The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

The accidental governess…

After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don’t need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud. The ladies of London have tried—and failed—to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart . . . without risking her own.

The infamous rake…

Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule: no attachments. When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to prove he can’t be tamed. But Alexandra is more than he bargained for: clever, perceptive, passionate. She refuses to see him as a lost cause. Soon the walls around Chase’s heart are crumbling . . . and he’s in danger of falling, hard.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33259027-the-duchess-deal

Title: The Governess Game
Author: Tessa Dare
Series: Girl Meets Duke
Pages: 384
Genre(s): Historical, Regency, England
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Tessa Dare always write an absorbing and exciting story filled with highs and lows that ultimately lead to a satisfying and rewarding happily ever after.

This is the second book in Dare’s Girl Meets Duke series (after The Duchess Deal and before The Wallflower Wager. The series follows four unusual heroines as they each find their own happy ending. Despite being part of this series - and the obvious inclusion of the other three girls and one husband - this book stands completely alone and you don’t have to have read any other book to read this one. Although of course I’m going to suggest that you do!

This story doesn’t meander into the start of the tale - it gets there and it gets there quickly. That sets the tone for the whole of the book. I couldn’t put it down and damned if I wanted to.

Chase is, I suppose, a bit of an unusual hero in that he’s not brooding and angsty. Sure, he’s got issues, but he’s got a sense of humour, a playful side and a very lusty nature. I shouldn’t be surprised that his opposite, Alex, is just as unusual. She’s a penniless clock setter turned governess of Spanish and American parents, born and raised on a boat - which may or may not have been piratical.

I loved the pair together. They sparred, they laughed and they had sexy times together - and everyone knows how much I love the sexy times. Sadly, that’s also where this book dropped a star. In the beginning, the chemistry sizzled between Chase and Alex, giving me that lovely jump in the tummy kind of feeling. They got intimate without being intimate aaaaaand….suddenly two weeks had passed and we were being told that the pair had been having fun this whole time. Without me.

Okay, fine - I have an imagination - I could work with this. And then the grand old consummation came…and it was uncomfortable and awkward. For Chase and Alex and for me. I know that sex isn’t all popping cherries then popping the champagne, but come on, I don’t read romance novels for real life. Especially not real life sex.

To be honest, those missed two weeks really seemed to change the tone of the book. I felt I’d missed out, not just on the sexy times but on the relationship building with the girls, and the growing feelings between Alex and Chase. Oh, I believed everything when the end came around - and I was really happy for it - I just wished I had more knowledge of how things got there.

And speaking of the girls - I don’t really care for children in books (or children in real life either, really) but Rosamund and Daisy (and Millicent) were really quite funny. The continual death of Millicent was particularly hilarious. (It’s okay - she survives in the end!)

Please don’t get me wrong - I really loved this book and practically devoured the thing. I just wanted a teensy bit more of the build up to the finale. But Tessa Dare has reaffirmed her position as one of my emerging favourite historical romance novelists and I cannot wait for the next book to see whether Nic or Penny gets her man.