How To Love A Duke in Ten Days (Devil You Know Book 1)

I can't remember when I've ever given a 1 star review. I certainly don't give poor reviews lightly. If I could give it less than 1, I would. Let me open by the absolute shock that this has good reviews. I couldn't wait to read this book because of all the good reviews. I'm not sure what's more disturbing, the fact that a writer thinks like this or that readers enjoy this.Let me count the ways this is a disturbing and failed hist rom:* Language: throughout the book, the language is extremely vulgar. As many as 5 curse words per page, all unnecessary and offensive with no place in a historical romance. A contemporary romance? Sure. Historical? No. As frequent as they were, it was like reading a text message from a millennial teenage boy rather than the thoughts of a hero.*Prologue needed to be better handled. It attempted to pull the reader in by pure shock value, but there was no need for the explicit details of a ravishment in the opening pages. It was sick and twisted.*The interactions between the heroine and the females were always awkward. They talked like pre-teens rather than adults, and the heroine constantly eyed her friend's "voluptuous curves" and had to think of her as the "voluptuous" one every time she thought of her. I assumed from this that the heroine preferred females. I'm fairly certain this book was written by a man. Either this is a pen name or the woman had a male ghost writer. There are far too many indications it was written by a man rather than a woman. This was one of the many indications.* There was way too much violence. I'm a little baffled why all the reviews that remarked on the violence have since disappeared. There were several the last time I looked, but now they've mysteriously been removed. Hmm. Well, those reviews were spot on. This was a horribly violent book. All of the men, especially the hero, are excited by violence. The hero even beats a man near to death and is rock hard from the thrill of the beating. It mentions quite a few times he wants to bathe in blood and that he longs to watch the life leave a man's eyes, all while being thrilled by it. This is revolting. I saw little difference between the hero and the ravisher from the opening. The similarities were far too great.* When the hero meets the friends, he's eyeing them all lasciviously, undressing them each, with no special eye for the heroine. He just wants them all. Not a love story.* The descriptions started out as being good, but soon it became clear the author handpicked a few words and phrases from the thesaurus and just repeated them over and over and over again. More often than not, it was clearly a copy and paste of the exact same wording and paragraph.* Most of the plot was a repetition of the beginning. How many times do we need the girls rehashing everything. This was one of the reasons the book was ridiculously long. It just repeated itself time and again.* Huge historical inaccuracies, including misused terms and titles.* While no one can judge someone else's trauma to being ravished, the heroine's behavior and reaction was far more akin to someone who suffered recently, not 10 years in the past. This gave a fake feel to a real trauma that was insulting rather than sympathetic to those of us who have suffered.*No heat between the hero and heroine. Their characterization is flat. The heroine is a fidgeting and stuttering klutz who is just awkward and not at all romantic or intelligent. The hero does nothing but lust after violence in unsettling ways. Being in his head was most unpleasant, not only for his love of violence, but for all the vulgarity in his thoughts. The man needed a therapist, not a starring role in a plot. He was bloodthirsty in the most disturbing ways.* The misunderstanding between the hero and heroine is not only overdone and overused in this genre, but the way it was handled was physically impossible and made it quite clear this book was written by a man. The hero realizes she's had a lover because his finger never meets the great wall of virtue. Seriously? Are you kidding me? There is no concept of basic female anatomy here.* The heroine was clearly an alcoholic, which was quite off putting. She was constantly drinking whiskey, always with a glass or craving a glass or downing glass after glass. The constant craving spoke volumes of her addiction.* Most of the book was internal dialogue that repeated itself. 500 pages should have realistically been about 250 if the repetitive internal dialogue had been deleted and all the 50 Shades of Grey nastiness was deleted. The intimate scenes lasted for entire chapters, repeated themselves time and again, did nothing to move the plot forward, and were disturbingly vulgar. There were two scenes where the hero is taking care of himself while eavesdropping on her. This book is just depraved and foul.* Nothing historical about this. The language was all modern. Add that to the inaccuracies and other issues, and I can't sort out why it's in the hist rom section. It's contemporary erotica, not hist rom. Shelve it next to EL James because that's the reader who is going to enjoy this tripe.*The physical descriptions of the hero all match a young Arnold Schwarzenegger or The Hulk with bulging veins visible over massive muscles on top of muscles. It's not a pretty sight. Funnily enough, the descriptions didn't start off that way. He started off looking rather normal. As the story progresses, he gets bulgier and veinier, so he went from an average guy to Schwarzenegger in 10 days.*There's no sense of pacing. Chapters will be packed with weeks' worth of activities, but then it'll suddenly claim it's only been one day.*Relationship never develops. They never show a real trust for each other, although in the epilogue, we're told they trust each other. We never see that. Right through the climax, they still don't trust each other. There's never any showing of love. Two characters lust after each other, but there's no getting to know each other, talking to each other, or anything. They just copulate every other chapter then call it love in 10 days. Totally unconvincing.* The mystery that opens the story disappears completely from the plot until the last 50 pages where it resurfaces with not only an already known and predictable villain, but a chapter that is nothing but the ridiculous evil monologue that goes on and on where the villain has to explain his/her masterplan before offing the person.

