Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book
Rate this book
He may not believe in love, but he won’t tolerate extortion

New York billionaire, Daniel Dufort, is being blackmailed into marriage. He’s not the marrying kind, but he won’t sign away his single status, even if he only uses it to bend women over his desk. When he recruits a black ops team, he knows he’ll do whatever it takes to save the Dufort Dynasty. Then Daniel meets Harper, and what starts as a sexy distraction, soon ends with him questioning all his priorities.

Steamy romance author, Harper Kane is in Hawaii for business. She has zero interest in a holiday romance of her own. Especially not with wealthy, arrogant and—damn it—gorgeous Daniel Dufort. When more than passion erupts between them, Harper discovers what true heartbreak and deceit really is.
Can Daniel outplay his extorter, and take back control of his company, or will he give it all up for her?

Sinful Duty is the first book in the Dufort Dynasty series—a steamy contemporary romance, appealing to readers who love fated mates, billionaire romance, and hot holiday romances.

ABOUT THE SERIES

The Dufort Dynasty series is a steamy contemporary romance, appealing to readers who love fated mates, billionaire romance, and hot holiday romances. Expect high steam, thigh-clenching angst, some adventure, and a rollercoaster as the characters navigate their way to their delicious happy ever after.

266 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 8, 2022

2512 people are currently reading
2478 people want to read

About the author

Juliette N. Banks

79 books425 followers
Juliette N. Banks is a romance author who has taken the genre by storm with her steamy contemporary (mafia and billionaire) and paranormal romances.

If you're looking for sexy books with alpha heroes you'll fall in love with, then grab one of Juliette's free books and adopt a new book boyfriend today!

Juliette has a vast background in consumer marketing and was previously published with Random House. She lives in New Zealand with Tilly, her Maine Coon kitty, and travels frequently.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
1,223 (41%)
4 stars
976 (33%)
3 stars
545 (18%)
2 stars
131 (4%)
1 star
70 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 198 reviews
Profile Image for KaylaJane.
146 reviews
March 10, 2022
SPOILERS

Strike 1 -Starts with Hero getting a BJ by OW

Strike 2 - This is a porn read. Even hero refers to this when he inquires about heroine who is a romance writer, if she writes "romance porn".

Strike 3 -Around 80-98% or so heroine is attracted and making out with OM. This happens after both MCs have hooked up and are exchanging ILYs. She finds out that Hero's father has arranged a marriage with OW because he is being blackmailed and Hero tells her it is not what it seems but because he can't give her the details at that moment (he was trying to find a way out of it), she gives in somewhat to OM who she finds attractive & turns her on and is considering going into a relationship with. No, they don't have sex but she leads the OM on and not to make Hero jealous either. There is heavy kissing and touching. And this is minutes after she finds out Hero may be getting married. In other words, the sheets were not even cold before she parties with OM.

Strike 4 - Comes at the end when we are told that she is not a gold digger but I say BS to that because she chose the Hero who was richer and liked all the gifts & lifestyle of the rich life.

DNF & only skimmed to write this review to save anyone who is not into this trope.

You're welcome.
Profile Image for Ann 🦢.
83 reviews
January 26, 2023
Listen the choke hold this book had me in for the past 6 days 🙃. The characters invaded my space, I cannot stop dreaming/thinking about this book!! Please if you have the chance please read this book you won’t regret it.
Profile Image for Louise.
63 reviews26 followers
November 28, 2022
DNF
Daniel makes me so uncomfortable. He treats women like prey. It feels like he is hunting them. Every time I read Daniel’s POV i felt nothing but disgust. The way he talks about and treats women is actually gross. Then I would read Harper’s POV and she wants nothing to do with him, but the author has to make sure you know that actually she is SO attracted to him. It feels weird. I’m sure Daniel changes his views on women at some point in the book, but I don’t want to read about a woman who changes a cold and slightly sexist man into a loving and caring dude.
Profile Image for Amanda Glaeser.
233 reviews10 followers
February 24, 2022
From PNR to billionaire romance, Juliette's writing can span genre's.

Daniel is intimidating and straightforward. A man who is used to getting what he wants. But when he meets Harper and she doesn't give him her attention, he makes it his mission to get and keep her attention.

