Spotlight & Giveaway: One Duke Down by Anna Bennett

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Anna Bennett’s new release: One Duke Down: A Rogues to Lovers Novel

The next delightful novel in Anna Bennett’s Rogues to Lovers series!

 
A FISHERMAN’S DAUGHTER
Miss Poppy Summers is determined to keep her family’s fishing business afloat. Her poor widowed father has fallen ill, and her foolhardy brother has moved to London, leaving her precious little time to read or pursue her own dreams. But she’ll do anything for her family, so she cheerfully spends mornings in her rowboat, casting her nets. The very last thing Poppy expects or wants to find tangled in them is a dangerously attractive man. Especially one with a head wound—who’s convinced he’s a duke.

AND A DUKE OUT OF WATER
Andrew Keane is the Duke of Hawking, but he’s having the devil of a time convincing his fiery-haired rescuer of that fact. The truth is he came to the seaside resort of Bellehaven Bay to escape his life in London. Unfortunately, someone in Bellehaven wants to kill him—and he intends to find out who. He implores Poppy to tend to his injuries and hide him on her beach, reasoning it will be easier to find his attacker if that man assumes Keane is already dead. She wants no part of the scheme but can’t refuse the generous sum he offers in exchange for food and shelter while he recovers. It’s a mutually beneficial business arrangement…nothing more.

ARE ABOUT TO MAKE WAVES
Under Poppy’s care, Keane regains his strength—and a sense of purpose. As they work together to solve the puzzle of his would-be murderer, he’s dazzled by her rapier wit and adventurous spirit; she’s intrigued by his mysterious air and protective streak. Though Poppy’s past gives her every reason to mistrust someone like Keane, the seawalls around her heart crumble in the storm of their passion. But when clues hint at the prime suspect in Keane’s attempted murder, Poppy must decide where her loyalties lie. Torn between the world she’s always known and the one she’s always dreamed of, she’ll need true love for a shot at her fairytale ending.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from One Duke Down: A Rogues to Lovers Novel 

From One Duke Down by Anna Bennett. Copyright © 2023 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Chapter 2

