Blog Tour ‘How the Duke was Won’ by Lenora Bell

I just love a good Historical Romance novel. So when I
was approached to participate in the blog tour of ‘How the Duke was Won’ I was
super excited and I couldn’t wait to start reading. There were so many good
reviews about this read. This book just had to be pretty damn good.

The beginning of ‘How the Duke was Won’ was a little disappointing
to be honest. I expected to be swept away by this book. But the thing was, it
really took me a while to really get into the story. I don’t really know why
exactly, but I didn’t really ‘feel’ this book in the first view chapters. Maybe
it was the way the main character Charlene was payed to convince a duke to marry
her, and was supposed to get her half-sister to take her place, which doesn’t sound
really romantic. I don’t know.. something just didn’t work for me.

But I kept reading and slowly on I began to love this
story. And really love it. I love it so much, that this book earned 5 stars
from me. What happened you ask? Well.. I don’t know really. But the characters
began to come alive for me. I began to believe in their chemistry. And all the
secrets had this mysterious glow to it, that made me want to keep on reading. It
began to have this ‘Pretty Woman’ feel to it. Not entirely, but just enough to
make me fall in love with this story.

The main characters were really great. First there is
Charlene, strong, stubborn and kind, who grew up in a brothel and was supposed
to become a courtesan just as her mother. Which she refuses. See was really a
fun character. She surprised everyone she met, with her strong character and
feisty temper. I really loved reading about her.

And then there was James, the duke. In the beginning I
didn’t really know what to think of him. But he is great. He is not your usual
kind of duke. Nope.. James does things his own way. He works hard and has
theses huge ideas. But unfortunately he has to find a wife first, something he doesn’t
really believe in.

In the end this book completely pulled me in. I loved the
whole courtesan vs rich duke concept. It was just so romantic, which I didn’t
think It would be at the beginning of the book. But it sure did.

Lenora Bell has a nice writing style, which makes this
book easy to follow. And especially for a debut novel, this historical romance
novel is really good. And I definitely recommend it.