Cinderella and the Duke

A fairy-tale story gets a marriage-of-convenience twist in Drake’s debut novel. To escape her stepmother, spinster Julia Beaumont finds herself at the altar with notorious rake Gregory Carter, Duke of Ashworth. It is supposed to be a mutually beneficial but ultimately loveless marriage, where Julia gets her freedom and Gregory gets to avoid duels with the husbands of the women he’s seduced. However, they quickly discover that, on top of their steamy encounters while consummating their marriage—they have to avoid an annulment after all—they also genuinely like each other. Perhaps some of the secrets threatening their happiness could have been avoided if they were brave enough to have a real conversation, but this book, with its clever twists on the Cinderella story, including a couple of shoe-related incidents, is still a fun, satisfying read.