Much Ado About Dutton by Claudia Dain

Much Ado About Dutton by Claudia Dain.
It is part of the More Courtesan Chronicles series which comes after the Courtesan Chronicles series.

Two years ago, Lord Dutton made it clear to widow Anne Warren that he wanted her.  Unfortunately, Dutton only decided this after learning that Anne's mother had been a courtesan and she made it clear that she didn't want anything to do with him and soon marries a proper gentleman.  Dutton drowns his sorrows in a liquor bottle.

Two years have passed and Dutton is sober and Anne is a widow again.  Dutton is determined to get Anne into his bed where Anne is now willing to be, but on her terms.  Will they be able to agree to the terms of their relationship?

After getting any book from NetGalley, I go to the author page to see if it is a part of a series. After seeing how closely related these books were, I made my way through the series to get ready for this book. Some books in a series can be read on their own without any confusion of the story line. I don't believe that this is case with this series.  The whole series (except this one which jumps ahead 2 yrs.) takes place in about 4 weeks of time. There are so many different characters in the series, that had I not read all of the previous books, I would have been thoroughly confused (even having read them all, it was at times confusing to keep all the characters straight in my head).

Having said all of that, I have thoroughly enjoyed this series and this particular story. The series follows Lady Dalby (Sophia), a former courtesan, who plays matchmaker throughout the course of the books. Most of the characters show up throughout the whole series, so we are able to see glimpses of their lives too. 

We are introduced to  Lord Dutton and Anne Warren in the first book (The Courtesan's Daughter) and their story carries on throughout the rest of the series coming to a conclusion with this one.  We know from reading the other books that Anne is attracted to Dutton, but needs to make a good marriage because of her background. After her husband dies, she knows that she can now go to Dutton on an even playing field. She is no longer the daughter of a courtesan, but Lady Staverton. Anne turns the tables on Dutton and makes him dance to her tune. 

Thank goodness this series is continuing. The next book in the series is Taming Miss Grey which is about Sophia's niece. There is a scene in Much Ado About Dutton that leads us to the stories of the Ardenzy twins. You can find there stories HERE on Amazon (only $0.99). I'll be reading those tonight!

I've given this story a four out of five only for the fact that is was really hard to keep everyone straight in my mind.  I LOVE this series, but it would have been a bit more enjoyable had I not had to keep so many characters straight in my head!


You can purchase this book at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Thanks go out to NetGalley and Aspendawn Books for a copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.


post signature

No comments:

Post a Comment