I love it when authors feature children from previous stories as grown up heroes or heroines, and in this novel we meet up with John Harding, the Duke of Pembroke who was but a child in books one and two of The Marlow Intrigues series, but now he’s all grown up and we see him as a complex, moody and very private man.

John’s childhood wasn’t easy as he was brought up by his very strict grandfather and times when he should have spent with his mother and stepfather, as well as his many siblings from his mother’s second marriage, [Ellen and Edward from ‘The Illicit Love of a Courtesan’] were mostly taken by his friends from the surrounding area and school chums.

For the first ten years of John’s life, his parents were ....thanks for jumping over to b2b to finish my review ...

http://bookworm2bookworm.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/the-scandalous-love-of-a-duke-...

Melanie for b2b

Complimentary copy provided by the author ( )

The Scandalous Love of a Duke is a beautifully written book. It made me laugh, cry smile and get angry, but by the end I fell in love with the main characters John and Katherine.
This book actually is actually four stories and one, but it has been beautifully woven together. I have come away from the story wishing there was more. How does Katherine's relationship continue with her parents? What becomes of some of the characters? I don't want to go into too many details, as that would spoil the story. In some places it seemed to drag on and in others it seemed like the moment was over in second, though I have a feeling that, that might be my impatience.
The Scandalous Love of a Duke earns 9 out of 10 as it is a beautiful love story.
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Jane Hunt Writer First Steps

Jane Hunt Writer Book Reviews Google


The Scandalous Love of a Duke is book three in the acclaimed Marlowe Intrigues. Moving forward to the next generation this is John's story.

John's vulnerability hidden by arrogance makes him a tortured hero so worth saving groomed from an early age to become the next Duke of Pembroke John's life has always been about duty, pride and emotional detachment. With the incumbent Duke of Pembroke close to death John knows he must return from his extended Grand Tour and accept the role he was born to. Haunted by his barren childhood John would rather remain alone in Egypt among the tombs of long dead Kings but his life is not his to control and he bows to the inevitable and returns to England and his family.

Katherine is a wonderful heroine courageous and loving despite her inadequate family. Katherine loves John but knows her love will remain unrequited because she is the illegitimate daughter of a servant taken in by the local gentry but treated more as a servant than an adoptive daughter

John and Katherine's sensual attraction is unexpected for John and rekindled for Katherine. Katherine is John's addiction but is the attraction physical or something deeper. Katherine knows she is playing with fire but she loves John and will give him anything whatever the cost to her reputation and heart. John knows Katherine has the power to heal him but will he sacrifice his pride and overcome his fears of rejection to let her? The love and support of John's family is recurrent theme in the Marlowe Intrigues and a stark contrast to Regency Society's brutal prejudice and disdain.


Well paced and full of intrigue this beautiful emotional love story is full of passion, anger, misunderstanding and vulnerability.

I received and ARC from Harper Collins UK Harper Impulse via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

...a tortured tangle________3 1/2 stars

John Harding is the Duke of Pembroke. Traumatized by his upbringing under his grandfather's gimlet gaze, John knows only harshness, undergirded by a deep sense of abandonment. Poor John, a product of his upbringing! Yet I cannot like him as he toys with Katherine. Katherine who is unloved, a Cinderella figure in the household into which she has been adopted. Despite that or because of that she gives all to her childhood hero, John.
Oh, she tries to hold back but she is so tempted. This is where, to me, John falls into selfish behaviour. He uses Katherine as an escape. As he admits, it was ridiculous hiding out and escaping with his oldest friend. She is not a courtesan and yet he is treating her as one.
But then John has had to fight from turning into a carbon copy of his grandfather - cold and distant. I thought his seduction of Katherine indeed showed him as just that. In this he is less than honourable, although Katherine, with stars in her eyes, is willing. Katherine wants to rescue him. In that rescue, she becomes the victim.
Katherine is illegitimate. Her mother committed suicide. Is Katherine to tread the same path? There are hints of deeper mysteries at work here. Katherine's past, John's mother, and another nasty character, Wareham the steward.
The story revolves around John finding the space to love and be loved, and about forgiveness and pride, and Katherine's role in this. I can accept that John is damaged, I can see that Katherine is a Cinderella figure, but John does try my patience. He's just so very brooding and self centred. And yes, I know the tangled trap he is placed in. Nurture versus nature etcetera, but it just takes such a jolly long time for John's nature to escape the devastating trammels of his nurturing. In the end I'm left feeling that both characters are a tad flat. Some of the minor characters such as Katherine's brother and John's stepfather exhibit a decided strength of purpose that I applauded.

A NetGalley ARC ( )