Loved the hero and the heroine. Interesting mystery and intrigue. Wish the magical abilities played more into solving them. ( )

The former Captain Oliver Dasenby has recently inherited a dukedom. Is is just coincidence that three recent deaths have elevated him to a duke or is it suspicious. Primrose Garland, a childhood friend finds him just as irritating now as then. But he is the best friend to her brother. Both are concerned for his wellbeing.
The story is a mixture of romance, mystery and the paranormal (faerie godmother).
As I would expect, a delightful read, well-written with some very likeable characters. Such an easy to read book (a good point).
I received an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.


( )

Oliver Dasenby just became a Duke quite unexpectedly. He finds it fairly satisfying except for someone trying to kill him. His friends, Rhodes Garland and his sister Primrose, are determined to help him survive. The three attend a house party where they think they'll be able to find the murderer. Oliver and Primrose also find a little romance.
I've read a couple of other books by this author, but this is the best yet. Oliver is a perfect match for Primrose. She's a bit prickly and he is more frivolous though they both discover hidden facets in the other. As their romance heats up, Oliver's propensity for games leads to some fun scenes. I liked that they tease each other but are never mean about it.
The premise of these books is that a Fairy godmother has given the women in a family a special gift. Primrose gets translocation. Fortunately, it's not used too much as a device here as my personal taste is not for this type of addition to a historical romance, but I think others will like it and I didn't mind it so much in this book.
I also have to say that I like Rhodes a lot and I hope he finds a new romance in a future book. ( )

This was a delightfully engrossing introduction to a new-to-me author and she could very easily come to be one of my go-to authors. I love that the book is imaginative, intelligently-written and very romantic. It is also very well plotted and the characters are exciting, entertaining, witty, likable and very relatable. I believe this is a follow-on series to Larkin’s Baleful Godmother series – and this book was so good I’m not only going to read future books in this series – I’m going to go find the books in the first series and read those as well. It was just the kind of humorous, non-angsty read I needed and I loved it. I read it straight through the night. I kept telling myself that I needed to put it down and get some sleep, but it was so interesting and exciting that I just had to see what happened next. Finally, at 7 AM, I read the last word and thought “WOW, just WOW.”

Captain Oliver Dasenby is now a duke at the age of twenty-nine. He never expected nor wanted to be a duke, but with several deaths in his family over a short period of time, he is now saddled with the responsibilities and the privileges of being a duke. Maybe he also inherited something else – somebody is trying to kill him.

Lady Primrose Garland, the daughter of a duke, and the sister of Oliver’s best friend, Rhodes Garland loves books – all kinds of books, but particularly those written centuries ago. Her favorite was written by Marcus Aurelius and she used his quotes in living her everyday life. She is prim, proper, serious, and she totally believes that her brother’s best friend is a useless fiddle-faddle. Oh – and by the way – she also has a faerie godmother who has gifted her with a special talent.

Oliver has always been a good-humored jokester that causes everybody around him to love him. He’s more serious than many think because he is always in a good mood and happy. However, he does take serious things seriously – even if he might use his humor about them. Primrose ‘Prim’ has never seen that. To her, he just jokes about everything and doesn’t take anything seriously.

When Oliver’s life is in danger both Rhodes and Prim will do whatever it takes to unearth the murderer and keep Oliver safe. The mystery is suspenseful because you never know where the next attack will come from and you don’t know who the villain is. Surely it must be someone close to home. When an invitation to a house party arrives, they all know they must attend to unmask a murderer. It is so entertaining to watch as Oliver’s good humor and zest for life slowly changes Prim’s opinion of him. That is quite a house party too – there is a LOT going on and you really need to read the book to keep up with it all.

Did I mention that you get two HEA’s – well – I should have – because you do. So, you get an engrossing mystery, two lovely romances and two HEA’s. Along with all of that you get some of the most intelligent and witty banter I’ve read in a long time. All-in-all a wonderful read!

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"I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher." ( )

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This was another Faerie godmother story, although the gift (translocation) that Primrose had chosen didn't really feature significantly in the plot. Since she used it mostly to save going up and down flights of stairs, the story would have played out more or less the same if she hadn't had a supernatural power. This was an easy sweet read and the plot made sense, although the identity of the baddie was obvious from the halfway point.

Having said that, it was pretty repetitive: the hero Oliver spent the whole novel fending off the debutantes who were throwing themselves at him - apart from Primrose and another girl who was in love with Oliver's cousin, the female characters were mocked, and portrayed as solely focussed on "catching a Duke". In addition to the baddie trying to harm Oliver, there was a second baddie, trying to remove her competitors in the "catch the Duke" stakes, and this sub-plot involved Oliver and Primrose going up and down flights of stairs (or using translocation as a short cut) and checking on pieces of string on an hourly basis, which did not make for interesting reading. They also made countless journeys to the State Rooms to plot and kiss, and again, this happened with relentless regularity. They just never sat still.

I'll keep going with these, but this one was a little slow. ( )