Bedding Lord Ned by Sally MacKenzie

Miss Eleanor Bowman has been in love with Lord Edward for quite some time but when he married her best friend, she knew it was not meant to be.  Shortly after though, his wife dies in childbirth, it leaves Ned devastated and he lives in sort of a fog.  When his mother, aptly nicknamed the Duchess of Love, has her annual house party, he attends and decides he must remarry and start a family.  Thankfully his mother has invited some potential suitors for him and for Ellie, who has been like a daughter since they grew up together.  However, the Duchess of Love has a different agenda for Ned and Ellie and with the help of her mischievous cat, Reggie, she sets about helping this couple finally find the happiness they have both been looking for.

This was a delightful, fun book filled with laughter, hijinks, sexual tension and love.  I loved that Ned's parents (whose story is told in The Duchess of Love) get there own scene time in the bedroom.  That is not something often seen and I adored seeing the love still going strong between them.  We get introduced to the Ned's two brothers who add in some fun interactions and also have interesting set-ups for their upcoming stories.  Ned thinks of Ellie as a sister until Reggie drags in some red drawers of hers and all he can think of is what Ellie is wearing underneath her prim and proper gowns and the more time Ellie spends with some of the other men at the party, the more Ned gets jealous.  It finally takes a good talking to from his brothers to finally see the true light...after quite a funny proposal.  This is my first full length novel from Sally MacKenzie and I got a kick out of her use of such words as Zeus and Zounds and lots of Ah's.  I'm not sure if this happens in her other books, but I enjoyed it in this one.  Overall, this is a classic tale of childhood friends who grow to love each other but can not quite get to the same conclusion and the same time.  It has humor, jealously, an adorable cat and smoldering sexual tension (but only one true love scene) all wrapped up in a way that will leave you smiling.  I know I am eager for the two brothers books!  3 1/2 stars

Thanks to Kensington, Zebra imprint, for providing me with this ARC!

The Duchess of Love

Available as an ebook or printed in its entirety in Bedding Lord Ned (which I love, bravo Kensington!)
Plus two more books to come