when I heard that Kerrigan Byrne is starting a new series of historical romances I was more than eager to give them a try :) I am a huge fan of her writing style so I was curious to see how this particular story will go... and I was definitely not disappointed... :) although fair warning, it will be an emotional read for sure, and let me explain why...Even though it's not explicitly said in the synopsis of the book, it happens in the prologue and I feel the need to put a trigger warning for rape and sexual abuse for you guys, because being surprised by a certain scene may be very hard for some people... the "darkness in her past" that's mentioned briefly in the blurb about Alexandra, our heroine, happens on the pages of the book at the very beginning... it's not a very long scene, nor it's very descriptive, but nonetheless it's very hard to read, that's why I wanted to mention it in my review, so you might prepare yourselves, or just skip some parts... because of that event, and what happened very shortly after that I won't spoil for you, the whole book has more serious tones... it touches upon how she handles that very traumatic event and how that doesn't stop her from achieving a lot of things... yes, she still deals with consequences of how that horrible night still affects her, but we see her fighting for a better life... Alexandra is a remarkable heroine to read about... smart and strong but definitely flawed as well... she makes mistakes and can be very stubborn... she learns a few things along the way and have a beautiful character development arch throughout this story... and let's not forget about our hero, Piers... I honestly have to say that he surprised me in the best possible way... don't get me wrong, he's not easy to love, especially at the beginning... unless you love that broody, mysterious and silent type... and I know there are a few fans of that type of heroes out there ;) and just like in other Kerrigan Byrne's stories, the hero is flawed as well... but once I got to know him more, I absolutely fell in love with him... :)This is a book that's actually pretty hard to review... please, don't get me wrong, I loved it to pieces and I hope all of you will give it a chance... it's just hard to write about, because on the one hand I want to talk and talk and talk all about it, but on the other hand, I don't want to spoil you anything, because I believe it's better to get into it with less informations... so forgive me for being a bit more on the vague side for this review :) this book has one of my favourite tropes ever in stories, which is marriage of convenience... on the other hand, basically the whole book lasts about ten days, which suggests a pretty fast romance, and I am not the biggest fan of those... and yet, it works so well together :) and I think the main reason for that is the absolutely incredible writing style of Kerrigan Byrne... I swear, that woman works magic every single time I read one of her stories... you want proof? here you go: after reading one of her books in the past, I immediately bought all of her other novels available at the time... yes, you read that right.. all of them :) and now I am always looking forward to whatever she will write next :) this particular story was yet another gem from her... and yes, it was an emotional read that will hit you in all the feels, but it had some lighter and funny moments as well :) it was fast paced and with quite a few surprises along the way... I am definitely looking forward to the sequels all about Alexandra's two best friends... :) definitely give this one a try :)

I love historical romances. I’ve read all of this author’s books and liked them, even loved some. I was excited when this new book was released. But I decided long ago that I’m not going to read novels for entertainment that contain scenes of rape. This book had an intriguing premise - a marriage of convenience that turns to love. But it started with a scene of child rape in the prologue. So I bailed out before the prologue ended, and I won’t go back. I will look forward to the author’s next book.

This book was recommended to me by a fellow book lover after I told her I had enjoyed a different book by Kerrigan Byrne (Seducing a Stranger, in case you're interested) How to Love A Duke... is the first book in the Devil You Know series featuring three female friends who call themselves The Red Rogues.Lady Alexandra Lane needs to marry to continue paying a blackmailer who knows a devastating secret from her past. Piers Atherton, Duke of Redmayne, also known as the Terror of Torcliff, is about to enter into a marriage on convenience with one of Alexandra's friends but is tempted by the bridesmaid, not the bride.There is a definite content warning for sexual assault at the beginning of this book. Lady Alex has suffered terrifying ordeal in her youth and has been paying to cover it up ever since. While I think this situation was handled well, and served to shape her character and the romance with Piers, I do think it may be upsetting for some readers.Piers Atherton begins as your run of the mill, misunderstood, scarred hero but soon shows he has a hidden, deeply caring side to him. He has been hurt in love before and I got all the warm and fuzzies watching him care for Alex, especially once he realises she has suffered some trauma in the past and very gently helps her to overcome it.I absolutely loved this book. Both of the main characters were beautifully developed and the romance between the couple grows so naturally. There was heaps of mystery and intrigue as they work to discover who is behind the attempts on their lives. It keeps you guessing as to the culprit and their motivation right to the end.I also loved the secondary characters in the book and am very excited to read the stories of the other girls in The Red Rogues.

Piers may not be perfect, but he is one yummy broody hero – perfect for Alexandra (Alex), who has endured more than enough over the years (tortured by a trauma and its consequences). Secrets, distrust and danger threaten the passionate bond these two are forming, but those out to harm and destroy them underestimate Pier’s and Alex’s will and desire to protect one another.Loved the idea of The Red Rogues, and wish the author had given us more snippets into the antics of Alex and her two best friends Francesca and CeciliaMy impatience to read this was so justified, overall this was a delectable little morsel, especially the last 38% or so – it had my emotions ensnared and my nose deep in my kindle.Really don’t want to wait until 2020 for the next book in the series.Potential Triggers: Rape (occurs early in the book and had me aching for the heroine). Also, blackmail and attempted murder (on multiple occasions) are strands of the tale.

Wow what a story. It pulled me in from the first page and I couldn't out it down. Dealing with some dark issues with such honesty and depth of feeling had me grabbing for the tissues. A fabulous, lusty and sometimes heart wrenching story. If I could give it 10 stars I would. 2020 can't come quick enough for the next in the series.

I don't know how to give 1\2 a star as I wanted to give 4.5. I loved this story but maybe I wished that our heroine had felt able to be honest with the hero just a little earlier in the book hence I docked half a star. But a great story.

After a very dark start it’s a rollercoaster of a read