A SCOT TO THE HEART: Desperately Seeking Duke - Caroline Linden
Next Duke Up  - Book 2
Avon and Harper Voyager
ASIN: B086JYFW98
ISBN-10: 0-06291-364-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-06291-364-7
2021, June 29
Historical Romance Fiction

Scotland, 1787

Captain Andrew St. James is serving at Fort Gorge in Ardersier, Scotland, when his colonel gives him a letter from the solicitor of the Duke of Carlyle. He had been told to personally deliver it. The duke is a distant cousin of Andrew's, whose family has been estranged since the days of Andrew's grandfather. In London, he meets Sophia Marie St. James, the current Duchess of Carlyle who is the mother of the current, disabled duke and the last in his direct family's line. She tells Andrew that he will most likely inherit the title. She tells him he has to change his lifestyle. The Carlyle property is huge and with an equally huge fortune attached. Andrew will also have to learn the responsibility of the duke's duties. She gives him five hundred pounds and three times that per year until he becomes the duke. She also demands he become respectable and find a wife. Six weeks later Andrew returns to Edinburgh, Scotland, to tell his mother and sisters the news and help them out of their penury. His first night back he spends the evening with a friend, Felix Duncan, who takes him to a local oyster cellar where they enjoy the food, the drinks, and the music. Andrew dances with a woman and by the end of the evening, they share a passionate kiss. Andrew feels something for her that he has never felt for any other woman, but he doesn't even know her name.

As a wealthy widow, Isla Ramsay is determined to run her own life, not have the men in her life tell her what to do. She is infuriated when her solicitor refuses her request to withdraw money from one investment to have it placed in another. In her furious exit from his office, she recognizes the man from the oyster bar, waiting to see the solicitor. She ignores him. Later she learns the man is her best friend Agnes St. James brother. Andrew and Isla have a strong attraction for each other, but Isla does not want to leave Scotland, so feels ignoring her desires is for the best. Then she lands in serious trouble making her believe Andrew could never ask for her hand in marriage.

Great characters and interesting situations make A SCOT TO THE HEART a compelling romance to follow the first story in the series ABOUT A ROGUE, but it is not necessary to have read the first book to enjoy Andrew and Isla's story.

Robin Lee