Harper hasn't had great luck with men and has decided to focus on her career. But when a huge opportunity comes along, it brings her to Hawaii and right onto Daniel's radar. Can she keep their relationship strictly professional or will she give in to his charm and good looks.

This book has everything you want in a billionaire romance. I can't wait to see where the story goes.
Profile Image for Hannah Montana.
123 reviews1 follower
December 1, 2022
This was actually bad! This entire thing took place in 3 weeks! I know some of us are desperate ladies, but this book lacked logic.
40 reviews
May 15, 2023
This was not as good as the reviews lead me to believe.

I enjoyed how distant and uninterested Harper seemed in the billionaire Daniel in the beginning. I was rooting for her to hold out and make Daniel work a littler harder than he usually had to for a woman’s attention . . . but then he buys her one drink and she falls right into his hands just as he expected she would. I was disappointed to say the least. All that potential tension . . . POOF! Vanished straight into a pineapple umbrella cocktail.

Also, that was the least believable Category 5 hurricane I think I’ve ever read about in any novel. It was so random and clearly added to get the two ‘love interests’ to share a bed together . . . in a hallway. The hotel staff starts boarding up the MORNING it’s set to arrive? A Cat 5 . . . And they wait till the last possible second to prepare?

What the heck? I’ll give her credit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that method used in a romance book before . . . but perhaps for good reason. The only damage was a few palm fronds scattered in the parking lot. I feel like a quick google search “cat 5 aftermath” would have done the author some service here. Although I have family in Florida so perhaps that’s why this rubbed me the wrong way.

The fact that’s how they ended up in a bed together seemed way to convenient and like a last minute choice by the author. It also disappointed me.

Then there’s his big moment. Daniel decides he wants to take a woman on a date—something he’s never considered doing before. What’s his big billionaire bank account plan? Fly her in a helicopter . . . to a luxury hotel . . . on the beach! But like, not the same luxury hotel on the beach they’re currently staying in . . . it’s a different one.

They’re in Hawaii . . . And all he can come up with is a hotel dinner on the beach? Was there literally no other place he could’ve taken her? No other effort could’ve been put into it? A private dinner someplace only reachable by helicopter with a few staff members to server them? Then a nice secluded swim in some little known tide pool only the locals know about? No? None of that?

I mean, to put it in perspective, my husband rented a helicopter to take us on a private night time tour of Boston when we visited . . . and he’s definitely not a billionaire.

This date seemed a little . . . flat. But I don’t know. Maybe I can look past that considering he’s never gone on a date before? Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing.

Then we get to the whole “the pair are forced to break up” part, and it was a roller coaster and one I wanted off of. Katy Perry’s - Hot N Cold comes to mind. One minute she’s breaking up with him over a vague-as-hell text Daniels father sent him. The next she’s nuzzling his chest. The next she’s dancing with some other rich guy she just met (don’t even get me started on whatever that was supposed to be about), then she’s nuzzling Daniels chest, then she’s storming off and they aren’t speaking to each other, then he’s rushing into the room to see if she’s okay all over a nightmare, then they’re not talking again, then she’s eating breakfast with him, then she’s storming out of his penthouse leaving behind the watch he bought her.

Like, it just ruined the pacing entirely of the book, like the author had several plans on how she was going to handle the story, and just left parts in that were drafts meant to be deleted.

It just didn’t flow together at all and left me no longer caring what was happening at the hotel.

The weird “three rich guys” subplot was just that. Strange indeed. For a woman who was swearing off men on her vacation, she sure knows how to give them all her attention. I feel like this was a weird and weak attempt at making Daniel jealous, but she later realized a CEO at one of his hotels, putting his hands on/arguing with a guest in public—over a woman, probably wouldn’t be a good look, so she decided to just water the drama down, instead of removing it in favor of something else.

I didn’t really care for it. Also, why were the three of them showering her with gifts, when only one was making an obvious attempt at courting her. Like, I know us ladies don’t get much good attention from men but this was a little cheesy to me. Not just competition from one man, but poor Daniel had to compete with three rich Harvard trust fund babies. But it wasn’t really a competition because the second the group learns it’s Daniel that broke her heart, they just roll over like “Oh, that guy. Yeah he’s more competition than we care to go up against. When he breaks your heart again, we’ll all go for ice cream, bestie!”

