This was a delightful first book in a new series by this author. Finn Cathcart is an amazingly talented sculptor, who has made a name (and fortune) for himself on the continent and in England. He’s also handsome, self-confident, and self-reliant – and has no use whatsoever for anyone in the aristocracy – except to take their money, of course. He loathes anything to do with the Huntley dukedom and would love to see it revert to the crown and cease to exist. No skin off his teeth. Except, he isn’t a bad heir and can change his mind when a small, helpless, young child (Emily) is adversely affected. It seems that the ‘finder’ they have sent to find Finn finally learns that weakness and uses it to get him to accept the honors.

Finn is Finn and doesn’t intend to be anyone or anything else. The current duchess, his Aunt Edwardia, can fall into a hole and never find her way out as far as he is concerned. She is to blame for the death of his baby sister, his mother, and him finding himself on the streets at the age of 8, totally alone to fend for himself. He cannot allow the dukedom to cause hurt to another small child.

Breaking all rules of protocol and manners, Finn arrives at the home of Wilhelmina (Willie/Mina) to introduce himself to the widow of his cousin. His cousin was the heir until he did stupid things and got himself killed. Mina was to be the next duchess, but now – what will happen to her? What will happen to Emily?

Finn and Mina are attracted to each other from the first. I loved how very honest and straightforward they were with each other. No prevarications – no “He/She won’t love me anymore if they learn xxxxx”. Nope, it was so wonderfully refreshing to see such honesty and straightforward love for each other. Even when the always-required third-act “event” happened, there was no doubt. No thinking ill of the other. Each had absolute confidence in the other. Gosh, I loved that part!

As with most of this author’s books, we get cameo appearances of characters from other series. In this case, it was Westhaven, Anselm, and the wine merchant – Fournier. We even got an honorable mention for The Duke of Moreland. Yep – love all of those visits. I thoroughly enjoyed Emily who was NOT the normally required brattish child. She was lovely and sweet-natured and very insecure because she had lost her father and her doting uncle all within a very short period. Finn picked up on that and carved her some lovely playmates – Draco the dragon and the Ursulas (Major and Minor) who are bears and are featured throughout the book.

I can recommend this book if you love a wonderful, love story with strong characters who know their minds. I would love to have a peek at Finn and Mina ten or fifteen years down the road because I absolutely know he will be a formidable duke and their love story will be held up to all on the marriage mart as an example of how things should be. Happy Reading! ( )