Stevie‘s review of The Governess Game (Girl Meets Duke, Book 2) by Tessa Dare
Historical Romance published by Avon 28 Aug 18
When I read the first book in Tessa Dare’s latest series, I was greatly entranced by the trio of eccentric unmarried ladies who make a brief appearance in one chapter and hoped they would get their own stories at some point. It would appear my wish is to be granted, at least in the case of Alexandra Mountbatten, who ‘sells the time,’ as she describes her profession of setting the clocks of more affluent households than her own to Greenwich Mean Time. Like her two best friends, Alexandra is occasionally given to flights of fantasy, though she tries harder than the others to keep her imagination under control, and she has invented stories for herself about a man she – quite literally – bumped into very briefly in a bookshop the previous year. She is horror-struck, however, when she meets him again in the course of her work, only to be mistaken for a prospective new governess to his two unruly wards. Especially when the man in question turns out to be a rake of the highest order.
Chase Reynaud never wanted to be the heir to a dukedom, and he certainly didn’t want all the responsibilities that have fallen to him now the present duke is incapacitated. Blaming himself for the death of the previous heir, he is determined not to marry, in order that the title will pass to a man he believes to be far more worthy of it upon his death. In the meantime, Chase is taking care of everything as best he can, including the two orphan girls that have been foisted upon him and who now seem determined to frighten away every governess that Chase manages to hire. Unfortunately, when he mistakes his visitor, the woman he remembers bumping into while trying to buy schoolbooks for his wards, for a job applicant, the girls’ behaviour, along with his own ineptitude, scares her off before he’s even finished outlining what he wants from her.
Shaken by her encounter with Chase, Alexandra mistakes the way to her next appointment; then a chance encounter with a riverboat results in the loss of her chronometer – and consequentially her livelihood. Not knowing where else to go, she returns to Chase and accepts the post of governess to the two girls, who turn out to be less wicked than they are afraid of being moved to yet another home and possibly separated from each other in the process.
I loved, loved, loved the ways in which Alexandra seeks to gain the girls’ trust and then to educate them by inventing games and adventures for them to take part in with her. I was vastly amused by all the occasions when the three of them, both deliberately and unwittingly, manage to sabotage Chase’s plans to entertain women of questionable morals in the room he has been fitting out for the purpose.
In the end, of course, Alexandra and Chase realise that their path lies with each other rather than separately, although not before various characters from the previous book have attempted to intervene. I was more than happy to revisit all of them again and look forward to following everyone’s adventures in the next book very soon.
Grade: A
Summary:
He’s been a bad, bad rake—and it takes a governess to teach him a lesson
The accidental governess
After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don’t need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud: duke’s heir in the streets and devil in the sheets. The ladies of London have tried—and failed—to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart… without risking her own.
The infamous rake
Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule: no attachments. When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to give her an education—in pleasure. That should prove he can’t be tamed. But Alexandra is more than he bargained for: clever, perceptive, passionate. She refuses to see him as a lost cause. Soon the walls around Chase’s heart are crumbling… and he’s in danger of falling, hard.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
