This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Published by St. Martin's Press
Released on February 2, 2016
Pages: 198
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
While I wasn’t really into the first book based on Colt King, I really wanted Duke King’s story. You get a hint that he went to prison, but not really sure why other than it was a little shady what he was accused of doing. Then there is the whole secret kid while I have been gone that he just finds out about. So I knew a little going in, but not much in the way of details.
Duke King and his brothers never really had a good life growing up. Their mother passed away and their father was a drunk that caused an accident the town couldn’t forgive. Then their dad up and leaves. Duke is forced to raise them alone for a bit before their aunt takes them in to her life. Well, she isn’t the nicest lady. Now ten years later, she’s in the hospital and has called the boys home to Destiny.
Duke King was never really a trouble maker no matter what everyone thought. He did his best to feed his brothers and take care of him, but he was labeled all kinds of bad stuff. With not much of a future, he in now way was considered good enough for the judge’s daughter, Grace Truman. At an early age Grace knew Duke was her one and only, but convincing him was a different matter. She knew he would never hurt her and all the dreams her parents had for her were their own. Duke pushes her away wanting what was best for her and it wasn’t him.
When Duke sees a young man slap Grace, he intervenes and is sentence to prison for attempted murder. The judge and sheriff throw the book at Duke and he is sent away never to hear from Grace again. Unbeknownst to both of them, they were being kept away and Grace sent letters he never received. Important letters like telling Duke she is pregnant.
So we pick up in the future with Duke back in Destiny and Grace having moved back to take care of her parents. The jig is up and Duke knows he has a son. No way is he leaving to be an absentee parent. He wants to know his son and can’t quite forgive Grace for hiding him all these years. Grace on the other hand is afraid of losing her son to Duke, but also falls right back in love with Duke.
This isn’t a terribly long story and Duke and Grace do fight a lot, but they are also in bed bumping uglies….without protection….every time. I wanted to bang my head on the wall for them. She’s even a school nurse for goodness sake. I knew what was going to happen from sex scene number one.
You get to see the same scenes that you saw Colt in a few times, but from Duke’s perspective. The same set up of moving back to Destiny. Even the famous roll-up scene comes back from the first book.
Overall, I like Duke so much more that Colt. This book had some holes, but overall you felt these two were handed a raw deal when they were young. They needed to walk carefully, make love often and become a family. Now I can’t wait for the last brother’s story. It’s bound to be a dosey with a school teacher!
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Literary Pickers: Sink
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Shari
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My cousin’s name is Duke and he was thought to be a bad boy. Must be the name. Haha! Glad the second book was much better for you. Wow, they really did get a bad deal the way people interfered on the baby thing and he got sentenced so harshly for protecting her.
Yep, Duke probably had murder on his mind when he was beating down the sheriff’s son for slapping and trying to grope Grace, but the sheriff and the judge went out of their way to make him go to prison rather than just a battery charge.
Duke is hard on the outside, but all sweet and gooey on the inside. I really liked him!
Hmmm on the holes in the story
The biggest hole in the story I was talking about was not using protection when they made love. Both should have known better since they already had one kid, but they really weren’t thinking.