizabeth Everett’s The Secret Scientists of London Series (A Lady’s Formula for Love, A Perfect Equation, A Love by Design)!
