Diana Quincy

This is a fun romp of an enemies to lovers romance! I found it to be exactly what I needed to take my mind off all the horrible current events in the U.S. and the world.

The story starts with His Grace, Anthony Carey, Duke of Strickland in attendance at his stepmother, Deena's, funeral. It has just ended and he is in a hurry to meet with his solicitor as he fully expects to learn at the reading of the will Castle Tremayne finally belongs to him. There was no love lost between him and his stepmother. Strick, as he is known by his friends, feels that she married his father for the money and title of Duchess. He was broken hearted and appalled that his father left the Castle to Deena after his death, breaking the chain of hereditary ownership from Duke of Strickland to Duke of Strickland, father to son, century upon century. He is devoted heart and soul to the Castle and the title of Duke and the responsibilities that go along with that. His father left him most of the land surrounding the Castle and a cottage on the grounds. When the solicitor reads the will, Strick is dumbfounded to learn that once again, he did not inherit the Castle. A woman by the name of Raya has inherited it, who turns out to be an American cousin of Deena's whom she has never met.

Raya walks into the room and the tension and hostile feelings start to flare up immediately between the Duke and her. She is absolutely floored to learn she has inherited a huge, ancient and decrepit Castle from a cousin she has never met. She and her aunt had just arrived for a visit with Deena only to learn that she had died in an accident. She was also not expecting to be accosted rudely by the handsome young Duke. Raya is not shy and she lets the Duke know she doesn't appreciate his rude treatment and immediately offends him by addressing him inappropriately instead of in the proper form of using his title, His Grace.

Things are bound to go worse from there, and they do. It turns out Deena's death, though ruled an accident, is considered suspicious by those who knew her. The antagonism between Raya and Strick continues to grow, along with an undeniable sexual attraction to each other that causes no end of problems for them both. The sparks fly between them from both enmity and animal magnetism! You can literally feel it building up and when the attraction inevitably leads to physical encounters, the steamy sex scenes are well worth the wait!

But as Raya gets more and more involved with setting up some lucrative financial ventures for Castle Tremayne, and Strick reluctantly agrees these are necessary to save the Castle from becoming a crumbling ruin, they find their attraction grows beyond the physical. In the meantime, some sinister happenings occur that seem aimed at Raya and those seem linked to the disappearance of treasures that has been occurring for some time. They mystery heightens and time to unravel it before someone else is killed is running out, as is the time to find out if Raya and Strick can work things out or keep driving each other away, as they tend to do.

It's a great romance, with steamy sex scenes and dark, foreboding mystery in an ancient castle. What else could you ask for!?… (more)