His Very Reluctant Duchess

Dorothea Penhale runs a bookshop in York, keeps her own ledgers and has no interest whatsoever in becoming a duchess. The Duke of Whitehaven, on the other hand, has advertised for a plain, unremarkable bride, and takes her refusal as a personal challenge. He returns with a carriage. She sends him away. He returns with a house in London. She sends him away. He returns with a library of her own, and she finally counter-offers: she will marry him if she keeps the shop, the books, her name on the sign, and the last word. He agrees before she finishes the sentence. What follows is a courtship conducted entirely through argument, a dowager duchess with a long memory, and one inconvenient family secret on each side. A sparkling, big-hearted Regency romance about a woman who will not be quietly absorbed, and the duke who is delighted to find he cannot manage her.