Recent Reads {A Duke's Promise}

 A Duke's Promise by Jamie Carie - This is the third and final installment in Carie's Forgotten Castles series, and I had been looking forward to reading it ever since reading the first two novels, The Guardian Duke, and The Forgiven Duke.  At the close of the previous book, Alexandria Featherstone and Gabriel Ravenwood, the Duke of St Easton, were planning their marriage and to continue the search for Alex's parents.  Alex had already led Gabriel on an adventurous chase through Ireland and Iceland, but having finally caught up to her, it didn't take long for the two to fall in love.  As A Duke's Promise opens, they begin their married life together and must learn to completely trust each other and not keep secrets.  Gabriel promises Alex that they will find her parents, and has planned an elaborate honeymoon in France and Italy in order to do that.  But others are hunting for the missing Featherstones (who are professional treasure hunters, and have been searching for the manuscript that describes an invention that may be a powerful weapon) as well, and with unscrupulous motives.  Alex and Gabriel find themselves in several dangerous situations, and make some daring decisions, including one to attempt to travel from France to Italy by hot air balloon!  Although I loved the story, at that point I found myself thinking "you've got to be kidding me" over much of the plot.  It's imaginative, and interesting, and the characters are compelling, but the hot air balloon trip and everything that happened in Italy (no spoilers!) were a bit too far-fetched in my opinion.  I really felt like some almost fantasy-fiction or sci-fi elements had been inserted into historical setting adventure fiction.

In my opinion, this series should be read in order, as the story continues from one novel to the next, and I didn't feel like this one would stand alone very well.  All in all, an enjoyable read, but one that stretched credulity farther than a Regency romance should.

By the same author:  The Guardian Duke; The Forgiven Duke