Review: Duels & Deception by Cindy Anstey

Duels & Deception by Cindy Anstey
Historical, Mystery, Young Adult, Romance
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Synopsis
Miss Lydia Whitfield, heiress to the family fortune, has her future entirely planned out. She will run the family estate until she marries the man of her late father’s choosing, and then she will spend the rest of her days as a devoted wife. Confident in those arrangements, Lydia has tasked her young law clerk, Mr. Robert Newton, to begin drawing up the marriage contracts. Everything is going according to plan.

Until Lydia—and Robert along with her—is kidnapped. Someone is after her fortune and won’t hesitate to destroy her reputation to get it. With Robert’s help, Lydia strives to keep her family’s good name intact and expose whoever is behind the devious plot. But as their investigation delves deeper and their affections for each other grow, Lydia starts to wonder whether her carefully planned future is in fact what she truly wants…

What I thought
I read this book as a buddy read with the wonderful Brittany from Perfectly Tolerable. If you have not checked, her out you really should. She also reviewed this book and you can find her review here.

Before Lydia’s father passed, he arranged for her to marry their neighbor, Lord Aldershot.  Lydia has accepted this and is willing to marry him because it was what her father wanted.  When issues arise with the estate Lydia and her uncle do not agree about the crops they should be planting.  Her father’s lawyer sends Mr. Robert Newton, his clerk, to handle the issue. After they resolve the crop issue Lydia asks him to begin the process of drawing up the marriage contracts. Lydia is a business-oriented person and you see she has resigned herself to a marriage of tolerance rather than love.

When Lynda goes to sign the marriage contract she is kidnapped and subsequently so is Mr. Newton Since the kidnappers only need her they through Robert out and hold Lydia in a barn for no other purpose than ruining her.  Luckily for Lydia, her friends step up and she is saved from being ruined.  But the question remains who would do this?

I have the same issue she had with this story the amount of “wool-gathering” aka daydreaming that happens.  I mean yes it happens but not mid-conversation. As much as it happens in this story. Other than that, it was a good story that I really enjoyed.

My Rating: /5Follow me on other platforms:
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