[BOOK REVIEW] The Duke's Perfect Wife by Jennifer Ashley

Title:  The Duke's Perfect Wife

Author:  Jennifer Ashley

Genre: Historical Romance

Year Published: 2012

Number of Pages: 296 pages

Date Read: 3/29/2013

Series: Highland Pleasures #4  

Publisher:  Berkley

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 18+ (Sex Scenes)

After reading the previous “Highland Pleasures” books “The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie,” “Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage” and “The Many Sins of Lord Cameron,” I was excited to see that Jennifer Ashley had a new book from the “Highland Pleasures” series called “The Duke’s Perfect Wife,” staring Hart Mackenzie and I admit, this book took me quite by surprise!

Lady Eleanor Ramsay was once engaged to the Scottish Duke, Hart Mackenzie and was madly in love with him.  Unfortunately, Eleanor broke off her engagement to Hart Mackenzie after the two of them had a fight and it has been years since she had ever spoken to Hart.  One day however, Eleanor mysteriously receives photographs of Hart posing nude and she decides to go to Hart’s home to help him find the person who has been sending her the mysterious photographs.  But, will she restore her love with Hart and maybe help Hart find himself once again?

As always, Jennifer Ashley has done a great job at telling a truly interesting love story that not only has memorable characters, but mystery and drama to go right along with it!  I loved the way that Jennifer Ashley weaved a mystery plot to the story as I was seriously on the edge of my seat trying to figure out who sent Eleanor the nude photographs of Hart and what the ulterior motive was behind this act was.  But, as always, what I loved the most about this novel(as with Jennifer Ashley’s other romance novels) were of the characters themselves.  Eleanor Ramsay was a truly unique kind of heroine as she might talk a lot, especially whenever she is nervous, but it is that aspect of her character that really made her shine throughout this book!  I also loved the fact that Eleanor is an extremely kind hearted person who is willing to put everyone else’s needs before her own and it was fantastic seeing her help Hart discover more about life besides his political career.   As for Hart Mackenzie, he was a truly fantastic hero as he is much nicer and gentle than he really lets on and I enjoy the scenes where he tries to repair his broken relationship with Eleanor while at the same time, trying to discover that there is more to life than just controlling it for his political ideals.  As for Hart's magnificient body, if you have not seen the cover of this book, then you will know that he is seriously one well built hero as he is constantly being described as having a muscular body that just made me gush over every time I read about it!  While Hart and Eleanor were my favorite couple in this book, the character that really stood out in this book was Ian Mackenzie himself!  I loved the fact that Ian was actually trying to help Hart and Eleanor get back together again and I loved the fact that he was being a good friend towards Eleanor throughout this book. Also, the romantic scenes between Hart and Eleanor were hot and sizzling as Hart may have a difficult time confessing his dark secrets towards Eleanor, but he certainly knows how to romance Eleanor in many different ways!

For anyone who does not like reading sex scenes in any novel, this novel has many sex scenes that are explicit, so it might be best to skim over these scenes.  Also, the reason why I gave this book a four star rating is because I often got a little frustrated with the characters.  For one thing, I was practically screaming towards Hart to just let Eleanor discover the real him and stop keeping so many secrets from her.  I understand that Hart was having a hard time trying to vent out his feelings for Eleanor and to not let her know about his dark past, but I just wished that he made his feelings known early on in the book and actually trusted Eleanor with some of his secrets.  Also, the main problem I have with novels where the plot is focused on the couple trying to get back together after they had broken up is that you can not really experience the new and raw feelings of a blossoming romance since that couple’s romance was started early on and sometimes it was hard for me to really get into Hart and Eleanor’s relationship with each other because they already had a relationship with each other before they tried to get back together again.

Overall, “The Duke’s Perfect Wife” is a great story about Hart and Eleanor and I seriously cannot wait to see more from the “Highland Pleasure” series, especially the next book in the series, “The Seduction of Elliot McBride!”

Here are my favorite “Highland Pleasures” starting with my favorite:

1. The Many Sins of Lord Cameron
2. The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie
3. Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage
4. The Duke’s Perfect Wife