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The Thunderbolt Club #2
Can't Get Enough of the Duke: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 7 Apr 26
USA Today
bestseller Lenora Bell continues her sparkling, sensual Thunderbolt Club series with a marriage of convenience between a grumpy, combat-scarred duke and his cheerful and beautiful ward.
War hero Deckard Payne, Duke of Warburton, made a battlefield promise to become guardian to orphan Analise Crewe. He certainly didn’t agree to marry the girl! But that’s exactly what happens when he’s forced to wed her to save her honor.
The last thing Analise wants is a loveless marriage to a broodingly handsome duke who lives in a gloomy castle and keeps his doors—and his heart—tightly locked. He’s determined to keep her at arm’s length—but she’s not easily deterred when there’s a tough case to crack.
Warburton never wanted a wife. Especially an inquisitive and far-too-pretty whirlwind who upends his regimented life. Her sunny, winning ways charm everyone she meets and soon she’s unearthing buried secrets, plotting love matches, and shining light into even the darkest of hearts…his own.
War hero Deckard Payne, Duke of Warburton, made a battlefield promise to become guardian to orphan Analise Crewe. He certainly didn’t agree to marry the girl! But that’s exactly what happens when he’s forced to wed her to save her honor.
The last thing Analise wants is a loveless marriage to a broodingly handsome duke who lives in a gloomy castle and keeps his doors—and his heart—tightly locked. He’s determined to keep her at arm’s length—but she’s not easily deterred when there’s a tough case to crack.
Warburton never wanted a wife. Especially an inquisitive and far-too-pretty whirlwind who upends his regimented life. Her sunny, winning ways charm everyone she meets and soon she’s unearthing buried secrets, plotting love matches, and shining light into even the darkest of hearts…his own.
Audible Audio
Expected publication April 7, 2026
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About the author
Lenora Bell
12 books1,395 followersLenora Bell is a USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of historical romances with Avon Books. A teacher with an MFA in Creative Writing, Lenora has lived and worked on five continents. She's currently lives in Colombia with her partner and two tiger-striped rescue kitties. She loves hearing from readers!
Learn more at www.LenoraBell.com
Learn more at www.LenoraBell.com
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 31, 2025
This new-to-me author has me hooked!!! Loved this marriage of convenience, grumpy/sunshine story.
The growth, the breaking down of walls. Absolutely beautiful
The growth, the breaking down of walls. Absolutely beautiful
October 7, 2025
So, this book is a ward/guardian romance, and I’m generally not inherently opposed to that or to age gap romances in general, but it just annoys me when the younger woman is 18-years-old, aka could be a high school senior, and not because I’m jealous that 18-year-old are hotter than I am at 30.
As Phoebe Maltz Bovy writes in Features and Bugs, until relatively recently, it was NORMAL for adult men to be sexually attracted to teenage girls, and to not have to bother hiding it.
“Because I lived through the before-times, because I remember like yesterday not just early 2017 but 1997 (when I was 14 myself), I can paint a portrait of the mindset. It was quite simply not pedophilia-coded in that context (SHOULD HAVE BEEN but wasn’t) to declare barely-pubescent girls the world’s most beautiful women. You could do this in the National Review and be celebrated for sharing difficult truths. Only a liberal hag of 21-plus would mind hearing that age 15-20 is, as John Derbyshire argued in 2005, the peak female form. Pedophilia, in the before-times, was molestation. It was men (almost always men) acting on desires. But there was a popular understanding that red-blooded men liked teenage girls (American Beauty, remember that movie?) and that this was something disconnected from the tiny subset of men with genuinely troubling urges.”
One reason that #MeToo had so much backlash is that a lot of people, not just men, were really angry that behavior that previously went undiscussed or was even celebrated and envied was now deemed “problematic,” including but not limited to grown men lusting after and pursuing girls who were young enough to be their daughters.
Look, I’m not a prude about age gaps, in fiction or in reality when all parties are of legal age, like Julie Anne Long’s What I Did For A Duke is one of my favorite romance novels of all time (in it, the hero is almost 20 years older than the heroine). And, I do understand that young women are generally considered more attractive than older ones, and I’m genuinely at peace that I’m not in the initial blush of youth anymore. But that said, I think it’s nasty and unbecoming to insist that 15–20 is the peak female form, and I find it weird that a romance novel that’s set to published by Avon (meaning not an independent publisher) in 2026 has a hero that’s 35 and a heroine that’s 18!
