The Duchess Deal is the first book in the Girl Meets Duke series by Tessa Dare.

The Duke of Ashbury needs an heir in order to make sure that when he dies, his worthless relatives won't inherit from him. He was terribly scarred during Waterloo when a rocket pretty much exploded in his face. His body, including one side of his face, has been damaged irreparably and he looks so bad now that people stare at him in horror. Even his ex-fiance vomited during the one attempt she had to be intimate with him. An extreme reaction, but one that Ash will never forget. He knows a marriage will be purely one of convenience and sets about asking his solicitor to find a suitable candidate for him. One that will agree to his rules such as sex only in the dark and once she is pregnant one that will move away with the baby and have no dealings with him. He has no self-esteem at all and believes his baby would be terrified by him just like everybody is.

Before he even has a chance to send the missive a woman ends up at his door wearing a wedding dress. The wedding dress that was made for his ex-fiance. After the wedding was called off nobody bothered to pay for the dress, and as a seamstress desperately in need of her wages, Emma Gladstone goes to the Dukes to demand payment. Emma is a vicar's daughter, he kicked her out when she was younger for bringing shame on the family. She makes her living as a seamstress and can't afford to not get paid for the number of hours she put in and the materials used.

Ash loves that Emma stands up to him, and he decides then to offer her the payment for the work or for her to become his Duchess following the rules he sets out. She chooses the latter and from there we see their relationship develop into something more than just a contract.

This was a real Beauty and the Beast story and I loved how Emma made Ash realise that he isn't a monster. She was exactly what he needed and their romance developing was a joy to read. There were many comical moments in the book and I particularly loved how Emma called Ash silly names because she didn't like to call him Ash or Duke as he asked. His reaction to the names was great fun to read. I loved how protective of Emma he became and I found myself smiling throughout their journey. There was no huge drama in this story, it was a wonderful feel-good romance that I loved every minute of.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced readers' copy of this book.

This is a real beauty and the Beast story.
Beautifully told it demonstrates that not only that love conquers all but that beauty can truly be in the eye of the beholder.
A lovely romantic read with a little bit of erotica.

I really enjoyed this book. Ash and Emma meet after she had made a spectacular wedding dress for his ex fiancée. He offers her a deal that she accepts! She will become his duchess in exchange for giving him an heir. He has stipulations which they agree - but she is a very spirited girl and although this is a business arrangement she soon tangles herself into his reclusive life. She is desparate for him to fall for her as she sees the soul beneath his troubled exterior.
I loved her sparkiness and understood why Ash was so keen to keep himself hidden- but also that he made secret walks around London at night. He was injured in the war and is very conscious of his wounds- as it was the reason his fiancée was keen to run a mile and break their engagement.
You could picture the mansion house and all the staff became part of the family.
There are some sexy scenes alongside some heartwarming ones. I'm glad that I chose to read this one which is outside my usual genre.

An enjoyable romp. Almost like Georgette Heyer but for the sex scenes. Good characters,good chemistry between them.

Emma wants paid for her work on an wedding dress and marches off to demand payment of the Duke of Ashbury. He had returned badly injured from the Peninsula War and bitter about his fiancé breaking up with him. Emma Gladstone has sought refuge in London when her father threw her out 6 years before. But she is attractive and agrees to marry him on his request for an heir. But through this witty.and humorous romantic story they fall in love. Ash has to learn that he must become a man of the daylight and not the Monster of the night. Full of bodice ripping action it is written with pace and fun.

‘I am a Duke. I’m not asking you to marry me. I am offering to marry you. It’s a different thing entirely.’
When George Pembrooke the Duke of Ashbury returns from war badly scarred, he realises he needs an heir – which means he needs a wife! When Emma Gladstone, a vicar's daughter turned seamstress visits wearing a wedding dress, he decides on the spot that she'll do.
His terms are simple:
- They will be husband and wife by night only.
- No lights, no kissing.
- No questions about his battle scars.
- Last, and most importantly… Once she's pregnant with his heir, they need never share a bed again.
Oh this is a must read, it drew me in from the start, a story of a marriage of convenience between a duke & a seamstress, it made me think of a mixture of Pygmalion & Beauty & the Beast but the real joy was the humour & the laugh out loud moments, this is the first book I’ve read by the author but it won’t be the last.

