Guest Review: How To Dance With A Duke - Manda Collins

How To Dance With A Duke by Manda Collins
Series:  Ugly Ducklings #1
Release Date:  January 31, 2012
Publisher:   St. Martin's Press
Page Count:  400 
Source:  NetGalley
Buy the book at: Amazon  

What’s a wallflower to do when she’s suddenly in need of a husband? Use all the pluck and moxie she can muster to get what she wants…

Miss Cecily Hurston would much rather explore the antiquities of Egypt than the uncharted territory of marriage. But the rules of her father’s exclusive academic society forbid her entrance unless she weds one of its members. To clear her ailing father’s name of a scandalous rumor, Cecily needs to gain admission into the Egyptian Club—and is willing to marry any old dullard to do it.

Lucas Dalton, Duke of Winterson, is anything but dull. He’s a dashing and decorated war hero determined to help Cecily—even if that means looking the other way when she claims the dance card of Amelia Snow, this season’s most sought-after beauty. But Lucas has a reason for wanting Cecily to join the Egyptian Club: His brother went missing during one of Lord Hurston’s expeditions to Egypt. An alliance with the explorer’s bluestocking daughter could bring Lucas closer to the truth about what happened…or it could lead him to a more dangerous love than either he or Cecily could have imagined….

Cecily Hurston, the daughter a famous the famous Egyptian explorer, Lord Hurston, is on a mission to find her father’s travel journals from his latest expeditions from Egypt. The only problem is her father was struck down with apoplexy on the journey back. Now she feels it is her duty to translate his journals, having been educated in ancient languages by her godmother, even though her father did not approve of her being an educated woman. Then there is the matter of her father’s assistant, Will Dalton, going missing during the expedition. All of London believes it was her father who caused the disappearance of Will. This makes her want to get a hold of her father’s journals even more, in hopes to clear his name. And that is when she runs into the Duke of Winterson, while she is being thrown out of the Egyptian Club. Her father, the president of the Egyptian Club, created a rule that only members and wives of members may enter the club. Cecily, being neither, decides to break free from being a wallflower and find a husband from the Egyptian Club.

Lucas Dalton, the Duke of Winterson and elder brother of Will Dalton, first encounters Cecily when she is kicking the door of the Egyptian Club. He is immediately fascinated by this woman, but once he finds out she is the daughter of Lord Hurston, he accuses her for the disappearance of his brother. He later regrets storming away and realizes that he needs her help to figure out what happened to his brother on the expedition. He finds her at the Duke and Duchess of Bewle’s ball with a “stolen” dance card filled with members of the Egyptian Club. He is determined to have Cecily help him find out what happened to his brother.

Cecily is an independent woman who will not take no for an answer. This sometimes got a bit annoying, and made me dislike the character a bit. Then throughout the story she may do something to redeem herself then the next minute she would do something else to make me dislike her. She is afraid to get her heart broken and so she tries to avoid letting anyway in, especially Lucas. Every time Lucas came close to breaking down that wall, she would re-build it and try to make it stronger.

Lucas, a decorated war hero, was a man that you can’t help but like. Lucas has an almost instant attraction to Cecily, but he kept trying to convince himself that the time was not right. He needed to keep his head clear to find out what happened to his brother. The more time he spent with Cecily, he knew the he needed to capture this woman’s heart whether she wanted him to or not.

The mystery Cecily and Lucas set out to figure out behind the disappearance of Will Hurston kept me engaged in the story and not want to put it down. I was able to get past the personality of Cecily and still enjoy the rest of the mystery.

I am excited to read the next book in the Ugly Ducklings trilogy by Manda Collins.

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