Her Favorite Duke (The 1797 Club Book 2) by Jess Michaels

Her Favorite Duke by Jess Michaels

Blurb: 

The second exciting book in the bestselling 1797 Club series by USA TODAY Bestselling Author Jess Michaels. 

Simon Greene, Duke of Crestwood has been obsessed with Margaret Rylon for years. There is only one thing standing between them: her fiancé, who also happens to be his best friend. He is desperate not to destroy everything in his life by giving in to his desires, but when Meg and Simon are trapped alone together overnight during a storm, the resulting scandal not only breaks Meg’s existing engagement, but forces Simon to offer for her instead. 

Margaret is sorry to have hurt her family and her fiancé, but all she’s ever wanted was Simon. Her determination to make a happy life with him is only heightened when they submit to passions that have long dwelled beneath the surface. But while Simon may give her his body, he withholds his heart out of guilt and fear of what a connection to her may expose.  

And if he doesn’t learn to fight for her soon, they both may lose a chance at happiness. 

Length: Full length book  
Heat Level: Yep. So much. 

This is the second book in the 1797 Club series, but can be read as a standalone.


I love the books by Jess Michaels and I've read quite a lot of them up to now.
This one is good as well but it didn't captivate me as much as the other books. My problem with this book was definitely that for a very very long time the hero and the heroine had no hope left. Sure, I had a certain idea that this book might end with an HEA but somewhere around the first third of the book I almost gave up hope as well that that would actually happen.
Somewhere around the middle of the book, I felt that, well, somehow, someone should please do something to make our hero Simon wake up. Alright, maybe I just wished for someone to kick him, hard, because...yup, just because.

Like all the other characters in Jess Michaels' books, Simon and Margaret are complex characters and getting to know them, you understand where Simon comes from and why it is so hard for him to fight for his happiness. Meg does also have to learn to stand up for herself and - let's just say that sometimes I was a bit frustrated and  that I was starting to doubt that they would ever leave the somewhat turbulent beginnings behind them and just enjoy that their dreams may now may come true. At least their dreams might come true if they ever wake up...
Oh, I was frustrated with their friend (and Meg's former fiancé) Graham as well and don't get me started on Meg's brother James. Such a nice and well-meaning guy but  -seriously? At sixteen? And without ever asking her what she wanted?

Despite everything though, I really enjoyed reading this book and I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series that'll tell us more about Graham!

★★★★