This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by NBPLRomance. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Short Historical category.

Here is NBPLRomance's review:

After many season pass her by without the hint of actual love, the super wealthy Minerva Dodger embraces her spinsterhood. But the idea of a club called The Nightingale might be a way to blow off some steam. She can mask her identity while getting some much needed pleasure…based solely on desire, not her dowry.

Meanwhile, the Duke of Ashebury (called Ashe), a worldly adventurer and photographer (read: sexy rake) is there. He will do for the night, even though Minerva, calling herself Lady V, may not garner his attention without her mask (or so she thinks). He is captivated by her legs which show under her skimpy dress. So, he proposes to photograph them. Scandalous? Sure! But it’s also a way Ashe has coped after losing his parents in a train accident while he was still a boy. And Minerva embraces this by trying something new.

As intrigued as he is by her contradictory mix of confidence and shyness, Minverva/V tells Ashe she is still virtuous. He decides to part company with her, though not before they share one passionate lip lock.

Not being able to shake Minerva from Ashe’s mind, he vows to track down her true identity. Ashe learns he is all but penniless and also how apt Minerva is at rooting out fortune hunters. Thus begins a delightful romp, which Heath excels at crafting. Ashe wants Minerva for herself while she gains a sense of self as true as her fierce independence. This is for sure a story of equals accepting themselves and falling for one another. They acknowledge and almost admire their respective deep-seeded issues.

Minerva conveys her low self-image with an almost lamenting exasperation. In the times she takes what she wants, we still see her as vulnerable. Since it is Minerva’s father who owns The Nightingale, her unconventionality allows us to suspend the disbelief that someone like her would enter a club like that, finally seeking physical pleasure without the shackles of her sought out fortune. At the same time, she cannot seem to grow from her insecurities as we progress into the story. She will not settle for anyone unworthy, but often she sees herself that way. However, this endears her to us. We keep wanting to see where it goes with the very experienced Ashe.

And speaking of Ashe, it’s he who feels to be the main event. He is as devilishly rake as they come but his issues are deep and somewhat unique. First, he fetishizes legs and ankles as a means to deal with the trauma of his youth. He also has a disorder (dyscalculia) where math evades him. He cannot comprehend it. So, it is refreshing to see just how his issues play out. And Heath treats him with such care, I cannot help but fall under his charms myself.

Like many other readers of this novel, I loved the scenes with Minerva and her father, Jack. It is wonderful to see the delicious Jack from Heath’s Between the Devil and Desire as a dad who loves his daughter unconditionally. But it’s the heat and tension Heath casts between Minerva and Ashe will have you begging for more.

Book one in her Hellions of Havisham series, Falling Into Bed With a Duke is a perfect way to introduce yourself to Lorraine Heath’s historical romances.