The Duke, the Dowager, and the Devious Courtship
(2026)(A book in the Second Bloom Romance series)
A Story by Elena Rosewood
The Duke of Ashbury is a man of iron will, impeccable breeding, and zero patience.
At sixty, the Duke has only one goal left: to secure the succession. Unfortunately, his only son is estranged, living apart from his wife, and refusing to produce an heir. The Duke needs a plan to force a reconciliation, but he lacks the imagination to execute it.
Lady Helena Vane is a hurricane in silk.
At fifty-six, the Dowager Countess is everything the Duke despises: loud, artistic, and constantly accompanied by a swearing parrot. She is also the mother of the Duke’s estranged daughter-in-law. Helena and the Duke have hated one another since a disastrous courtship thirty years ago, but they share a desperate desire for grandchildren.
To reunite their children, they must become the common enemy.
The plan is simple: The Duke and Helena will stage a romance so scandalous, so ill-advised, and so publicly embarrassing that their children will be forced to unite just to stop the wedding.
But as they parade through London feigning adoration—and dodging the Duke’s creditors who are circling the crumbling family estate—the line between performance and reality begins to blur. Between staged swoons and whispered arguments, the Duke realizes that the woman who drives him mad might be the only one who can make him sane. Now, the only thing more terrifying than their children’s disapproval is the possibility that this fake engagement is the truest thing they’ve ever done.
Genre: Historical Romance
At sixty, the Duke has only one goal left: to secure the succession. Unfortunately, his only son is estranged, living apart from his wife, and refusing to produce an heir. The Duke needs a plan to force a reconciliation, but he lacks the imagination to execute it.
Lady Helena Vane is a hurricane in silk.
At fifty-six, the Dowager Countess is everything the Duke despises: loud, artistic, and constantly accompanied by a swearing parrot. She is also the mother of the Duke’s estranged daughter-in-law. Helena and the Duke have hated one another since a disastrous courtship thirty years ago, but they share a desperate desire for grandchildren.
To reunite their children, they must become the common enemy.
The plan is simple: The Duke and Helena will stage a romance so scandalous, so ill-advised, and so publicly embarrassing that their children will be forced to unite just to stop the wedding.
But as they parade through London feigning adoration—and dodging the Duke’s creditors who are circling the crumbling family estate—the line between performance and reality begins to blur. Between staged swoons and whispered arguments, the Duke realizes that the woman who drives him mad might be the only one who can make him sane. Now, the only thing more terrifying than their children’s disapproval is the possibility that this fake engagement is the truest thing they’ve ever done.
Genre: Historical Romance
Used availability for Elena Rosewood's The Duke, the Dowager, and the Devious Courtship