My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

As an historical novel it fails to take the reader back into the period as the vocabulary is clearly 21st century vernacular. This has a jarring effect. The story failed to capture my interest and despite every attempt to finish I failed

I have a confession to make. Mills & Boon books have always been my guilty pleasure. They are quick to read, full of heroes and heroines that are having some kind of personal struggle that will not make the path to romance and happiness an easy one and we all know either girl gets boy or boy gets girl in the end. But that’s the point. When you pick up one of these books it’s because you want to be transported for a short while into a world where true love exists.
The Duchess Deal does not disappoint. In it we meet Emma, a vicar’s daughter who due to a bad choice has been cast out by her father and is now working as a seamstress in London and The Duke of Ashbury, a bitter recluse who is suffering from both physical and mental scars from war.
Emma is not the type of girl you would expect for the era the story was set in. Despite her lowly station in life she showed no fear of the Duke and in fact was quite confrontational and challenging. When given a set of rules their marriage will live by she sets a few rules of her own. Despite her background Emma gets invited to join a group of well to do women, who don’t fit in to the norm of polite society but are exactly what she needs. This gave the book a kind of modern feel which may not please everyone that loves historical romances however it didn’t bother me in the slightest and it had me chuckling at some of the things that were said and done.
The Duke is as expected very bitter after having been rejected due to his disfigurement and is determined that he will only marry to obtain an heir. Other than that he has no use for a wife. You get the feeling though from the reactions of his household staff that his mean temperament is not really how the Duke is but more a result of his scars and despite his best efforts to hide, he really does care about people and doing the right thing. His nocturnal activities whilst roaming the streets of London prove this even when it makes him a wanted man.
The whole book kind of has a Beauty and the Beast feel about it right down to the fact that Emma agrees to marry the Duke more to help someone out of a bad situation. The modern feel to the story may not please those that are looking for a true historical romance, but for me that was the appeal of it and I quite often found myself chuckling at some of the things that were said and done.

Plus side - I read this in one sitting. Down side - it is quite cheesy. The writing in the beginning was a little trite ... and just cheesy! Lol. But once you get past that the story is interesting. Borrows a little from beauty and the beast but with a large dollop of sex. I enjoyed the plot and seeing them exploring their feelings. The minor characters also helped flesh things out a bit but their sub stories were unnecessary unless the author is planning on fleshing them out in other books. The epilogue was also completely unnecessary - I think the story could have done without it because it brings you back to the cheese and is what stopped me from pushing my rating up to 4 stars.

Overall the book conforms to the Mills & Boons formula of boy meets girl, instant attraction but it can never work for whatever reason, till it does, and then boy does something to hurt girl, but it all works out in the end. All that being said I really enjoyed reading this story.

We all know I adore Tessa Dare, right? I mean, she is seriously a favourite author. I cannot get enough of her books. So when I learnt the UK release of her newest book would be pushed back (boo, stupid rights issues) I was understandably heartbroken. I seriously contemplated buying a US paperback even though I much prefer romance on Kindle. I decided not to buy because I had pre-ordered the Kindle edition anyway. I did get approved for the ARC on Netgalley, though, so all hope was not lost (although the wait for the UK ARC was painful too). I sped through this book and wanted to delay it ending because it was so so good!

I will start by saying it was amazing. The hype was well deserved. It's the kind of book you want to hug close because it's so good and you want to hug it close. I always thought the first Tessa Dare book I read was my favourite (romancing the Duke) but I do believe this may have taken that top spot because it was just that good and I pinpoint the reason I loved it easily: Ash.

Don't get me wrong, I adored Emma. She was a tough headstrong woman who didn't allow her father determine her path in life. She struggled to get to where she was at the beginning of the book and she fought throughout the book to remain independent as she had grown accustomed. She had hang-ups ups and flaws but she was funny and fought and teased Ash and made him accept a love he didn't know he wanted and didn't think he deserved and I adored that about her. You couldn't not love her... but Ash was a precious angel.

Ash made me smile in his grumpiness and when he was despairing at being a monster and ashamed of the scars which made him I wanted him to get his happily ever after. I laughed at his various hilarious Shakespearean swear words and I just adored him. His wit was brilliant. I love a good romance with banter. Also, Ash was a genuinely good person, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. He cared about those around him, no matter how he tried to hide that fact.

I suppose folks want to hear about the story, not just the characters. I have to say he didn't have the usual ending and some might call it ridiculous. Normally, there is a big moment which splits the couple apart for a time but once Emma and Ash were together no matter their arguments they never felt like they weren't together. Their insecurities raised their heads a couple of times but I could tell they would be together and even their own doubts wouldn't last for long.

Basically, this book is wonderful. Read it. Repeatedly. This book has earned a place as a comfort read for me.

Emma is a seamstress struggling to meet ends meet. She is proposed to by a Duke, with no qualms that it would be anything but a marriage of convenience with the sole aim of producing the Duke an heir. They get married and both try desperately not to fall in love with the other, which they both fantastically fail at.
There was a cute, fluffiness to this simple love story. But that was about all this book offered. There was no depth to either of the characters. The Duke had been in a war and had been horrifically injured. There's no information about this war and only a vague explanation of the injury. The Duke is completely unaffected by the war psychologically and it's only the physical scars which are the bane of his existence. As a reader, I could tell that I was supposed to feel Emma was deep but I did not. I found both of the characters extremely shallow.
As I kept reading, I was waiting and expecting more. There was no context as to the times or the war. None of the dialogue or the characters felt authentic to the period they were written in. They felt too modern and it did not fit the setting of the novel.
One of the only positives about this book was that it drew the reader in straight away with the opening scene. That, however, always made me feel like I expected more from it.

