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A Duchess in His Bed, the fourth installment in Lorraine Heath’s Sins for all Seasons series, features a recently widowed Duchess planning a great deception to save her family’s status within the ton. Selena Sheffield, the Duchess of Lushing, has to make a quick decision – can she get herself with child and pass the child off as the deceased Duke’s heir or does she let the dukedom, and all its power to help her siblings, pass back to the crown?
After six years of a happy albeit passionless marriage, Selena remains childless. The Duke of Lushing has just passed after a short illness and Selena’s brother (a dissolute earl) makes a plan – if Selena quickly gets pregnant, her family can keep the prestige and wealth of the dukedom, and her three younger sisters will still be able to make good matches. Selena decides to try – she can’t stand the thought of her sisters suffering because her brother (and father) ran the earldom into debt. She chooses to seduce Aiden Trewlove, bastard to an unnamed nobleman and owner of the Elysium Club – a club designed for women of the ton to have some fun gaming and exploring their more adventurous sides.
When Selena enters Aiden’s club, masked and reticent, Aiden’s interest is piqued. He avoids involvement with his clientele but cannot resist flirting with the masked stranger. There is an instant pull between Aiden and Selena, but when Selena confesses her desire to be seduced, Aiden resists as he senses there is more going on here than a desire for a light affair. Over the next few nights, Selena returns to the Elysium Club expecting seduction, only to be thwarted by Aiden – who teases and tempts, but does not bed her.
Meanwhile, Selena is getting to know more about Aiden – his upbringing with the other bastards sent to Ettie Trewlove, his horrible relationship with his sire, his love for his family. She desperately wants to get pregnant but she is starting to see the larger ramifications of her plan. Eventually, she confesses her plan to Aiden and he must decide if he can give her what she wants.
Aiden and Selena’s love affair is well-developed and convincing. They share an instant attraction that keeps building throughout the book from lust to love. Selena is determined to aid her family, but is torn about what she starts to see as a betrayal of Aiden, because the last thing he wants to have is a bastard son. But he also sees the power his son could have and he is uncertain. He wants to give Selena all of himself – but at what cost to his soul? Aiden’s struggle with his own self-worth and his budding feelings for Selena are particularly well-written and Ms. Heath pulls at the heartstrings when you think of Aiden alone without Selena or his child. In an unexpected bonus, Aiden is also an artist and his paintings of his desired future with Selena and his child are beautifully described. Ms. Heath is a masterful writer of romantic interludes and she does not disappoint in A Duchess in His Bed.
Like many of Ms. Heath’s stories, the book offers a solid plot with an interesting moral dilemma. What at first seems to be a selfless act on Selena’s part (to aid her younger sisters) can easily be viewed as selfish when taking into account the sacrifice Aiden must make in not claiming his child. I found myself of two minds throughout the story and ended up mad at Selena and Aiden’s choices. As in Ms. Heath’s The Earl Takes All, some readers will be put off by the decisions the characters make.
The Sins for All Seasons has been a satisfying series and I loved reconnecting with the Trewlove family. A Duchess in His Bed is not my favorite Heath novel, but I’m recommending it because of the strong writing and compelling storyline. It can be read as a standalone but I suggest starting at the beginning to fully enjoy the series.
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Grade: B
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 22/08/19
Publication Date: 08/2019
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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I reviewed this in audio recently and had similar issues, AND felt that there was a lot of filler; a novella-sized plot stretched to fill a whole book, The Kit/Selena exchange at the end was, IMO, pretty much the best part of the whole thing. LH is an author I’ve enjoyed very much in the past, but I can’t help but wonder if the increase to two books a year has affected the quality of her books, becuase the plots in this series haven’t really worked for me, and some of the emotional punch I know she can pack is missing.
This did remind me of other stories where the hero or heroine is willing to sacrifice themselves on the altar of marriage to save or position younger siblings. These books seem to be based on the premise that the younger siblings would be okay with the older sibling’s sacrifice – which is generally not the case but not discovered until almost too late.
I too liked the exchange between Kit and Selena – it’s hard to know, given the time, what a true reaction would be – but I was good with it. I think Selena must have suspected all along. I’ve enjoyed the Trewlove family so I’ll be picking up the next one when it comes out.
What I kept wondering was why the late Duke hadn’t provided dowrys for her sisters in his will. It would have been his obligation to provide for them had he lived, and he seemed to be a man of integrity, so that was the sticking point for me. But if he had then there would have been no story, so there’s that…
There are some spoilers in my comments, if that matters to anyone.
I just finished this. I enjoyed the romance itself. The main plot line was very good–to father a child who will be born into wealth and comfort, at the expense of almost never seeing or being involved with that child? To bear a child in order to secure a good future for the rest of one’s family, at the expense of losing the man one loves? What to do?
However, if I were to give this a star rating, I’d have to deduct 1 star for the epilogue alone. Everything ends so nicey-nice for everyone. As a matter of fact, it’s all so perfect, it kind of renders the premise of the story moot.
I mean, the whole point of the main story is that newly widowed Selena needs Aiden to get her pregnant quickly, so the child can be fobbed off as the heir to Lushing’s estate. This will enable Selena to save the family’s estates from the Crown and thus be able to take care of her family, even though it will also devastate Aiden–who will never be able to claim his own child–and Selena, who is in love with Aiden. If the deception does not succeed, we understand that the future happiness of Selena’s family is in jeopardy.
But in the epilogue, from my POV, we find that the success or failure of the deception never really mattered. Everyone’s happy anyway, the girls do not grow up to be unhappy spinsters living in some obscure cottage somewhere, etc.
So I’m confused and not amused. What was the author thinking? Maybe I missed something?
Also–the convo near the end, between Selena and Kitt? Selena’s reaction to Kitt’s revelation was too modern, too anachronistic for me.
Ultimate grade: Before we got to the Selena/Kitt convo and the problematic epilogue, I’d have given this a B. But now I feel it’s more like a C or C+, tops.
As always, YMMV
My impression of the Kitt aspect of the story was that Selena had already figured it out, so she wasn’t surprised. I thought that was a lovely exchange, actually, and made both Kitt and Selena even more human in my eyes.
I’m glad you liked it too. I will definitely stick with the series.
I’ve developed a real fondness for the Trewlove series; liked this one a little bit more than you, as frustrating as these two were!