Gayle Callen, The Duke in Disguise

The Duke in Disguise

Gayle Callen

Avon, Jul 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0060784121

In 1844, the Duke of Thanet hires Meriel Shelby as a governess to his six-year-old son, Stephen especially while he is away recuperating from an illness. When the Duke returns home after being away for quite some time, Meriel is confused by her reaction to him as she thinks he is a hunk, but knows he is a womanizer so she plans to ignore her attraction to him.

She also believes the Duke is behaving differently as he spends quality time with his offspring, something he seemed loathed to do before yet enjoys now especially when Stephen is with Meriel. Thus the Duke devastates her plan to avoid him. As she falls in love, Richard O'Neill ironically thinks back to the vow he made to his dying brother Cecil, the real Duke, to not reveal their masquerade pretense in order to keep Stephen safe from cousin Charles; finally in love he has to hide his true identity from his beloved.

THE DUKE IN DISGUISE, the second Sisters of Willow Pond novel, is a fabulous early Victorian romance starring two likable protagonists and a precocious (perhaps too much so) preadolescent. The storyline centers on the attraction between the governess and the phony duke as she struggles with the enigma of the whys of now in love with him and his so different behavior while he internally wars with his desire to reveal to her the truth in spite of his pledge. Sub-genre readers will enjoy this fine historical and seek out the previous winner, THE LORD NEXT DOOR (the tale of Meriel's sister).

Harriet Klausner