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. 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 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.
| Title: | The Governess Game |
| Author: | Tessa Dare |
| Series: | Girl Meets Duke (Book 2) |
| Pages: | 384 |
| Category / Genre(s): | Historical |
| Trope(s): | Governess Romance Opposites Attract |
| Point of View: | Third Person Past Tense Dual Viewpoints (Hero & Heroine) |
| Location: | London, England |
| Setting: | Regency (1817) |
| HEA: | ✔️ |
| Release Date: | 28th August, 2018 |
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Absorbing and exciting story
Tessa Dare always write an absorbing and exciting story filled with highs and lows that ultimately lead to a satisfying and rewarding happily ever after.
This is the second book in Dare’s Girl Meets Duke series (after The Duchess Deal and before The Wallflower Wager). The series follows four unusual heroines as they each find their own happy ending. Despite being part of this series – and the obvious inclusion of the other three girls and one husband – this book stands completely alone and you don’t have to have read any other book to read this one. Although of course I’m going to suggest that you do!
This story doesn’t meander into the start of the tale – it gets there and it gets there quickly. That sets the tone for the whole of the book. I couldn’t put it down and damned if I wanted to.
Chase is, I suppose, a bit of an unusual hero in that he’s not brooding and angsty. Sure, he’s got issues, but he’s got a sense of humour, a playful side and a very lusty nature. I shouldn’t be surprised that his opposite, Alex, is just as unusual. She’s a penniless clock setter turned governess, of Spanish and American parents, born and raised on a boat – which may or may not have been piratical.
I loved the pair together. They sparred, they laughed and they had sexy times together – and everyone knows how much I love the sexy times. Sadly, that’s also where this book dropped a star. In the beginning, the chemistry sizzled between Chase and Alex, giving me that lovely jump in the tummy kind of feeling. They got intimate without actually being intimate aaaaaand…. suddenly two weeks had passed and we were being told that the pair had been having fun this whole time. Without me.
“I loved the pair together. They sparred, they laughed and they had sexy times together – and everyone knows how much I love the sexy times.”
Okay, fine – I have an imagination – I could work with this. And then the grand old consummation came… and it was uncomfortable and awkward. For Chase and Alex and for me. I know that sex isn’t all popping cherries then popping the champagne, but come on, I don’t read romance novels for real life. Especially not real life sex.
To be honest, those missed two weeks really seemed to change the tone of the book. I felt I’d missed out, not just on the sexy times but on the relationship building with the girls, and the growing feelings between Alex and Chase. Oh, I believed everything when the end came around – and I was really happy for it – I just wished I had more knowledge of how things got there.
And speaking of the girls – I don’t really care for children in books (or children in real life either, really) but Rosamund and Daisy (and Millicent) were really quite funny. The continual death of Millicent was particularly hilarious. (It’s okay – she survives in the end!)
Please don’t get me wrong – I really loved this book and practically devoured the thing. I just wanted a teensy bit more of the build up to the finale. But Tessa Dare has reaffirmed her position as one of my emerging favourite historical romance novelists and I cannot wait for the next book to see whether Nic or Penny gets her man.
Tessa Dare is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fourteen historical romance novels and five novellas. Her books have won numerous accolades, including Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® award (twice!) and the RT Book Reviews Seal of Excellence. Booklist magazine named her one of the “new stars of historical romance,” and her books have been contracted for translation in more than a dozen languages.
A librarian by training and a booklover at heart, Tessa makes her home in Southern California, where she lives with her husband, their two children, and a trio of cosmic kitties.
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Girl Meets Duke Series:
1 Comment
The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare - Jo Reads Romance
20 February 2021 at 10:58 am[…] We don’t learn much about her in this book but I’m still keen to read her own tale – The Governess Game – which comes out in August 2018. I’m assuming that Nicola and Penny – also […]