5 - "Be brave with me..." Stars!

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than discovering a new author, not new in the sense that its their first book, but new in that I have never read anything by them before.

IMAGE.

My joy is twofold with Tessa Dare though, because although new to me, this is an author that has an impressive back catalogue, something which I will be familiarizing myself with in depth in the future.

"You’ll either be the making of him, or he’ll be the ruin of you…"

I’ll be honest and say I 100% requested this book from seeing everyone else go cock-a-hoop over it on Goodreads, usually that makes me turn the other way, with a sceptically raised eyebrow, but I have been looking to broaden my Historical reading horizons lately and The Duchess Deal looked like a good place to start.

There was more to him than she’d suspected. More than anyone suspected.

Well as you who have read the book can guess, and those of you reading my review will read, I absolutely adored this book, witty dialogue, likeable characters and an absolutely adorable story-line, meant I picked it up, and literally didn’t put it down until it’s finish.

"We had rules…”

"There were precautions."

"Not enough of them apparently."

So much happened to this couple, I loved Emma’s feisty nature, Ash may be a Duke, but there wasn’t a curtsy or weak willed woman in sight, she gave him as good as he got, something I think that lended well to the depth or connection between them. I fell in love with Ash, just as Emma did, and I am dying for the next book in the Girl Meets Duke series, The Governess Game which sadly is not due until August, but when you get the quality of writing and expert storytelling that was apparent in book one, I can almost bear the wait!

"I’ll keep you always."

I always enjoy a good Beauty & the Beast-type plot and this one is lively, engaging and well-written. Emma and Ash are fully-fleshed characters that you immediately warm to and want to watch their relationship develop. I like the way the author throws them together so quickly so that their reactions to each other influence the whole novel. I would be interested to know if the author is going to develop stories about Emma’s eccentric friends across the square. Plus, one of the most interesting author dedication pages I have read!

A delightful Regency drama. Easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable. The characters are funny and just so believable. Will love conquer all the obstacles in its path? I’m sure you, when you read it, will hope so!

Pure escapism! Just what I needed after a hard week at work. What I liked most was that this book didn’t take itself too seriously and was humourously written. There was very much a beauty and the beast theme going on and it thoroughly enjoyable. This definitely won’t be the last book I read by this author.

This was great fun. Some explicit sexual encounters but a delightful story running through.. Great characters and descriptions which made the story come alive. Really amusing in parts and sad in others, runs the whole gamut of human experience. Not my usual reading genre but I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

I loved this book. Great read. Dialogue between the hero and heroin makes this book. It's a must read for all regency romance fans

Emma Gladstone has been keeping afloat, working as a seamstress after being cast out of her childhood home by her unforgiving father. The desperate need to pay her rent has forced her to call on the reclusive Duke of Ashbury to ask for the outstanding money owed to her by his ex-fiancée who no longer requires the wedding dress she commissioned. Her spirited appearance impresses the duke who decides she’s as good as anyone to marry and produce his heir. Amusing and entertaining, I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I rather enjoyed this book and I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. The central conceit - damaged hero, damaged heroine, marriage of convenience is a very well-worn story. Even the setting is all too familiar to readers of romantic fiction. However, this one was really, really good. The writer managed to make the characters' torments seem wholly believable and their subsequent relationship was exciting and also comforting. I thought the sub-plot of the friend who was pregnant was not handled all that well, however. We needed more references to it and it was almost an add-on to the novel itself.

This is the first Tess Dare that I’ve read – but it certainly won’t be the last. Although I love the Regency period, I’m not sure this was something I would have picked up especially, but I was sent an advance review copy and I am so glad because I am now looking to read more of this author’s books.
Young seamstress Emma is desperate. About to be evicted, she has spent hours stitching a, fairly ghastly, wedding dress only for the society wedding to be cancelled, with Emma being left unpaid. In a last ditch attempt to collect what she is owed, she turns to the would-have-been-groom, the Duke of Ashbury. The Duke, having been burned and scarred badly by a rogue rocket at the Battle of Waterloo is now a recluse – which does nothing for his need to provide an heir for his estate, thereby preventing it falling into his feckless cousin’s hands when he passes. So when Emma is shown in to his study, wearing the evidence of her work, it seems that his requirement for a wife may just have been met…
I absolutely loved this book. Although historical in setting, it has a very contemporary feel to it and I adored the sarcastic humour of the Duke and the sassiness of Emma. I’d definitely recommend it!

5*