I haven’t read a romance novel published in the last 15 years where the heroine is under 20, and even prior to that, there aren’t nearly as many as you’d expect, even among the bodice ripper categories from the 80s and early 90s. Even though it was more acceptable for older men to lust after teenagers 30-40 years ago, everybody still knew that teenage girls were teenage girls, and romance audiences, who obviously skew female, remembered what it was like to be 16 and have some guy twice your age creeping on you, and it sucked. There's also zero discussion of the age gap in the book, and the fact the hero and heroine have a borderline dominant/submissive sexual relationship, from the very first time they, and she, have sex, combined with the age gap, is kind of disconcerting for me, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.
I was curious if it was a male thing to be attracted to much younger women and women don’t feel the same way about younger men, but I asked my husband and he said that even if 18-year-olds are physically attractive, being romantically involved with a teenager gives him the ick because of how immature they are, and he didn’t understand why any 35-year-old would marry a girl that age.
Plus, in the case of this book, Analise also acts like a teenager, not just a sunshiney and #irreverent adult woman, and it’s quite frankly annoying because Lenora Bell also is intent on noting how physically SMALL Ana is.
Anyways, other than that, the book could have been worse so I’ll give it 2 stars, but I just couldn’t get past the age gap and I’m not the only one given the rest of the reviews. Next time, Lenora Bell needs to write a protagonist that doesn’t act like she’s planning out her outfit for senior year homecoming, that’s all I’m saying.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!
As Phoebe Maltz Bovy writes in Features and Bugs, until relatively recently, it was NORMAL for adult men to be sexually attracted to teenage girls, and to not have to bother hiding it.
“Because I lived through the before-times, because I remember like yesterday not just early 2017 but 1997 (when I was 14 myself), I can paint a portrait of the mindset. It was quite simply not pedophilia-coded in that context (SHOULD HAVE BEEN but wasn’t) to declare barely-pubescent girls the world’s most beautiful women. You could do this in the National Review and be celebrated for sharing difficult truths. Only a liberal hag of 21-plus would mind hearing that age 15-20 is, as John Derbyshire argued in 2005, the peak female form. Pedophilia, in the before-times, was molestation. It was men (almost always men) acting on desires. But there was a popular understanding that red-blooded men liked teenage girls (American Beauty, remember that movie?) and that this was something disconnected from the tiny subset of men with genuinely troubling urges.”
One reason that #MeToo had so much backlash is that a lot of people, not just men, were really angry that behavior that previously went undiscussed or was even celebrated and envied was now deemed “problematic,” including but not limited to grown men lusting after and pursuing girls who were young enough to be their daughters.
Look, I’m not a prude about age gaps, in fiction or in reality when all parties are of legal age, like Julie Anne Long’s What I Did For A Duke is one of my favorite romance novels of all time (in it, the hero is almost 20 years older than the heroine). And, I do understand that young women are generally considered more attractive than older ones, and I’m genuinely at peace that I’m not in the initial blush of youth anymore. But that said, I think it’s nasty and unbecoming to insist that 15–20 is the peak female form, and I find it weird that a romance novel that’s set to published by Avon (meaning not an independent publisher) in 2026 has a hero that’s 35 and a heroine that’s 18!
I haven’t read a romance novel published in the last 15 years where the heroine is under 20, and even prior to that, there aren’t nearly as many as you’d expect, even among the bodice ripper categories from the 80s and early 90s. Even though it was more acceptable for older men to lust after teenagers 30-40 years ago, everybody still knew that teenage girls were teenage girls, and romance audiences, who obviously skew female, remembered what it was like to be 16 and have some guy twice your age creeping on you, and it sucked. There's also zero discussion of the age gap in the book, and the fact the hero and heroine have a borderline dominant/submissive sexual relationship, from the very first time they, and she, have sex, combined with the age gap, is kind of disconcerting for me, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.
I was curious if it was a male thing to be attracted to much younger women and women don’t feel the same way about younger men, but I asked my husband and he said that even if 18-year-olds are physically attractive, being romantically involved with a teenager gives him the ick because of how immature they are, and he didn’t understand why any 35-year-old would marry a girl that age.
Plus, in the case of this book, Analise also acts like a teenager, not just a sunshiney and #irreverent adult woman, and it’s quite frankly annoying because Lenora Bell also is intent on noting how physically SMALL Ana is.
Anyways, other than that, the book could have been worse so I’ll give it 2 stars, but I just couldn’t get past the age gap and I’m not the only one given the rest of the reviews. Next time, Lenora Bell needs to write a protagonist that doesn’t act like she’s planning out her outfit for senior year homecoming, that’s all I’m saying.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!
