Between the Duke and the Deep Blue Sea by Sophia Nash

Historical Romance

Between the Duke and the Deep Blue Sea is the first book in a new series by Sophia Nash.  I received an ARC of the book from Amazon Vine.

Alex Barclay, the new 9^th Duke of Kress provided the liquor for a bachelor party attended by several dukes and the Prince Regent.  All of the attendees had a night to remember except they had so much to drink they could not remember.   This is the event that starts the Royal Entourage series and the first book is Alex Barclay’s story.

It seems that the group’s good time was witnessed by many and chronicled by a reporter resulting in a groundswell of public outrage.  Because Alex provided the liquor he is the first to be punished.  He is banished to his country estate, told to fortify the estate and marry a heiress to shove up his fortune.  When he is almost home he comes across a woman, Roxanne Vanderhaven, clinging to a cliff face.  Her husband, a local peer, left her to die and Alex arrived in just the nick of time to save her.  The story develops from there. 

I loved the first part of the book.  The dialog was filled with understated humor.  The situation was set up for a comedy of errors.  The characters were varied and had the possibility of being interesting.  With all of that it just did not work well for me after the first 100 pages.  I have always said that in a romance we all know the destination so it is the journey that is important.  In this case the journey kept changing and it was about 100 pages too long, In addition there was not enough character development for the characters to work for me.  All in all, the entire book was a disappointment.

Avon Books published Between the Duke and the Deep Blue Sea by Sophia Nash in 2012.