{"id":5521,"date":"2024-06-16T20:30:45","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T20:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=5521"},"modified":"2024-06-16T20:30:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T20:30:45","slug":"review-the-lords-desperate-pledge-by-kate-archer-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/06\/16\/review-the-lords-desperate-pledge-by-kate-archer-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Lord’s Desperate Pledge by Kate Archer (2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\"\"Another five star read, although it was a close run thing. The first few chapters were, frankly, a bit dull (the season again? Really?), but once the hero showed up to play piquet everything livened up nicely.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: Hayes, Viscount Ashworth, is the heir to a dukedom, but it\u2019s not a dukedom in very good heart. He\u2019s managed to turn things around by his skill at cards, and he\u2019s not about to be distracted from his purpose by anyone, least of all a bucolic chit like Lily Farnsworth. But when she tells him that she can beat him at piquet – his own speciality! – he sets out to take her down a peg or two. He\u2019s astonished and mortified, not to say angry, when she proves her point. How can a female possibly play piquet so well?<\/p>\n

Little does he know that Lily has grown up in even more dire financial straits than he has, and has had to use her quick wits and formidable memory to win at cards to keep her family afloat, just as he has. She\u2019s slowly accumulated enough to fund a season in London for herself, with the object of securing a good match, that is, a husband rich enough to save the family from penury. She doesn\u2019t aspire to a dukedom, thank you very much, and besides, Lord Ashworth and his friends are determined to thwart their conspiring fathers and avoid matrimony, so he\u2019s out of the equation\u2026 isn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n

Well, we all know the answer to that. This is another in a splendid series wherein the heroes, heirs to dukedoms every one, slowly succumb to the charms of the most unlikely lady, despite their best endeavours. The books are completely free of hanky-panky, in fact, there\u2019s no kiss in this one until the very end. The hero is not quite as appealing as Lord Lockwood from book 2, in fact he starts off unspeakably arrogant and only slowly comes to appreciate the heroine\u2019s skill. Lily herself is the sort of heroine who is pleasant to read about – the usual resourceful, feisty type – but will probably be quickly forgotten. The aunt who says whatever comes into her mind is quite fun, however, there\u2019s a spunky street urchin for Lily to rescue (shades of Heyer\u2019s Arabella there), and the villain is suitably villainous, and comes to a very appropriate sticky end, after giving both hero and heroine a moment to shine and display their courage (and the hero\u2019s strong arms, naturally).<\/p>\n

My over-sensitive pedant-o-meter wasn\u2019t tested quite as much as previously. I\u2019m getting a little tired of the ubiquitous dance cards (a Victorian fixture) and of gentlemen riding to a ball (and thereby arriving in breeches and boots, smelling of horse, and having to change into full evening dress on arrival – not very practical). Also, \u2018rube\u2019 raised my eyebrows. I thoroughly disapproved of Lily\u2019s aunt disappearing to the card room at a ball and leaving the poor girl to her own devices. A chaperon was supposed to watch over her charge at all times, and steer her towards suitable partners, and away from the unsuitable ones, not to mention protecting her from predatory men who might compromise her.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t quite as much rip-roaring fun as book 2, and the here-we-are-in-the-season-again moments were a bit tedious, but once it got going it was very entertaining. The card games were terrific, and I particularly liked Lord Dalton acting sensibly for a change, and steering Lord Ashworth away from a scandalous confrontation with Lily. They had this charming conversation afterwards:<\/p>\n

\u2018The Lords Ashworth and Dalton trotted through the dark streets after departing Lady Montague\u2019s card party.
\n\u201cAs you mean to be silent,\u201d Lord Dalton said, \u201cI will carry on both sides of the conversation. You say to me, thank you for pulling me out of Lady Montague\u2019s house before I said anything else outrageous. Then, I say to you, you\u2019re very welcome friend, but you must watch your tongue. The girl has a father, and perhaps even brothers, it will not do well to accuse her of trickery, which is tantamount to an accusation of cheating.\u201d
\n\u201cYou saw it for yourself!\u201d Hayes muttered.
\n\u201cI did not, actually,\u201d Lord Dalton said. \u201cI walked away after she trounced you on the first play. I occupied myself with a cold ham until it seemed the game was coming to an end.\u201d
\n\u201cNobody is that good,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cNobody.\u201d
\n\u201cIt appears she is that good,\u201d Lord Dalton said drily.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n

It seems I\u2019m going to be working my way through this entire series, but I\u2019m particularly looking forward to Lord Dalton\u2019s story. Five stars and on to book 4.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another five star read, although it was a close run thing. The first few chapters were, frankly, a bit dull (the season again? Really?), but once the hero showed up to play piquet everything livened up nicely. Here\u2019s the premise: Hayes, Viscount Ashworth, is the heir to a dukedom, but it\u2019s not a dukedom in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[267],"class_list":["post-5521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-archer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5525,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5521\/revisions\/5525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}