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    Duke Most Wanted: The Heiress Brides
    Unavailable
    Duke Most Wanted: The Heiress Brides
    Unavailable
    Duke Most Wanted: The Heiress Brides
    Ebook323 pages4 hours

    Duke Most Wanted: The Heiress Brides

    By Celeste Bradley

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Sophie Blake's grandfather willed his fortune to the first of his granddaughters to marry a duke. Since her cousin, Deirdre, will seal the deal any day now, the quiet, bookish Sophie can sit back and enjoy her time with the only man she truly adores: Graham. No matter that the part charmer, part scoundrel has absolutely no designs on her! Sophie is content to engage Graham in lively conversation, beat him at cards. . .and probe at the darkness hiding behind his rakish smile.

    Then Graham unexpectedly gains a title, an estate in near ruins and a mountain of debt. If there is any chance of survival he must find a rich wife—quickly. As his hunt for a bride begins, Sophie realizes that she isn't even in the running. Suddenly no longer content to be a wallflower, Sophie gets a stunning make-over and becomes the belle of the ball. Lots of heads are turning…including Graham's. But this beauty has secrets of her own. Will she be his salvation or seal his fate?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 29, 2008
    ISBN9781429937498
    Unavailable
    Duke Most Wanted: The Heiress Brides
    Author

    Celeste Bradley

    Celeste Bradley is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of more than 20 Regency romance novels and has twice been nominated for the Rita Award by the Romance Writers of America. Before becoming a writer in 1999, Celeste was an artist who specialized in pottery and ceramic sculpture. Although originally from the South, Celeste now resides in New Mexico. "It is one of the last habitats of the Free-Range Human." She is very fond of food that someone else cooks, animals of all sorts, painting, jewelry making, reading, and grandbabies.

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    Reviews for Duke Most Wanted

    4/5

    25 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Silly, but fun. There were some loose ends that could be left alone, but could be explored some in a future novel if Bradley wanted to.
    • 5/5
      A delicious Regency read!! Engaging characters and an entertaining plot line. Nice amount of steam to keep the story popping!

      They really are quite a pair! Sophie was easily my fav of the cousins!!

      I love a lively historical with all the pomp and circumstance! Really enjoyable read!

