Birdie and the Beastly Duke

The Honorable Roberta Talbot, known as Birdie, has spent her life supporting and organising her feckless, impoverished aristocratic family.
On her way to yet another governess job she comes across Cecily. Distressed to be going to an arranged marriage to a stranger, Cecily suggests that they swap. Soon Birdie is on her way on an adventure, all the way to a haunted castle in Scotland and into the domain of its beastly lord.

Captain Gabriel Eversleigh never expected to become the Duke of Dunross. Racked by survivor's guilt after a disaster at the Battle of Waterloo, Gabriel became a recluse in his castle.
To honour his father's dying request, Gabriel promises to marry a girl he has never met, a family friend left orphaned and destitute. Gabriel plans to be a husband in name only.
Birdie is determined to turn her sham of a marriage into the real-thing, Birdie not only confronts the ghosts of Gabriel's past but stirs up a dangerous secret hidden deep within the castle walls. But when Gabriel discovers he's married the wrong bride, will their love be able to flourish, or will his softening heart harden once more?

Birdie is indomitable and Gabriel is lovely underneath his wounded surface.
I really loved this book and couldn't put it down.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. All views expressed are my own.