All The Reads: Lenora Bell
The romance novel gets a modern spin set in the time on “the ton” but the themes and characters feel modern and relatable…with plenty of rakes and delectable Dukes. Marriage-minded mamas have their claws out but no one is bossing the heroes and heroines of Bell’s books around. Reading Bell’s oeuvre was a full-blown spring binge…and a very enjoyable one. Here are our Bell favorites.
“How the Duke Was Won” - Our heroine here is masquerading as her half-sister Dorothea (who receives her own book-length story in Bell’s “If I Only Had a Duke”) and is being paid a rather high amount of money to win over our Duke. One high and mighty marriage-minded mama, one French maid named Manon, and one adorable little girl named Flor all come together around the love story to spin out a tale that will have you drinking your hot cocoa along with Charlene and James as they fall for each other.
Lady Dorothea is back, for real this time, no half-sister pretending to be her, in her own story that kicks off with a yearning to authenticate artwork. Specifically, a lost piece by Artemisia Gentileschi, the female Italian Renaissance artist who famously painted Judith beheading Holofernes on not one but two inflammatory canvases. (More here just on the “big, blood-drenched paintings” by Gentileschi.) But Artemisia is the excuse to kick off the second in Bell’s series on “Disgraceful Dukes” as our lead character is inspired by the artist proclaiming her Judith canvas one that says women’s “fingers are no less skillful, our minds no less sharp and our sensibilities, the way we view the world, no less unique.” The story of Thea and Dalton the Duke, a good romping read and a reminder to go beyond the pages for a little art history as well.