October 1, 2025
*I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I think it's time for me to throw in the towel when it comes to Bell's books. I've read a few of them now, and I found them all to be just okay. Her premises are fun, but something about the execution falls flat, as was the case here. I appreciated the marriage of convenience element, but the age gap felt unnecessary. That trope is inconsistent for me, and Ana genuinely read as an inexperienced eighteen-year-old. On one hand, I liked her pluckiness, but on the other, it made her feel younger than her years. I also wanted more complexity in her relationship with Dex. He was so emotionally distant that his love confession felt unearned. It was a quick read, and I flew through it all in basically one sitting, but I don't think I'm interested enough to continue the series.
I think it's time for me to throw in the towel when it comes to Bell's books. I've read a few of them now, and I found them all to be just okay. Her premises are fun, but something about the execution falls flat, as was the case here. I appreciated the marriage of convenience element, but the age gap felt unnecessary. That trope is inconsistent for me, and Ana genuinely read as an inexperienced eighteen-year-old. On one hand, I liked her pluckiness, but on the other, it made her feel younger than her years. I also wanted more complexity in her relationship with Dex. He was so emotionally distant that his love confession felt unearned. It was a quick read, and I flew through it all in basically one sitting, but I don't think I'm interested enough to continue the series.
September 22, 2025
This was a very easy and interesting read and my first by Lenora Bell. The characters are both likable and easy to root for - a brooding scarred military hero Dexter, who tries to redeem the hurt he imagines he dealt on the battlefield and his innocent but curious and imaginative ward Ana, who dreams of publishing her own fantastical novel about castles and dragons and ends up ensnaring her very own dragon and taming him.
They come together out of duty (Dexter’s to Ana’s father) and marry out of duty as well, but there is passion burning underneath (and lots of it too, and not without some steamy kink!). The book is slow burn but once it starts burning, it’s hot.
The author stayed true to the character’s personalities. Ana is only 18 and she is frequently frustratingly dense and spends many a scene attempting to right a wrong that was not hers to get into. Dexter is slow to change and can be surly and disgruntled. I thought the storyline was well done with some action at the end. I found myself slightly wishing there were more pages there at the end to give main characters more time to develop their feelings with the reader. But what a fun read nonetheless!
Thanks to Avon and NetGalley for this ARC!
They come together out of duty (Dexter’s to Ana’s father) and marry out of duty as well, but there is passion burning underneath (and lots of it too, and not without some steamy kink!). The book is slow burn but once it starts burning, it’s hot.
The author stayed true to the character’s personalities. Ana is only 18 and she is frequently frustratingly dense and spends many a scene attempting to right a wrong that was not hers to get into. Dexter is slow to change and can be surly and disgruntled. I thought the storyline was well done with some action at the end. I found myself slightly wishing there were more pages there at the end to give main characters more time to develop their feelings with the reader. But what a fun read nonetheless!
Thanks to Avon and NetGalley for this ARC!
September 25, 2025
This one was a miss for me. Age gap romances, however well they're written, always give me the ick. In this case, Ana is 18, and Dex is 35. Worse yet- Ana is a convincing 18. She's naive, dense at times, and childish. Ultimately, I couldn't get over that.
Thanks to Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Want to read
November 11, 2025My thanks to the Publisher, and Author, for providing a complimentary digital Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel via NetGalley. This is my fair, honest and personal review. All opinions are mine alone and were not biased in any way.
September 3, 2025
if you are someone who enjoys dazzling regency romances then this is the book for you. it has a very intriguing plot line and will surely leave you begging for more.
November 1, 2025
I read the publisher's summary before I dug into this historical romance, but still, I misunderstood the timing of the events described there. I imagined the Duke of Warburton was promising to be the guardian of a young woman, not a 13- or 14- year-old. "Several years" pass before he finds her, at which point she's a rambunctious 18 to his world-weary 35. I'm not against an age gap novel, but I think I wasn't quite expecting this.
So not my favorite trope, but I was game...until it struck me that, like the first book in the Thunderbolt Club series, I was reading an adaptation of a musical. (That first book, You're the Duke That I Want, was obviously based on Grease, perhaps to an extreme degree.) I should have seen it sooner: Once I realized I was getting a historical romance version of , the ick factor was high and never really went away. are top on the list of pairings I never, ever needed to see in a romance novel.
And obviously, this story is not identical; I'd say this was loosely inspired by the elements of that story. But once you know, it's hard to unsee.
Other than that, it felt like an uneven pairing, with one of the romantic partners doing all the work to drive the romance forward. Not my favorite type of romance; even if the hero is a bit taciturn and closed-off, I need to see glimmers of softening so that when they finally get their HEA, it feels earned. Here, the change was too sudden, too late in the story. It didn't ring true.
