Review - - The Infamous Duchess

The Infamous Duchess
by Sophie Barnes
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: March 26, 2019
Reviewed by Santa

The Infamous Duchess is a five star book in Sophie Barnes’ Diamonds in the Rough series. Viola Cartwright is the Dowager Duchess of Tremaine who upon her husband’s death and generosity is able to establish St. Agatha’s Hospital. To the ton and his son she is branded as a golddigger when her only wish was to provide care to the citizens of London and to be left alone. She is able to ignore the jabs since she never wanted to be a part of that society. And so, with the help of Dr. Florian Lowell - late the Duke of Redding - she has been able to do just that until two events serve to knock into her.

Just as her step-son Robert,the present Duke of Tremaine, decides to slash his cobra’s tongue from the West Indies in an effort to kill her dreams and take everything from her, Florian rushes in with his older brother Harry Lowell who seems to have a penchant for having violence visited upon him. He has just been shot in a duel. Viola sets about assisting Florian in performing surgery on Harry to remove a bullet from his shoulder. Thanks to her father’s instruction Viola is, to put a modern term to it, an exceptional physician’s assistant. Harry’s recovery depends on the skill of these two people; a brother he dearly loves and a woman who is about to change everything in his life.

Harry is a very determined and a complicated man. From the moment he discovers Viola taking care of him he is enthralled. He persuades her to care for him exclusively. Viola takes his flirtations as just that because he is known as a rake. But Harry is more than meets the eye and he is determined to convince her otherwise.

I really enjoyed this book. It was fun to see some of the characters from the other books in the series appear here. As soon as I finish a Sophie Barnes book, I find myself smiling and looking forward to her next book. That, my friends, is a clear sign of an auto-buy author for me.