Would I Lie to the Duke - Eva Leigh

Date Read: July 19, 2020

Review: I was gaga over the first book in this series - My Fake Rake - a solid 5 star novel. It had all my favorite tropes and a nerdy hero. The concept of combining 80s RomComs into novels (each of the rakes is an archetype from The Breakfast Club - Noel in this book is closest to the Princess/Molly Ringwald) is right up my alley. This one also has Working Girl (Jess McGale/Tess McGill), maybe some ofThe Secret of My Success. I liked this book a lot but I'm not in love with it, as I was the first one. I think part of it is the Duke finds out he's a Sub (though this is mild) and that's just not my thing (wanting to please her - hell, yeah - wanting to be commanded - meh, for me). This was a fun book to read and I look forward to McCameron's book with Lady Farris. Beuhler? Beuhler? Anyone?

Series: The Union of the Rakes

Type: Regency

Heat: 9/10

Tropes: Appearance vs Reality (Jess is just a country girl, pretending to be Lady Whitfield, a widow), mild Dom/Sub.

Premise: Jess (a Lady's paid companion) tries to save her family's (McGale & McGale) honey soap manufacturing business by selling it to shops on Bond St, but they won't have it unless it's already in demand by the nobility (sort of a Regency celebrity endorsement). So, Jess pretends to be a Lady and suggests the soap to other nobility at the business Bazaar. She had already caught the eye of Noel Edwards - Duke of Rotherby. Now he thinks Lady Whitfield is a financial and business genius as well. Will Jess get her family's honey soap factory in demand again? Or will her family be split apart? Will Noel find out she's not a Lady and she's been lying to him? Is there a future for them?

The Good: Very strong female lead. Despite pretending to be a Lady, she makes no bones about who she is as a person. And she does not care that Noel is a Duke at all. She knows what she wants. So does Noel.

The Bad: The Bazaar wasn't that romantic, for me. But as a geek it was interesting.

Noteable quote: Funny reference to an invention, at the Bazaar, that sounds just like Twitter:

"Trained sparrows will take brief communications from your home to a central hub. You can chirp at someone with your short message. The hub is where the sparrows will feed, so if someone wants to see if they have received a message, they can check the feed, as I call it."

Confused mutterings rose up from the guests.

"Does that mean we'll have to continuously hover around the feed to see if anyone has a message for us?" Vicscount Hunsdon asked.

"Obviously, you cannot spend all day at the feed." Mr. Pine stammered. "That would be a spectacular waste of time," Baron Mentmore said irritably.

**Many thanks to Edelweiss+ for providing an ARC in order to write this unbiased review.**

Author Website: http://evaleighauthor.com/