The Duke and the Spitfire by Jessie Clever

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Lady Johanna Darby has loved Benedict Carver since they were young, but he’s never seen her as more than his best friend’s little sister. When Benedict marries another and emigrates to America, she knows she will never love another. But with her sisters all wed, Johanna resigns herself to finding a match to finally leave her family home and give her brother his much-deserved freedom to find his own wife.

Until Benedict unexpectedly returns, newly titled and widowed.
Benedict Carver never doubted his place as the second son of a duke, mostly because his father would never let him forget it. Denied the station he desired at his family’s beloved Raeford Court, Benedict is sent to America with the bride his father chose for him. But when his brother dies in a tragic accident, Benedict finds himself with the title and an estate on the brink of collapse thanks to his brother’s gambling debts and neglect. Having sworn never to remarry, Benedict must now select a bride with a hefty fortune if he is to save his beloved Raeford Court.

Even if that bride is his best friend’s little sister.

Book Details
Table of Content

File Name:the-duke-and-the-spitfire-by-jessie-clever.epub
Original Title:The Duke and the Spitfire
Creator:Clever, Jessie
Language:en
Identifier:4282416850
Publisher:Someday Lady Publishing LLC
Date:2021-04-29
File Size:378.299 KB

Table of Content

1. Title Page
2. Copyright
3. Dedication
4. Contents
5. Chapter 1
6. Chapter 2
7. Chapter 3
8. Chapter 4
9. Chapter 5
10. Chapter 6
11. Chapter 7
12. Chapter 8
13. Chapter 9
14. Chapter 10
15. Chapter 11
16. Chapter 12
17. Chapter 13
18. Chapter 14
19. Chapter 15
20. Chapter 16
21. Chapter 17
22. Chapter 18
23. Ready For More?
24. Also by Jessie Clever
25. About the Author

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1 comments

Kiley O：

The Duke and the Spitfire, Book 4 of The Unwanted Dukes series, was about His Grace Benedict Carver, the Duke of Raeford, and Lady Johanna Darby, the youngest daughter of the sixth Duke of Ravenwood, sister to the now seventh Duke of Ravenwood. Ben, being the second son of a Duke, had never expected to inherit the title. His father had chosen his wife five years previously and sent him to America. When his father had died, his brother became the Duke but then gambled and drank the estate money away, to the point the estate had fallen into disrepair. Ben's wife had died near the same time as his brother's death, and he returned to Egland to claim the title...and, though he had been determined to never marry again, knew he had to seek a wife with a large dowry to save his estate from his brother's creditors. Jo had been in love with Ben for as long as she could remember but just as she had accepted he would never be available to her and prepared herself to marry someone else, Ben returned to England a widower. Ben returned during a ball in Jo's honor and, upon hearing her brother mention her dowry, a plan began to form in his mind to seduce her into marriage. Although they had been childhood friends, he had never thought of Jo in a romantic way. However, he wasn't planning on wooing her for love. While he knew he would have to produce a legitimate heir, he had no plans to fall in love with her. His first marriage had not given him reason to ever want to love anyone. When Jo and Ben met on the promenade the morning after the ball, Ben dared her to climb a tree as she had when they were youths. When he lifted her high enough to reach the lowest branch, she lost her grip and fell into his arms at which point he kissed her. When the kiss ended, Jo inadvertently let it slip that she had waited a long time for a kiss from him. Ben, upon realizing she had feelings for him, decided to use that against her to get her to marry him...like the cad he was. He figured it would be easy to get her to accept a courtship and marriage because of her feelings for him. Ben, while out riding with Jo's brother, Andrew, informed him of the true nature of his first marriage, and then proceeded to ask him for permission to court Jo...without telling him the true reason for the courtship. While he secretly kept calling himself a cad and an arse and feeling guilty for wanting Jo only for her dowry, he had no qualms about letting Jo believe he had feelings for her, that he had no intention of it being a true marriage should she accept his proposal. He didn't care that, if she did, he would be denying her the right to be loved by someone else, he didn't care that he would be denying her the right to be happy. The more time Ben spent with Jo, the more he became aware of his attraction to her...and the more desperate he became when he realized she was popular amongst the men of the ton. He used every trick he knew to manipulate Jo into accepting his proposal. He told her partial truths about the state of his finances and the estate. He used her feelings for him to make her believe he returned them. He led her to believe theirs would be a love match when he never intended to love her back. All because he wanted to feel better about himself, to restore his ancestral home, he was willing to crush the one person who had loved him for himself. What a total arse. He was so consumed with taking care of everyone from his mother to the tenets of his estate that he didn't care that he was depriving Jo of her own happiness. When Jo finally learned the truth, it nearly tore her apart. When Ben told her he could never love again, he never took into account that he had just done to her what had been done to him with his first marriage. He had trapped her in a loveless marriage. He left her empty. At least Jo had one consolation in the loveless marriage...Ben's mother loved her. Even as a child after her own mother had died, Ben's mother had filled the gap and accepted her, allowing Jo to follow her everywhere. In order to keep his emotions in check, Ben stayed away from Jo by physically removing himself from their home. He made one trip after another, staying away for weeks that turned into months at a time. While the passion and chemistry between them, when he allowed it, was strong, the angst and the drama were stronger. There was very little humor in this story, which was a sad thing as it was sorely needed. He had been destroyed by his father, his brother, as well as his late wife. Johanna, on the other hand, was a force to be reckoned with. The more someone hurt her, or even those she loved, the more she drew from her strength to defend, protect, and serve them. She would do whatever was required to see things made right, even to the point of losing her own happiness. Ben hated her for that strength because it was something he lacked. When Jo went so far as to aid Ben once again in saving their home from being sold off, he confronted Jo and, when she told him in all honesty why she had helped, it angered him to the point he did something unforgivable and it was at that moment he realized...he'd lost her because he'd finally broken her. Ben was much like Ryder of the previous story...minus the cheating, gambling, and drinking. He was just a selfish imbecile who needed to have a chair broken over his head a time or two. While I enjoyed Jo's character, Ben left a lot to be desired. He pretty much used emotional and psychological abuse to manipulate Jo at every turn. I can understand that he had been traumatized by three people who should have known better than to treat a person the way they did him, but that didn't give him license to turn around and do the exact same thing to Jo. I can't give this book a 5-star rating nor can I add it to the Keeper for the Shelves collection. It just doesn't deserve either.

Reply3 years ago