I wanted to like this one. I've been missing good historicals and Lenora Bell has some fun ones in her back catalogue. This just didn't hit the spot. I'm going to have to research which musical she's basing her next book on before picking it up; won't make this mistake twice!
I received an advance reader copy from Netgalley for an honest review.
So not my favorite trope, but I was game...until it struck me that, like the first book in the Thunderbolt Club series, I was reading an adaptation of a musical. (That first book, You're the Duke That I Want, was obviously based on Grease, perhaps to an extreme degree.) I should have seen it sooner: Once I realized I was getting a historical romance version of , the ick factor was high and never really went away. are top on the list of pairings I never, ever needed to see in a romance novel.
And obviously, this story is not identical; I'd say this was loosely inspired by the elements of that story. But once you know, it's hard to unsee.
Other than that, it felt like an uneven pairing, with one of the romantic partners doing all the work to drive the romance forward. Not my favorite type of romance; even if the hero is a bit taciturn and closed-off, I need to see glimmers of softening so that when they finally get their HEA, it feels earned. Here, the change was too sudden, too late in the story. It didn't ring true.
I wanted to like this one. I've been missing good historicals and Lenora Bell has some fun ones in her back catalogue. This just didn't hit the spot. I'm going to have to research which musical she's basing her next book on before picking it up; won't make this mistake twice!
I received an advance reader copy from Netgalley for an honest review.
November 11, 2025
In so many ways this was a great book that hit all the high points of the historical genre. All our favorite tropes are here for our enjoyment. The grumpy hero has a solidly tragic past and sense of duty to play the "I want to, but I must not" game perfectly. The heroine is plucky and shiny even when life is not going very well. Add in some marriage of convenience and a cleverly inserted feminist subplot? This should have been a winner.
The hitch? The age-gap trope here was a little too much of a gap to feel OK. While this trope is common in historicals, because historically cis-het men have been free to sexuaize and partner with teenagers, here it was a bit much. Given that the seminal incident for all of this is Ana attempting to break the glass ceiling of getting a book published, making her "barely legal" feels gratuitous. Either the feminism is ahistorical and we all suspend disbelief or not. Given the plot progression and time between our stoic Duke being assigned as Ana's guardian and when they actually meet up, making her solidly in her 20s (and still "on the shelf" by historical standards) was a viable option that would have taken this book right to a five-star rating.
While this was a solidly enjoyable book for the genre, beware the ick that this age gap creates.
The hitch? The age-gap trope here was a little too much of a gap to feel OK. While this trope is common in historicals, because historically cis-het men have been free to sexuaize and partner with teenagers, here it was a bit much. Given that the seminal incident for all of this is Ana attempting to break the glass ceiling of getting a book published, making her "barely legal" feels gratuitous. Either the feminism is ahistorical and we all suspend disbelief or not. Given the plot progression and time between our stoic Duke being assigned as Ana's guardian and when they actually meet up, making her solidly in her 20s (and still "on the shelf" by historical standards) was a viable option that would have taken this book right to a five-star rating.
While this was a solidly enjoyable book for the genre, beware the ick that this age gap creates.
September 21, 2025
Lenora really had me feeling all types of ways.
The Duke of Warburton had me pissed off seven ways until Sunday. But Analise is what shines to me in this book. First she was the Dukes ward, being the daughter of one of his men that he lost during war. Analise was idealistic, young, defiant and naive, but she was 18 so it made sense. Heads up there’s a large age gap here.
I liked the Analise was writing a book within the book and the books within was about fairies and dragons and the beginning of each chapter with an excerpt of her book was great. Though I did hate how much and often she referred to herself as a spitfire.
I think the Duke had various emotional issues, he was so emotionally constipated it had me questioning why Analise liked him. Honestly that’s the part what it wasn’t clear. I also hated how he drove the misunderstands. I also think his shift happened a bit suddenly. I think I would have loved to have seen it more little by little.
Also when they get married we take a sharp turn into a bit of a D/s relationship that I don’t think we set up for so it came a bit out of nowhere. But it was fun smut. Overall I had a good time with this book and had a lot of visceral reactions to it.
The Duke of Warburton had me pissed off seven ways until Sunday. But Analise is what shines to me in this book. First she was the Dukes ward, being the daughter of one of his men that he lost during war. Analise was idealistic, young, defiant and naive, but she was 18 so it made sense. Heads up there’s a large age gap here.
I liked the Analise was writing a book within the book and the books within was about fairies and dragons and the beginning of each chapter with an excerpt of her book was great. Though I did hate how much and often she referred to herself as a spitfire.
