What to Do with a Duke by Sally MacKenzie

Title: What to Do with a Duke (Spinster House #1)

Author: Sally MacKenzie
Publisher: Kensington Books

Genre: Historical Fiction, Regency, Romance

Publication: August 25th 2015

My Rating: 4/5

Source: Publisher on NetGalley

Welcome to the charming, fatefully named village of Loves Bridge, where a woman destined for spinsterhood can live a life of her own choosing—or fall unexpectedly, madly in love…

Miss Isabelle Catherine Hutting would rather be lounging in the library than circling the ballroom in search of a husband any day. So when Cat hears that the town’s infamous Spinster House is open for a new resident, she jumps at the chance to put all this marriage business behind her. But first she must make arrangements with her prospective landlord, Marcus, the Duke of Hart—the most handsome man she’s ever seen, and the only man who’s ever impressed her in the least…

With her wit, independent spirit, and not least of all her beauty, Marcus can’t help but be stirred by Cat. It’s terribly unfortunate he’s not looking to marry, given the centuries-old curse that left his family with the Spinster House to begin with. No duke shall live to see his heir’s birth. But is there a chance the curse could be broken—in true fairy-tale fashion—by an act of true love? The race to Happily Ever After is about to begin…

**I received a free eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

People!! I'm so excited! This is the first book I've requested on NetGalley!

On NetGalley

Instead of doing like most people do and ask for a bunch of books (I know that's tempting guys, but don't), I looked for one I thought I would really enjoy and requested it, and I'm so happy I was approved and able to get it! :D

And you know I've mentioned before that I wanted to get a little bit more into romance, since I rarely read that genre, and I thought that historical romance was just the way to go.

My Review

I must say I'm very happy with my choice, I seriously couldn't put this book down!

Let me just tell you a little bit about the story:

Catherine Hutting is the eldest of ten children. Some of her younger sisters have already married and another one is already engaged and soon to be married. Cat doesn't care for marriage, she just wants some peace and quite -which she can't really get at home with all her younger siblings running around- and become a novelist.

We also have Marcus, the Duke of Hart, or how a lot of people like to call him: the Cursed Duke, since every duke in his family dies just before his heir is born, which is why Marcus is putting off marriage for as long as he can.

When the Spinster House in town becomes available, Cat realizes this is the opportunity she's been waiting for to be on her own and finally get to writing. But she's not the only candidate. The Duke of Hart is in charge of doing all the proceedings to find and choose the new spinster for the Spinster House.

I'll just start by saying that I really liked that this book is not slow-paced, it just gets to the point and I was never bored waiting for something to happen. It is also told from both Cat's and Marcus' POV, which I loved, since I really enjoyed knowing how each of them felt and what they thought about the other.

Yes yes, this is all about the instalove. But you know what? I'm a fan of instalove. I am.

But even though they like each other since the very beginning, their relationship does progress slowly. I mean, what did you expect from a self-proclaimed spinster and a man who's terrified of producing an heir?

It's also funny to see them deny their feelings, neither of them is exactly sure of what is going on. The Duke knows he's definitely attracted to Cat, like he's never been attracted to any other woman before. But poor little Cat is just completely clueless.

Both characters are amazing, I really loved them both, even separately. And they made me laugh and smile a lot. Cat is strong, independent and doesn't want any man to tell her how to live her life.

I know I've used this gif before guys, but I just love it. I'm like Cat, you see.

So in the end it all works out and we get our beautiful happy ending. Which could've happened a lot sooner, Marcus, a lot sooner. You just had to use the right words when popping the question, man.

The only thing I would have really liked is for the story to be a little longer. I wanted to know more about what happens to them after all the events in the book, and I knew I wasn't gonna get that in a sequel, since this series just kept screaming at me: companion novels. And the end of this book just confirmed it, it includes a little excerpt of the second book and it's about another spinster who wanted to get the Spinster House.

I didn't really like the other spinsters that much, maybe because of the way they treated Cat for a while, I don't see any excuse for that kind of behavior, so I'm not sure I want to read about them. But I would love it if we get another book about Marcus and Cat. That I would read for sure!

I hope you liked this! If you know of any other similar books, please just let me know! :D

Thank you for reading! Bye-Bye! ♥