The Duke Heist by Erica Ridley

Chloe Wynchester is completely forgettable—a curse that gives her the ability to blend into any crowd. When the only father she's ever known makes a dying wish for his adopted family of orphans to recover a missing painting, she's the first one her siblings turn to for stealing it back. No one expects that in doing so, she'll also abduct a handsome duke.

 

Lawrence Gosling, the Duke of Faircliffe, is tortured by his father's mistakes. To repair his estate's ruined reputation, he must wed a highborn heiress. Yet when he finds himself in a carriage being driven hell-for-leather down the cobblestone streets of London by a beautiful woman who refuses to heed his commands, he fears his heart is hers. But how can he sacrifice his family's legacy to follow true love?

 Series: The Wild Wynchester's #1 | Publisher: Forever |Genre: Historical (Regency) Romance  | Source:  Publisher | Rating: 4.5

What happens when a Duke on a mission is caught in a Wynchester’s web?

When Chloe accidently kidnaps Faircliffe in an attempt to retrieve her family’s painting, her gift of being invisible in a crowd goes out the window when she realizes that Faircliffe actually sees her. Changing plans, Chloe decides to implore Faircliffe to help her, a Wild Wynchester, to ‘fit into society’ so that she’ll have access to his estate in hopes of reclaiming the painting. Faircliffe’s agreed to helping Chloe but he never intended to fall for her—it simply wouldn’t do. He has a plan to repair the damage his father caused to the estate and he needs an heiress to do that not a Wynchester.

I had so much fun with Faircliffe and Chloe. They both have well thought up plans that they intend to see through. He is determined to be the model of society to fix the problems his father caused and he’s not going to allow anything to get in his way. Chloe will stop at nothing to get her family’s painting back, even if that means entering the enemy’s (Faircliffe’s) lair. Both are determined and headstrong so it was interesting watching these two fall for each other all the while saying that this was temporary and they had to stick to their goals.

I also enjoyed meeting the Wynchester family. They’re such an eclectic group but they’re the closest of families and I really enjoyed seeing how they interact and how willing they were to help each other.

While I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I was kind of hoping that Chloe would confess her plan to Faircliffe when they started getting close. I was also hoping that Chloe would have her ‘pick me, choose me, love me’ moment but she was content to step aside. Although I do have to say that she did have a moment of growth where she finally figured out who she wanted to be and I really enjoyed that for her.

Overall, I really enjoyed this The Duke Heist and Erica Ridley’s writing style. I’m eager to see more from the Wynchester family. 

Wild Wynchesters Series

1-The Duke Heist