Proposing to a Duke

Regency Black Hearts, Book 1

By: Claudia Stone

Narrated by: Stevie Zimmerman

Length: 3 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

At the age of 25, confirmed spinster Isabella Peregrine is given an unexpected ultimatum by her new step-mother: find a husband or I'll find one for you.

Thoroughly in a tizz, Isabella proposes a marriage of convenience to the nearest male to her - who just so happens to be the brooding, intimidating Duke of Blackmore. When he rebuffs her clumsy advances, Isabella leaves for London, determined to find the man of her dreams and soothe her bruised ego.

Michael Linfield, Duke of Blackmore is a legendary, fearsome war hero; famous for reducing debutantes and their mothers to floods of tears with just one glance. The brooding giant of a man is hiding a secret however - a debilitating stammer that has haunted him since childhood. When the delightful Miss Peregrine proposes a marriage of convenience to him - with no benefits - Michael is so startled that his stammer reappears and all he can manage to reply is "N-n-no".

When news of Isabella's success in London soon reaches his ears, Michael is determined to go to town and win her as his own, if only she'll give him a second chance at love.

This sweet and clean regency romance is a standalone novel with a guaranteed HEA.

©2017 Claudia Stone (P)2017 Claudia Stone

A funny, charming historical romance

Proposing to a Duke is a funny and charming historical romance that is mostly sweet with just a little spice. The story is hard to put down (or stop listening to), and the characters are easy to fall in love with.

Recommended for mature readers due to sexual content.

The narrator of the audiobook does a terrific job bringing the story to life and is well suited for this type of book.

"This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."

Not a good story but great narration..

Sorry, but this was just silly.

Michael could not let himself get involved with Isabella because of his deep dark secret (when he got nervous or stressed he stuttered.) When Michael was a little boy he walked in on his father getting it on with a servant and the father dropped dead at that moment and the girl told him he'd killed his father? And the boy stopped talking then began to stutter then got better, except for occasionally he would fall back into stuttering.

I finally had to quit at 63%.

As to the narration: Stevie Zimmerman is a wonderful narrator but not even she could help this silly story.

cute historical

Cute historical romance for a sweet time out. Nothing at all explicit involved.
Zimmerman does a good job with narration. Her voice suits the story.

Sweet, lightheaded, great narration, and warm fuzzy feeling

This was another good clean fun from Ms. Stone. I do love light hearted reads from time to time. However, you scared me at one point but I won’t give that a way.
This is truly a little gem it’s so sweet and gives you all the feel good feeling.
#MyBookObsessionApproved

Charming light read

It was a cute quick listen. Good if you want to start something in the afternoon that will be over before you have to go to bed. In some ways it can be a relief to read a regency romance where it doesn’t take 10 hours of push pull between the H and H but only 4. It was same old tropes with a stutter added in. All extremely predictable, which can be relaxing. I don’t like to spend credits on short books, but it was an audible escape so made sense. I would recommend for a quick light read. No steam so all those easily embarrassed people who are looking for “good clean reads” will be happy so they can feel they are above all that “seediness”. I prefer a bit of steam (although get tired of the ones that think all one wants is steam). Here you only get a few kisses (not even any good description around those) but it is a charming, quick, light read.

Heartwarming and cute clean romance

This book was SO cute. I loved the relationship between Isabella and Michael. I feel like this book has taken the big-intimidating guy + smart sweet girl trope and made it even better. The performance was great, too, but I had to take one extra star because the editing of the book wasn’t polished. There was one time when the narrator even started talking about getting food with someone else in the room they were recording! However, it speaks a lot for the book and her narration that I feel like these instances are easily forgiven. I would still recommend people to listen to this story and fall in love with both protagonists as they find each other.

Lovely and Heartwarming!

This is the first book in the Regency Black Hearts Series, a clean regency romance. Isabella and Michael’s story is beautifully written, fun, and sweet. They are perfect together, and I loved to follow them in this journey. I love the ending and the beautiful epilogue. This is a lovely and heartwarming story. I love Claudia Stone’s writing. She never disappoints. Stevie Zimmerman has a beautiful voice. The characters were easy to distinguish. She did a great and entertaining read of this story! Looking forward to listen to the next book in the Series, The Duke’s Brother. I was given a free review copy of the audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good story.

First, Stevie Zimmerman is an excellent narrator. She really brings the characters to life. Second, I cheered for the Duke of Blackmore. Tough beginning in life, but a HEA. I've read this book more than once and I'll definitely read it again. Enjoy!

Entertaining and funny

The previous books by Claudia Stone I listened to were all entertaining light romances and so was this one, too.

You won't find revolutionary plot ideas in this book, it will not change your world - but it will definitely give you over three hours of fun and will leave you with this happy certainty that love conquers all:) Isn't that what we're looking for in a romance book?:)

Well, although maybe not revolutionary, there are some ideas, though, that go a little beyond the 'romance typical', and these I liked a lot (can't explain better - I don't want any spoilers here:)). And although probably one letter would be enough to clarify some things, it would also mean that we'd lose half the story and half the fun, so I'm glad no letter was written:)
As for the book itself, the plot is fast, with some unexpected twists, with a lot of witty humour and with a lot of characters that are likeable, lively and colourful. And the main couple are a definite match and we keep fingers crossed for them from the very first page... well, chapter:) Definitely a good reading choice for an otherwise boring afternoon/evening:)

Narration by Ms Zimmerman is very good. She reads quite fast, but does the voices well and really brings the characters to life. I liked it a lot.

DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Loved the Story and the Narrator.

This was a short and easy book to listen to. I would have like more romance and more character development but that is hard to do in this amount of pages. The ending seemed a little rushed but once again the length of the book affected how it would end.
I enjoy this author everytime I read her. "I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Proposing to a Duke

A very entertaining story about Michael who suffers with a terrible stammer since childhood and Isabella who is forced to find herself a husband or face being married off by her step-mother.
Great job by the narrator.

Regency romance with a little more!

This audiobook has all that is expected of a Regency romance. It has the sprawling country estates, the tall and darkly brooding Duke, a lady considered on the shelf, the ballrooms, Almacks, Lady Jersey and so on. Except this book is different. It touches on childhood trauma, speech impediments, the unforgiving nature of society and its sheer ridiculous double standards. But mostly it has a very satisfying romance between a Duke of substance and a lady worth having.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Clean regency romance

Proposing to a Duke is not as funny as some the authors other books but it is still a great listen. I did at times feel like banging the two main charaters heads together but we get there in the end.
I liked the fact that Isabella saves herself and the hero came a little late to save her. I loved her character and I thought she is more braver then the Duke of Blackmore when it comes down to saying what they want.
Some reviewers have called this a bit silly well in that time people did act silly but then again they did not have t.v's, phones, any type of gadgets or cars. They had to make their own entertainment and society was a lot different to what it is now. There was a lot of drama then. I am not saying that it would have happened this way but it would not have surprised me if it did.
This is for those who enjoy clean regency romance.
I loved it and would highly recommend it.