A Duke in the Night by Kelly Bowen

March 12, 2018
You call it coincidence, I call it circular.

http://www.kellybowen.net/
Kelly Bowen is really blooming into a very good writer. In A Duke in the Night, the first book in the Devils of Dover series, we have August Faulkner, the Duke of Holloway and Clara

Hayward. Usually I focus on the heroes in the book. But in this one, even though I loved the way August Faulkner was written, Clara Hayward stole the show. What a wonderfully drawn heroine. The writing of her character was very subtle, very understated; and yet she proved to be very strong, again and again. I loved Clara, she will join my list of memorable women characters. Watching August and Clara play off of each other was quite captivating.

August is controlling. He has his reasons for that control. You see, his father was in debtors prison. He and his sister, Anne, had quite a struggle surviving when they were young. Now he is a Duke and has accumulated great wealth over the years. He buys out failing businesses, takes them apart, and then puts them back together in ways which work. He is brilliant when it comes to business, but sometimes he misses the effect his restructuring of businesses has on the people involved. His way is the right way, which is why he cannot understand why his sister Anne is so very unhappy. He gives her everything any woman would be happy with: clothes, jewels, etc. He has her life all planned out for her. So, he is blindsided when she sort of runs away to the Haverhall School for Young Ladies. I say sort of because she does leave behind a “don’t worry about me” note – which as anyone with parenting experience knows doesn’t work. Haverhall School for Young Ladies is owned by Clara Hayward.

Everything is circular. Once upon a time Clara Hayward was a young, wealthy, wallflower. Men would avoid her at all costs. She didn’t fit in with the rest of the flibbertigibbets. Why? Well, it would seem that a young Clara was extremely intelligent and most men were not looking for someone who was smarter than they could ever hope to be. One evening while Clara was being a wallflower at a dance, a very young August asked her to dance. While Clara may have been young, she didn’t just get off the boat yesterday. She only has to look across the dance floor to see a group of sniggering young men and realize that August’s asking is a set-up. Yes, he only asks her to dance on a dare. Even though she knows she is being mocked, she accepts his dance anyway. It isn’t long into the dance that Clara is holding the upper-hand. It is a dance which neither August nor Clara will forget.

Fast forward 10 years. August is now a wealthy Duke. He’s a powerful, ruthless, business man. He is interested in buying the Strathmore shipping company. The Strathmore shipping company is on its last legs, just the kind of thing August loves to take apart and rebuild. Now it just so happens that the shipping company is owned by Clara’s brother. Clara and her sister will do anything to help their brother save the family shipping company. Clara has sold her beloved school and property to help keep her brother afloat (so to speak). In his never ending quest to own the world, August has purchased Clara’s school. This is before he finds out that his sister has skedaddled off to Clara’s Haverhill School for Young Ladies. But he has developed a plan. Ah, nothing better than a hero with a plan. He plans on bringing his sister back and while he’s at it he will also persuade Clara to introduce him to her brother. Once the introductions are done, it will be very easy for August to buy the company. Poor August.  August is in way over his head in his dealing with Clara; he also is very much out of touch with his sister. While Clara may not know all of August’s dealings, especially the part about who owns the school, she doesn’t let August get away with a whole lot in this story. As I said before, Clara is a strong woman, she is the dominating character in this story. She is a very liberated, comfortable in her own skin, and she doesn’t have to become a tyrant to win. She uses her intelligence to succeed, and most of the time August just never knows what is happening to him.

Everything in this story is connected to something else, it was all so circular. I loved the way it was written. I loved the way Clara’s brother supported her, how he listened to her, how he let her make her own decisions. There was a great boatload of secondary characters, probably too many to squeeze into this series. Clara’s sister and brother will both probably have their own book. I’m not so sure about August’s sister Anne, but she may. There were also a number of interesting girls enrolled in the school. By the way, what a great school curriculum.

Overall, this is a book which is not to be missed. I highly recommend it, And, Kelly Bowen is an up and coming author who everyone needs to keep an eye on. She’s just getting better and better.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm/Hot