The Duke's Best Friend by Jane Ashford

Tracy

Aug 30

Series: The Duke's Estates, #5

Release Date: September 5, 2023

Miss Kate Meacham has been at loose ends since the death of her grandfather, the late Sir Michael Meacham who was a legend in the Foreign Office. Sir Michael had included Kate in his work and she loved it. But since his death, doors are closed to her, and people she once considered friends have turned their backs on her and she has been reduced to sneaking into events. It is at once such an event that she encounters Henry Deeping, a new agent for the FO and nephew of Brinsley Gerard, a high-ranking member of the office. Kate and Henry have met before and unfortunately, it was not a pleasant experience. But when Kate sees a foreign agent she thought had been apprehended, she is hell-bent on getting answers and Henry is her "in". She proposes a mutually beneficial partnership, she will help him by introducing him to everyone he needs to know and he will be her escort back into the diplomatic circles.

Henry Deeping is a younger son with no real interest in the family's horse breeding business and takes advantage of his uncle's connections to join the foreign office, but he has yet to figure out how he will make his mark. So when Kate suggests a partnership, he is happy to oblige, because she might be high-handed, arrogant, and a bit bossy, but she is well-connected and knowledgable about the "game". Theirs is certainly not a case of love at first sight, but as they work together to uncover the new scheme the foreign agent is up to, Henry begins to realize, there is much more to Kate than he ever imagined and wonders how he can convince her to be his partner for life.

This book was OK. It has a decent mystery and I really liked Henry, and while he might be a bit of a beta hero, I loved that he wasn't a rake or devastatingly handsome, he was just a decent-looking, smart, nice man who was very supportive of Kate, even when she was being difficult (which was more often than not). The book has a lot going on and a lot of secondary characters and at times that becomes distracting making it hard to really "get into" the story. I also think I might have enjoyed this book more if I had read the previous book where they first met. Overall, it was an okay book, but I wouldn't read it again. This is the fifth book in the series and could be read as a standalone, but as I mentioned, I think it would be best to read at least the previous book before reading this one.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*