The Duke Alone (The McQuoids of Mayfair)

This book has characters which you quickly begin to care about. Their individual pasts have left a shadow which time begins to heal.The humour of the book is seen in actions and commentary from the characters. I look forward to discovering further books by this author.However, I would have liked a longer epilogue.

A grumpy sunshine historical romance set at Christmas time.Myrtle has accidentally been left home alone without any family or servants for the festive season. But luckily the reclusive and grumpy Duke next door is at hand, no matter how reluctantly, to help her whenever she has problems. The drama surrounding the burglars was short but very entertaining. Myrtle and Val's growing friendship is cute and sweet, made more so by Myrtle's innocence and charming ways. All of their interactions are heavily laced with humour. The grumpy Duke becomes noticeably nicer the more time he spends with her. The only thing I didn't like was the age gap. A childlike Myrtle turns eighteen during the story while Val is thirty and widowed.I loved Horace, the dog and the way he instantly bonded with Myrtle. It was like he was giving her his seal of approval.I enjoyed this lighthearted Christmas romance. I also listened to the audio version of this book and the narration is very good.

This is a really delightfully crafted story full of emotion and some spicy moments towards the end. There is an element of a thriller with a bit of suspense, and some extremely amazing characters.

This is superficially a good, cheerful read. The Duke is reclusive and miserable because his wife has been killed, and the heroine restores his spirits with the help of his huge dog (how sweet). However as soon as you examine it the whole book crumbles apart. Her parents, looking at their rickety house decide to get the builders just before Christmas. This is a noble, rich household the fabric of the house would have maintained as a matter of course, Most of the defects seem to be of long standing. You would not have left the house unattended so that it could be plundered... According to the author the Scots celebrate Christmas more than the English The reverse is true . The Scots celebrate Hogmanay, the New Year. Her family set off for Scotland but the heroine, who has over-slept , is inadvertently left behind in the crumbling house (an understandable error because she has numerous siblings.) Cold and hungry, she meets the reclusive Duke wo lives in solitary splendour next door The heroine regales the Duke by singing carols,- Good KIng Wenceslas ( written in the 1850s) and where on earth did she pick up a medieval German carol , in German? She has only been to finishing school where she mainly did etiquette and deportment and got bored. Why let the facts get in the way of a good story? Let's marry them off , in the middle of winter, in Scotland, in a glass conservatory before the thing has been invented

Great story with só many lovely moments!!! Loved both characters and how they get together. I hope we will have the chance to learn more about Myrtle and Val and their families. Heartwarming and believe in love above all.

Exciting storyline, well written

This is Christi Caldwell back to top notch. This book is great. Lovely story. Great leading characters with a developing relationship. Just a really good compelling book. Christi was my favourite author for a long time but some recents books have been disappointing - I suspect due to quantity over quality. This is back to her old standard. Highly recommended and couldn’t put it down.

it was nice to know he was not alone

I will admit, when I first started reading this story, my first thought was it mimicked a Christmas movie about a boy left behind by his family. But this story became so much more! I absolutely adored the banter back and forth between Myrtle and Val, laughing out loud in some places.( Truly, this is the type of story I love) Horace is such a great addition to the story. Watching each of them learn valuable lessons about themselves and each other was so satisfying , especially Myrtle…finally seeing herself as loved. There will be tears to cry, giggles to enjoy and a heart warming love to keep you enthralled reading this book. Truly, one of my favorites.

Such a wonderful, Christmas "Home Alone" story.My only issues were with the heroine being 17 (turning 18) and that the passion was very PG. Although, the tame passion made the underaged heroine bearable. But I still gave it 5 stars because the story made up for these weaknesses.

I fell in love with the cover f ist, then I fell in love with the story.This story is such a gem, I enjoyed every single page of this wonderful, funny, moving, sweet and fantastic book.From the modern references to you-know-who (no, not him, the funny one everybody loves to watch on Christmas) to fairy tales to that story written by a Lady, this book was perfect. I laughed, smiled, groaned, blinked away my tears and totally and completely fell for Myrtle's charme and Val's gruff lovable attempts to keep her at bay. Myrtle, who isn't perfect but definitely not resembles a turtle, borrows her way under those sky high walls that he erected straight into his heart, off-key song by off-key song, smile by smile. It seems, that in his efforts build the walls as high as possible, he forgot to guard the ground beneath those walls - or maybe he just never had a chance when it came to this wonderful aggravating, always chattering (and singing, don't forget her singing) woman.When Little Red Riding Hood met the wolf, there was no doubt who was the wolf but this time... who is the wolf? The one "everybody" sees as one - or those everybody but Myrtle considers to be harmless? And sometimes, wolves are just teddy bears in disguise, no matter on how many legs they walk around.One pastry, one song, one laughter at a time, Myrtle changed Val's life - and I loved every minute of it. And when Scrooge finally succumbed to the magic of Christmas and, of course, Myrtle and found his happiness again (with the help of our beloved Mr. Darcy to boot), I dried some tears and smiled so broadly that my cheeks hurt. I really really loved this book.

Sweet story, I giggled at the reference to a most famous Christmas movie! Myrtle was so cute and I really enjoyed their banter

Great story.Two hugely believable main characters each with their own very definite personalities . I loved Myrtles truth and courage and then Val's slow and steady portrayal of his feelings