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The Soprano's Daring Duke by Susanne Dunlap #Review

  Susanne Dunlap's Regency novel, The Soprano's Daring Duke is her second double dilemma story. You can read my review of the first here:  The Dressmaker's Secret Earl A princess with a scandalous secret. A duke desperate for a wealthy bride. A debutante torn between duty and passion. Newly widowed Princess Adelheid Kinsky thought she was free—until she learns of her abusive late husband’s final betrayal. The son she believed dead, the illegitimate child of a forbidden love, still lives. To secure his future, she must marry within a month—without revealing the truth. Her best prospect? The Duke of Hartland, a notorious rake drowning in debt. Meanwhile, Hartland sets his sights on Olivia Fontenoy, an heiress whose fortune could solve all his problems. But innocent Olivia dreams of music, not marriage, and seizes the chance to perform in disguise at the King’s Theatre—unwittingly ensnaring everyone she knows in scandal. As deception and desire collide, Olivia finds...

The Perfect Gift by Emma Hannigan

    The Perfect Gift is ideal summer reading. It is light, romantic and heartwarming. Set in Ireland, the story has two strands. Roisin, who was adopted at birth, receives a letter on her thirtieth birthday from her birth mother. All Roisin knows is that her birth mother died soon after her birth but she has received a birthday card message from her every year. She is at a crossroads in her life with a threat to her livelihood at 'Nourriture', the foodie shop she has established. Back from France where her relationship with Jacques has ended, she has a lot to consider. Her family, though close, have their own secrets and problems to unravel.  Meanwhile, Nell, an elderly inhabitant, who lives at the local lighthouse, has kept herself apart from the village. One day, she finds a young girl hiding in her boiler house which leads her to reassess her feelings about her own daughter.

     The characters draw you in as their lives interweave.  Mother and daughter relationships come under the microscope but also they have wider family matters to address. Emma Hannigan creates a picture of a warm community where the pace of life is slower and everyone knows each other. My only quibbles would be that sometimes the detail was too much and also the turn round of Mouse from a young runaway who could not read to the well adjusted member of the community who made such rapid progress at reading and even learnt to drive all within a few months stretched credulity a little. 

In short: a heartwarming read- perfect escapism

Thanks to the publishers at Headline for a copy of the book
    

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