      A fun series.
    • 3/5
      The third in the Regency set historical Heiress Bride series, I don't think I've read the first or second offerings by Bradley. In the series, grandfather Pickering has left his considerable fortune to the first of his granddaughters to marry a duke. Sisters Phoebe and Deirdre find their loves in the previous two books and with one of the men being the heir to a dukedom, it seems as if cousin Sophie has less than no chance to inherit her grandfather's fortune. But that's fine with her as she's been secretly in love with her best friend, Graham, for ages and he's just the third son with no expectations of inheriting. But fate has other plans, as Graham's father and dumb as posts brothers all die on a safari, leaving the terribly impoverished dukedom to Graham. Now he needs an heiress and while he doesn't know of Sophie's potential inheritance, she knows she is just what he needs. Of course, as Graham grapples with his inheritance, Sophie is busy being transformed from ugly duckling to swan, drawing notice from all the ton. She really only wants to captivate Graham although she won't trust even him with her deepest secrets. Can she marry him, claim the inheritance, and live happily ever after?While this is a well-written romance, as Bradley's works generally are, I can't get over the huge plot twist she throws into the works, making the interior thoughts of one of the characters completely and patently untrue. Unless the author's intention was drawing said character as completely unhinged, believing in their own concocted story, this didn't really work. I was reading along happily, enjoying Sophie's long-suffering love for Graham and his dawning attraction (could it be love?) towards her when I was walloped in the face with this enormous twist, placed in the narrative solely to push the happily ever after out farther and to require some convoluted wrangling to make that ending still happen. I. Didn't. Appreciate. It. At. All. And not because I am averse to well done plot twists. I'm not. This one came out of thin air (one small foreshadowed comment on page one doesn't make it believable) and made the character in question completely suspect, especially since this immense twist was never acknowledged, even when the character was speaking internally. The resolution of this enormous plot twist was well done but I can't get over being rankled by its necessity. Color me grumpy but as a result, I can't wholeheartedly recommend this one.
    • 4/5
      Shy, plain, bookish Sophie stands to inherit a fortune if she marries a duke. Her friend Graham unexpectedly inherits an impoverished dukedom. Simple, right? Wrong.A fun Regency, with a beauty of a twist about four-fifths of the way through.
    • 4/5
      Passion, intrigue, mystery, and love. You'll find all of these and more in the pages of Duke Most Wanted. Celeste Bradley does a wonderful job at once again bringing to life a set of characters that readers will want to learn more about-- and not just the main characters either. In fact, as much as I enjoyed seeing Graham and Sophie falling for each other, I think the side story of two of the servants, John and Patricia's love was just as entertaining, if only a bit more brief in length. Although the mystery and secrets found in this story did throw me for a bit, I came to terms with them in the end, when the hero and heroine get their happy ever after. My only problem was the sudden twist that was thrown into the story with less than 50 pages to go. I won't say what it was, you'll have to read and find out for yourself, but it caught me off guard, and I had a bit of trouble adapting to it for a while. In the end, however, I was able to move on after seeing Graham come to terms with his mistake. I just wish this part had been developed a bit more, since we didn't really get to see how he came to realize what he did wrong, and so quickly forgave Sophie... I liked Duke Most Wanted much more than I did the previous novel in the series, The Duke Next Door, and I think the main reason for that being so lies in the heroine of the book. Sophie was much easier to connect with than Deidre, whose blonde looks and slightly stuck up and shallow attitude annoyed me.Unlike her cousins Deidre and Phoebe, Sophie was not the most stunningly beautiful woman in Society, and Graham was able to see from the very beginning that her beauty was more than skin deep, though she wasn't unsightly by any means. Because of this, Sophie was more of a strong- willed heroine, one that changed much in the book from the shy and timid girl in the beginning to the fiery lady who brazenly waltzes in on Graham and his ex-lover, quickly snatching off Lady C's wig and smartly taking her down a few pegs with her witty remarks. Although this particular scene helped Graham to realize his true feelings about Sophie, for me the reader, it provided evidence that the heroine was not just another bubbly bimbo, but one that knows what she wants, and will stop at nothing to get it, even when Society would love to crush her dreams. The great thing about this book is you could see the connection between the characters, especially Graham and Sophie, and more importantly, you could actually see them falling in love. From just being "friends" at the beginning of this book to doing the well known dance around their feelings for each other, to finally saying "I love you" to one another. It didn't seem rushed or unbelievable, it simply felt like true love between them.4 STARS! Duke Most Wanted provides not only the right amount of romance and passion between the main characters, but side ones as well, along with a few witty and sarcastic remarks to keep the story going. Add in the slight mystery around the heroine, and the secrets she's been hiding all these years, and you're in for a very delightful read!
    • 2/5
      Duke Most Wanted
      2 Stars

      Synopsis
      Sophie Blake is tall, thin and plain. She never thought to marry let alone set her sights on a duke until Graham Cavendish, the only man she has ever felt comfortable around, unexpectedly inherits a title and a mountain of debt with it. Suddenly, Sophie is in the running for the Pickering inheritance and for the man of her dreams.

      Review
      This series is my first encounter with Celeste Bradley and overall, I'm not impressed. Her plots are simplistic and her characters superficial and one dimensional, even more so in this book than in the previous two.

      The first 3/4 of the book are boring and drawn out. Graham's sudden realization that Sophie is the love of his life is completely unrealistic and the fact that it stems from her physical transformation presents him as shallow and egotistical.

      The action heats up in the final 1/4 but it is too little too late even though the twist regarding Sophie's identity is entertaining.

      I've heard that Bradley's other series are better so I may give her another try sometime.