This book is close to my heart as it follows the imaginary life of a feisty French woman during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. I named the heroine after my paternal grandmother’s maiden name, Cecile Tremblay. My grandmother was a voracious romance reader who only read in French. I was so tickled when I was able to give her copies of my French translations.

She passed away late last year, so she won’t get to see a book featuring “her” heroine, but I think she would have enjoyed reading about her historical “doppleganger”.

The Dueling Duchessby Minerva Spencer

Kensington. (Wicked Women of Whitechapel, Bk. 2).
May 2023. 288p.

ISBN 9781496738110. pap. $16.95

Expert markswoman Cecile Tremblay, a French expat in Regency England, is the new owner of
Farnham’s Fantastical Female Fayre, an all-women circus. It’s a far cry from the life she imagined while
growing up in France, but after the French Revolution took nearly everything from her—and an unscrupulous relative in England finished the job—she’s not unhappy with the life she’s made for herself. Her only regret is the brief affair she had with Gaius Darlington, the darling of the ton, which ended disastrously. Then Guy’s life takes a turn when a long-lost relative strips him of his title, and he turns his attention to winning her back—the only woman he’s ever loved. Cecile’s not about to forgive and forget, though; she’s going to make Guy work to earn her love.

VERDICT Readers who enjoyed The Boxing Baroness won’t want to miss Spencer’s sequel. Indeed, anyone who appreciates strong,
unconventional heroines—and the Regency-era heroes who know (or at least manage to learn) better than to take them for granted.

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