The Accidental Duchess by Madeline Hunter

The Accidental Duchess by Madeline Hunter - 389 pages

When Lady Lydia Alfreton is blackmailed over a novel manuscript she wrote several years ago, she must come up with $10,000 to pay off the blackmailer.  The only way she knows to do this is to accept the wager offered by Duke Penthurst a year ago.  She's confident she will win as she hasn't lost a wager in over a year.  What will she and the Duke do when to her shock she loses the bet?
I enjoyed this conclusion to the Fairbourne Quartet.  It tied up all the questions left over from the previous novels as well told an interesting story.

The Counterfeit Mistress by Madeline Hunter

The Counterfeit Mistress by Madeline Hunter - 327 pages
The Fairbourne Quartet #3

Viscount Kendale has been suspicious of Marielle Lyon for over a year.  Rumors have swirled for years that she is not simply a French emigre, a niece of a count killed during the French Revolution, but instead a French spy.  Now Kendale has caught Marielle in the act of passing papers to two men in an alley.

I thought this was the best book of the series so far -- maybe because it was more humorous than the other two books.  Even though it dealt with serious issues it interjected quite a bit of humor by playing the two main characters off of each other.

The Conquest of Lady Cassandra by Madeline Hunter

The Conquest of Lady Cassandra by Madeline Hunter - 325 pages
The Fairbourne Quartet #2

Lady Cassandra has been an object of scandal since she refused to marry the man who compromised her during her first season.  Now she lives with her aunt and is determined to protect her from her brother who wants to send her to an asylum.  Her plan means receiving the money from the auction of her jewels.  Unfortunately, Viscount Ambury, one of the buyers, refuses to pay until he gets the provenance of the jewels he purchased.

The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne by Madeline Hunter

The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne by Madeline Hunter - 334 pages

Emma Fairbourne is deteremined to keep her father's auction house running after he dies.  She has a plan to have the auctioneer pretend to be running the house while she does all the work behind the scenes.  The problem is that Darius, the Earl of Southwaite, is a silent partner and he is determined to sell the business.  Now its a battle of wills between the two.

This was a fun historical romance read.  The elements of smuggling and espionage that were included were interesting.  I did think that it took a while for the the earl to figure out what was going on when it seemed fairly obvious, but the author played it well with him not wanting to believe the worst of Emma.