I think the Duke had various emotional issues, he was so emotionally constipated it had me questioning why Analise liked him. Honestly that’s the part what it wasn’t clear. I also hated how he drove the misunderstands. I also think his shift happened a bit suddenly. I think I would have loved to have seen it more little by little.
Also when they get married we take a sharp turn into a bit of a D/s relationship that I don’t think we set up for so it came a bit out of nowhere. But it was fun smut. Overall I had a good time with this book and had a lot of visceral reactions to it.
November 16, 2025
More like 2.5 for me. I love the beauty and the beast trope so I was all in for this. Unfortunately, the age gap here felt too large to get over the ick factor. Ana is barely 18 and Warburton is 35. I do not mind an age gap romance when well executed, but Ana felt very, very much like a teenager to me (impulsive, flighty, imaginative). Every new experience was fodder for her book “oh look, a rake! I need a rake for my book! Maybe I’ll kiss him in the gardens!” “Oh look at this handsome man, he will be my new hero!” Meanwhile, Warburton felt very much like a man approaching middle age. Add in the guardian/ward angle plus the surprise “hey virgin bride, we’ve barely kissed but imma give you some spankings on our wedding night and you’re gonna like it” and it just felt like none of these pieces fit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 10, 2025
Beauty and Beast and Grumpy/Sunshine are a couple of my favorite tropes so I was excited to read Can' t Get Enough of the Duke. It was well written and entertaining but I just couldn’t get past the age difference (she’s 18, he’s 35) and the fact that she began the book as his ward. I know that age differences were common during this time but the power imbalance still bothered me.
Also I enjoy reading about a taciturn by day - loquacious Dom by night but I was troubled by this dynamic appearing during her wedding night/first time. She hadn’t even had more than one kiss before and then the Dom comes out. Maybe a low key first time then bring on the Dom night two?
Thank you NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Also I enjoy reading about a taciturn by day - loquacious Dom by night but I was troubled by this dynamic appearing during her wedding night/first time. She hadn’t even had more than one kiss before and then the Dom comes out. Maybe a low key first time then bring on the Dom night two?
Thank you NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 25, 2025
3.5 out of 5 stars. Lenora Bell always delivers with a creative story. Ana becomes a ward of Dex when Dex makes a deathbed promise to her father to see her cared for. Dex takes his word seriously, as the toll of all of the lost lives during the war affected him deeply. He was not ready for his attraction to Ana and his ungentlemanly thoughts. Ana is a breath of fresh air that he realizes that he desperately needs.
Story progressed well. However - and this is just personal preference - as there is a large age gap between them (18 yrs vs 35), that seemed a bit weird to me. Nothing against age gaps, but thinking of a teen and a 35 year old is a bit uncomfortable.
Story progressed well. However - and this is just personal preference - as there is a large age gap between them (18 yrs vs 35), that seemed a bit weird to me. Nothing against age gaps, but thinking of a teen and a 35 year old is a bit uncomfortable.
October 13, 2025
Lenora Bell’s Can’t Get Enough of the Duke is a compelling story about a war ravaged Duke and a feisty aspiring author who also happens to be his ward. There is romance (and definitely some spice), adventure and drama. Bell writes with a flourish that at times seems overdone akin to an early black and white melodrama film. But the core story is good.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. I rate this 3.5 stars.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. I rate this 3.5 stars.
October 21, 2025
Deckard is plagued with guilt and depression over his wartime experiences. He promises a dying buddy he would make the older man's daughter his ward. Finding Analise in poverty conditions, he moves her into his home. He plans to marry her off and see her settled. What he didn't plan for was his attraction to her and her happy spirit. Can he remain aloof? I received an ARC from NetGalley and Avon for my honest review.
November 18, 2025
I enjoyed this new installment of the series. Dex and Ana came together as a battlefield vow that was given. Their story was a fun read and there were so many emotions that they both traversed. Seeing old characters was also a nice touch. There is an age gap that I did struggle with although I had to remember the timeframe of the story. I also tried to figure out how she was a companion to an established lady being 15 years old.
November 21, 2025
Loved the story of the Duke of Watburton . I liked the banter between the two MC , from the beginning of when they meet ! Also the story of the dragon and blue star that was within the story was super entertaining….Ana wanted to be an author and wanted to have this story published . The premise heessiin of their love story was evenly paced and I really enjoyed their HEA and marriage of convenience turned live story …good story
September 22, 2025
If you like historical romance, you will like this book. It had the grumpy/sunshine trope which is one of my favorites. The only red flag was the age gap (she is 18, he is 35).
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are my own.
October 8, 2025
This had the opportunity to be really good but fell super flat, with characters acting like caricatures of their personality types and little to no emotional weight to their actions. Very disappointing.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews