Spotlight & Giveaway: THE DIAMOND AND THE DUKE by Christi Caldwell

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Christi Caldwell’s new release: THE DIAMOND AND THE DUKE

When a wounded soldier and self-proclaimed “beast” finds unlikely friendship with a headstrong and unconventional beauty, they quickly find themselves weaving a tale as old as time…

Despite a hero’s return to England from the Napoleonic Wars, Wesley Audley isolates from the ton. Deep wounds from the horrors of combat—and the despair of a broken heart—left him scarred. As he struggles to cope and resume his place in Polite Society, Wesley is quick to cut himself off from everyone . . . except for Ellie Balfour.

Independent and strong willed, Ellie has dreams of captaining her own husband-free life and a penchant for meddling in other’s business. She knows befriending Wesley is a risk, but Ellie can’t bear to see his heartache—nor can she seem to silence all the temptingly intimate thoughts his nearness provokes.

But Ellie is yet to face a battle she can’t win—and Wesley’s heart is worth the fight. If only her campaigns ever went to plan. . . .

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from THE DIAMOND AND THE DUKE 

London, England

My dearest Wesley,

I know I once said there was nothing more beautiful than a blue, cloud-filled sky. I was wrong. There is something far more magnificent . . . knowing I share that sky with you. Whenever I wish to feel closer to you, I just look up.

Lovingly Yours

Perched on the window seat, her knees drawn up to her chest, Ellie shifted her focus from the rain slanting in sideways sheets upon the pavement, a deluge that left her stuck indoors, to the couple curled up beside one another on the green button-back velvet-upholstered Chesterfield sofa.

Cailin lay with her head on Courtland’s lap and her legs flung over the rolled arm, reading from a letter, while Courtland remained with one hand stroking the top of his wife’s head, and the other holding whatever title it was on fossils that so fascinated him and Cailin.

Ellie forced her gaze away from the bucolic tableau they presented: a happily married couple, with the young wife’s belly gently rounded from where their first babe rested.

Courtland and Cailin had been gracious. Certainly more gracious than she deserved, or than her machinations had merited.

But Ellie had been obliged to acknowledge one sad truth-her relationship with the pair had been forever altered. Following his marriage, and the pained lecture he’d doled out after he’d learned the truth about Ellie’s involvement in his ruination, he’d stopped joining her in her gameplay, and instructed her to cease looking at the world as a battlefield plan there for Ellie to arrange.

And that proved the greatest regret of her life.

It shouldn’t matter. Ultimately, in the end, all children were forced to hang up their scabbards and put away their wood pistols and swords and swap those pretend games for all that came with real life.

Absently, Ellie traced a fingertip over the window.

“. . . what is it, love? You’ve those frown lines you get here,” Courtland was saying as he touched the place between Cailin’s eyebrows. “When you are upset.” With those quiet murmurings, his words revealed an intimate knowing of the woman he’d wed, and Ellie found herself more than half longing for that.

Alas, she lifted the book from her lap and raised it to her face, giving the couple the privacy she ought, feeling like the worst sort of interloper.

A streak of lightning lit up a dark sky which would have better suited the night.

“. . . my brother . . .” Cailin was saying. “. . . Wesley . . .”

A sharp crack of thunder rumbled the foundations of the house, shaking the windowpanes.

Ellie lost her grip on the book.

Thump.

It landed on the floor with a less-than-subtle thwack that briefly interrupted her brother and his wife’s conversation as two sets of eyes swung her way.

“Dropped my book,” she explained, unnecessarily. “Lost my hold on the pages. The storm, of course. That sounded as if the lightning strike was close.”

Her brother and Cailin stared at her.

“Not that I’m afraid of storms,” she blurted. “I’m not.” Except that was a lie. “That scared. I-” You are rambling. Stop rambling. You are not a rambler. Anything but. Ellie cleared her throat noisily and, leaning down, rescued her book. “I haave it!” she exclaimed needlessly, and then promptly cringed inside. Snapping the pages open, she quickly brought the volume back into place before her face.

“I see that,” Courtland called over. “You . . . uh . . . may wish to turn it ar-” Ellie promptly flipped it right side up. “-ound,” her brother completed that word and droll response.

Dedicating all her attentions and energies on her book, Ellie made a show at reading; all the while, her ears remained keenly focused on the parts and pieces of the discussion her brother and Cailin had resumed.

Excerpted from The Diamond and the Duke by Christi Caldwell Copyright © 2024 by Christi Caldwell. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Excerpt. ©Christi Caldwell. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: 1 finished copy of THE DIAMOND AND THE DUKE (U.S. only, 18+)

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Meet the Author:

Christi Caldwell is the USA Today bestselling author of the Sinful Brides series and the Heart of a Duke series. She blames novelist Judith McNaught for luring her into the world of historical romance. When Christi was at the University of Connecticut, she began writing her own tales of love—ones where even the most perfect heroes and heroines had imperfections. She learned to enjoy torturing her couples before they earned their well-deserved happily ever after. Christi lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she spends her time writing and being a mommy to the most inspiring little boy and empathetic, spirited girls who, with their mischievous twin antics, offer an endless source of story ideas.
 
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