Betting on a Duke’s Heart

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and I am voluntarily reviewing it.

Front let me just say that I read this book while I was sick. So did my illness affect my enjoyment of this historical? Did it add to my confusion at times that I would have to read and re-read some areas as I couldn’t understand them? I really don’t know. All I can say is I struggled to read this.

It seemed to me that both parties were attracted to each other but it was like each wanted to get or make over the other person. I even had to set this aside and read other books and kept coming back to it as I rarely never finish reading a book. There is always something that will make a book change the direction and make the struggle at times worth it. It will make me really see the struggle that the author put the characters through.

This story is told in a dual POV format. That normally helps me to fully understand the characters but not in this case. I was confused at several points. Once Dina said that she enjoyed the outdoors and her mother taught her how to fly on the banyan tree roots. Then she says that her mother ignored her and only looked forward to her father’s return.

Again while I struggled with this book in confusion and not connecting to the characters, that may have been me being ill, not the author’s work.

The problem with horses and dukes.

Dina is 24, is mad for travels and translations. Her father has promised her hand (and a horse) to Aetius, a duke.
Aetius, at best, is a dunder-head. He assumes Dina wants to marry him, a duke. It was very frustrating.
Dina is determined to put him off, another horse mad man, chasing a dream. She hopes to be first, not second after a horse, or a dog.
Let the games begin.