AN INCONVENIENT DUKE – Anna Harrington
Lords of the Armory - Book 1
Sourcebooks Casablanca
ISBN-10: 1728200083
ISBN-13: 978-1728200088
ASIN: B07Y5PF61Q
February 25, 2020
Regency Romance

England – 1816

General Marcus Braddock was in France when he learned his sister Elise had died when thrown from her horse. At the time he was leading the Coldstream Guards of the 2 nd  Battalion in England's war with Napoleon in France. Elise's best friend and friend of the family, Danielle Williams, had written to inform him.

At the end of the war, Marcus finally returns to England. Like Wellington, for his service to his country the Regent for King George III, better known as Prinny, elevates Marcus to the peerage as the Duke of Hampton. Marcus hates the effects both his fame as a soldier and his new title bring him. He remains reclusive from London's elite society. He bought an old armory planning to turn it into a warehouse, but instead it has become a refuge. Since returning to England he feels empty and purposeless. Then, in his sister's belongings, he finds a letter from a man warning his sister to avoid a group called Scepter. Marcus suspects Elise was murdered and believes Danielle knows more information, but Danielle avoids him. The only thing he is determined to do is to discover how and why Elise was murdered. In this he has the help of some of the officers who served with him during the war.

Danielle has always felt Elise was more of a sister than a friend, and she has always held an attraction to Elise's older brother Marcus. When Marcus confronts her about Elise's murder, she is shocked. Danielle has secrets she cannot divulge to Marcus, secrets that involved Elise. Since learning of the abuse her aunt endured during her marriage, she has worked surreptitiously to free women from physical abuse, including women forced into sexual servitude. Her group, called Nightingale, helps women vanish from London, providing them escape and safety. Danielle must also protect the women who help her in this endeavor. She does not want anyone, including Marcus, to discover anything about Nightingale. However, she is unfamiliar with how great a force a trained and intelligent soldier and leader like Marcus can be.

Marcus and Danielle are both headstrong but moral and caring individuals guiding their own personal armies; even so, a definite attraction pulls at them. Their investigation and connection to Elise's death invites danger. Marcus wants to protect Danielle and is used to having his orders followed. Danielle is fiercely independent and devoted to her cause. How can they possibly follow their feelings even as they succumb to their passion? Can they find Elise's killer, or will Scepter stop them? An intense and interesting tale about the dangerous juncture of romance and noble causes.

Robin Lee