“How’s your father faring?”
Poppy blinked, snapping her attention back to Hazel, the headmistress of Bellehaven Academy and her dear friend. Poppy had come to town after pulling the stranger out of the surf, determined to salvage the rest of the day in spite of the odd encounter with him.
She’d intended to banish him from her thoughts while she went about her usual errands, but he trespassed into her head in much the same way he’d trespassed onto her beach. Vexing, that he should affect her so, but understandable. It wasn’t every morning that she brandished her knife at a devilishly handsome rogue.
Poppy shook her head in a futile attempt to clear it and mustered a smile for Hazel. “Papa’s about the same. The willow bark seems to ease his aching joints. I’m going to stop at the apothecary on my way home and pick up some more.”
“You must let me know if I can help in any way,” Hazel said earnestly. Her brown hair was swept into its usual tidy knot, but one rebellious chestnut curl above her forehead fluttered in the breeze coming from her office window.
“You’ve done far too much already,” Poppy said, setting the small stack of books that she’d borrowed from Hazel on her desk. “Thank you for sending Kitty over with the basket. The oranges are delicious, and I was able to coax Papa into eating a few bites of the stew.”
“It was nothing,” Hazel said, waving a dismissive hand. “You know Kitty is always grateful for the chance to see you.”
“I was happy to see her, too. It’s been too long since we Belles were all together.” Poppy, Hazel, and Kitty had formed a special bond the previous summer after discovering they were each still grappling with the grief of losing their mothers far too soon. Kitty, the youngest of their trio, had started out as Hazel’s most troublesome student. But since Hazel married Kitty’s uncle and guardian, the Earl of Bladenton, last summer, they’d formed a family that included Kitty and two other orphaned students—Lucy and Clara. Now Hazel, her smitten husband, Blade, and all the girls were living in a spacious suite of rooms in the center of Bellehaven while they began construction on a grand house on the outskirts of town.
“Blade brought more books from London,” Hazel said excitedly, turning to pluck several from the shelves behind her desk. “I stayed up late several evenings reading this one.”
Poppy chuckled as she flipped through the gothic novel that Hazel handed her, along with a few other books. “Thank you. I am sure I shall enjoy it, too.” Indeed, it seemed reading was the one bright spot in her dreary existence, her only escape from worrying about Papa, missing her mother, and struggling to keep food on the table.
As if she could sense Poppy’s melancholy, Hazel rounded her desk and gently squeezed her shoulders. “Why don’t you come visit on Saturday? You, Kitty, and I could take a picnic to the beach, do a little shopping in town, and spend the whole day together.”
“I’d love that . . .” Truly, she would. “But I don’t like to leave Papa for too long.” Besides, she’d lost a whole morning of fishing, thanks to the virile stranger on her beach. She hesitated a moment, then asked, “Did anything unusual happen in town last night?”
Hazel arched a brow. “Unusual in what sense?”
“I don’t know,” Poppy said with a shrug. “I just wondered if there was talk this morning of any strange goings- on, any rumors involving prominent tourists in Bellehaven?”
“Poppy Summers.” Hazel narrowed her eyes, suspicious. “Is there something you’d like to tell me?”
“No.” Her face heated. “Let’s just say that the source of my information is extremely unreliable. Hardly worth sparing a second thought.”
“Hmm,” Hazel murmured, clearly unconvinced. “I won’t press you further, but I will say this: Whatever might be going on, have a care. I have not heard any gossip, but I do know that the tourists who flock to our little town sometimes imagine that they’re in another world where the rules of society don’t apply. After a few days of carousing, they hop into their fancy carriages and return to their elegant London town houses or country estates. And it’s left to the good folk of Bellehaven to clean up the messes they leave behind.”
“That is true,” Poppy said sadly.
She fervently hoped that the man—Keane, he’d said his name was—wouldn’t leave a mess behind. That he’d keep his promise and be gone by dusk, before she or her family were swept up in any unsavory business. That he’d vanish from her life just as quickly as he’d dropped into it, long before she could possibly have the misfortune of falling prey to those rakish good looks and stray-puppy eyes.
Her life was difficult enough as it was. The last thing she needed was for a man to muck it up—and remind her that she’d once wished for something more.

As the sun began to set, Keane realized he’d made a gross miscalculation. Despite all the assurances he’d given his fiery-haired rescuer earlier, he was in no physical condition to walk to town. The first time he tried to stand, his legs gave out, and he ate a mouthful of sand. On his second try, he staggered several feet, fell onto all fours, and heaved up the meager contents of his stomach.
His pulse raced, his head ached, and his throat was parched. But he had to make it as far from the beach as he possibly could. Not only because he’d promised the young woman, but also because the seed of a plan had begun to sprout in his mind. And it required him to stay out of sight.
So, he followed the shoreline west, alternately stumbling and crawling through the surf. His progress was woefully slow, but when he found one of his boots washed up near the rocks, he dragged it along and kept a keen eye out for the other.
When darkness fell and he was too weak to take another step, he stumbled to the foot of a cliff, sank onto the pebbled sand, and leaned his back against the cool, mossy rock. He only wanted to catch his breath and rest his eyes for a bit. He wasn’t going to sleep—or dream of an expressive, freckled face framed by fiery tendrils that danced in the ocean breeze.

From One Duke Down by Anna Bennett. Copyright © 2023 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Excerpt. ©Anna Bennett. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

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Meet the Author:

Anna Bennett (she/her) is the award-winning author of the Debutante Diaries and Wayward Wallflowers series. Her dream of writing romance began during a semester in London, where she fell in love with the city, its history, and its pubs. Now Anna’s living happily-ever-after in Maryland with her family, who try valiantly not to roll their eyes whenever she quotes Jane Austen.
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