Blog Tour, Review& Giveaway: Lily and The Duke by Helen Hardt



Book: Lily and the Duke
Author: Helen Hardt
Genre: Victorian Romance


Synopsis
Lily and the Duke
Sex and the Season One
Wiltshire, England 1845
Lady Lily Jameson is thrilled to attend a house party given by Daniel Farnsworth, the Duke of  Lybrook, but not because he’s the most eligible bachelor in the peerage. Her only interest is his famous art collection, which reputedly includes a painting by her favorite artist, Jan Vermeer.
Daniel, duke only by virtue of the untimely deaths of his father and older brother, wants nothing to do with his new duties. He’d rather continue his rakish ways. When he finds the lovely Lily sneaking  around the property in search of his art collection, sparks fly.
Despite her father’s wishes, Lily has no intention of marrying. She wants to travel the world to gain real life inspiration for her painting and writing. And what could be better worldly experience than a passionate affair with the notorious Duke of Lybrook?
But circumstances may change the game and the players…and danger lurks, as well.

 OK, I'm trying to go by memory here.  I accidentally deleted my review last week thinking this had already run.  And of course, as I'm posting our blog pages from here to facebook, that's when I usually try and copy my reviews to Amazon and Goodreads..big OOPS on my part!!
So Lily Jameson is a strikingly beautiful girl who could care less about boys, all she wants to do is paint!  So at a house party instead of flirting and flaunting she's caught by the Duke's second son Daniel painting away.  They chat for a few, then he's off. 
Years pass and Lily hasn't changed!  She's still into her art and to hell with the boys!  There's too much to do in life to waste it by getting married and having children.  The Duke has passed, so has the eldest son, so now Daniel Farnsworth is the new Duke and his mother is throwing a welcome home bash.  Lily and family is invited much to Lily's dismay...On the bright side, the Duke supposedly has a piece of art that Lily would LOVE to see, so her plan is to sneak around trying to find it during the party. 
Daniel grabs ahold of Lily, thinking she's someone else and kisses the everloving shit out of her.  She's swept off her feet...literally..
Lily asks to see the portrait, Daniels agrees to show her, but it's in his bedroom!  YIKES, she goes and one thing leads to another, and since she's sure she'll never marry she decides to just enjoy Daniel this once.  He's hooked, and thus ensues the DRAMA...because everyone wants to catch the Dukes attention, he is the most eligible bachelor all around!
The writing was fast paced, and HOT for an historical romance...yummmmo
There was the requisite drama, well played out.  The characters were full of fun, laughter, mischief and of course some hot sexy!  I really rather enjoyed this story, it's so nice to change things up a bit and go back to the roots where my love affair with reading began!  My grandma (then like 60) gave me a big ole bag of harlequin historical romances when I was a teen, and boy did they make me blush!  So diving back in to a wonderfully written  steamy historical takes me back to a wonderful time in my life.  Kudos for a wonderfully written, engaging, romantic, hot n sexy historical read!
4.5 stars
Excerpt
Author Bio
Helen Hardt is an attorney and stay-at-home mom turned award-winning author. She’s been writing stories since the first grade, when her aspiring writer father encouraged her and gave her a small metal file cabinet with “Helen’s Story Box” written on it in permanent marker. She began her first novel, a young adult romance, in the eighth grade. Although it will never see the light of day, she still has the manuscript that she typed on the old IBM Selectric.
She stopped writing to attend college and law school. She met her real-life hero in law school, and they live in Colorado with her two teenage sons. Helen writes contemporary, historical, paranormal, and erotic romance. Her non-writing interest include Harley rides with her husband, attending her sons’ sports and music performances, traveling, and Taekwondo (she’s a blackbelt.)
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