It was weird. Although Mr. Harvard planned a better date than Mr. Dynasty. Just my opinion.

It just seemed like the author was forcing too much of the plot of the characters which made them feel like they were acting out of character. Lots of moments made me roll my eyes. The surprise Valentine’s Day party gave me flashbacks to really cringy fanfics I used to read as a teenager and I almost stopped reading the book after she got invited by the three Harvard boys to make Daniel jealous.

I quite literally set it down and told my husband I couldn’t read that. It was too much. But he insisted I continued because he was enjoying my constant commentary and said he was invested on how it played out.

So I marched on . . . for my husband and his secret love of hearing me complain about romance dramas.

The ending was just too neatly wrapped up for my taste.

I probably won’t be reading anymore of this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1,814 reviews76 followers
February 13, 2022
Wow! Harper and Daniel’s chemistry is off the charts in this book! Fast paced - this book kept me turning the pages wondering what was going to happen next! First time reading this author and am excited to read more from Juliette! Fantastic job!
Profile Image for Jessica Jarvis.
504 reviews24 followers
March 13, 2022
This is definitely different than what I have previously read by Banks, but it was a fabulous read. This book is sexy and fast paced and will have you hooked from chapter one! Can’t wait for the next book!
566 reviews3 followers
November 7, 2023
This book was free so I thought I would try a new author. Well, it is one and done. The word 'steamy' was used as a description and that is very much correct. It seems all the main characters can think about is sex. The balls in the vagina were rather over the top for me.

The hurricane could have been left out as it was just a thought and not thought out. Everyone seemed surprised there was a category 5 hurricane bearing down. There are no surprises when that happens as the weather people let you know well in advance and order evacuations. According to the book there was very little damage the next day. The damage caused by a category 5 hurricane takes months, if not years to repair and rebuild.

I just did not like the book.
Profile Image for Klutzy Traveler.
260 reviews1 follower
December 11, 2024
This is the first in a new series by Juliette Banks, and it is off to a great start! Daniel and Harper are strong characters, and their relationship faces many challenges. Watching them learn to drop their defenses kept me turning pages. Daniel’s efforts to overcome the external forces at work to keep them apart were quite the turnaround from his views on relationships at the start of the book. I can’t wait to read about Daniel’s brothers in the next two installments of the series!
Profile Image for Devin Sloane.
Author 29 books218 followers
March 8, 2022
This book was a departure from what I normally expect from Juliette Banks, but no less enjoyable because of it. Her writing style is so fluid! It took me a bit to warm up to the MCs, especially Daniel, but once he started to thaw, I did as well. Thoroughly enjoyable read and I look forward to the next one in the Dufort Series!
Profile Image for Fae.
1,299 reviews26 followers
May 5, 2025
A holiday romance with a twist. Daniel is being blackmailed into marrying someone he doesn’t like. Harper just got her heart broken and is at Hawaii for her upcoming book turned movie. The two meet, and there was an insta lust going on, and they sleep together fairly quick. I didn’t believe the romance at all honestly, as I didn’t see enough emotional bonding for me to believe they were truly in love. But I do love a holiday romance as they’re quite romantic, so I’m giving it a 3 stars. Otherwise, this felt like an erotica holiday plot more than a romance. Plus, I was disappointed Harper didn’t make Daniel grovel more at the back.
Profile Image for Machroo.
18 reviews
July 5, 2024
DNF

The ‘Hero’ starts saying that he never cares about the women he goes to bed with, that he doesn’t sleep with them and that he doesn’t want a relationship.
Next few pages, he sees her for the first time and everything changes instantly. He’s already in love with her and wants to protect her. WHERE IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR FEELINGS???
WHERE IS THEIR “GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER” TO SAY THAT THEY ACTUALLY LOVE THE OTHER?????
Nowhere.

Other than the spicy scenes, it’s really, REALLY BORING.

Sorry not sorry, a waste of time, in my opinion obv
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Madison Hoffman.
131 reviews3 followers
October 24, 2022
I needed a break from my other books so I decided to read one of the many romance novels I had downloaded on my kindle. I actually really enjoyed this book! The characters were great. I really loved the chemistry. Was it believable? 🤷🏼‍♀️ BUT was it cute? Absolutely!
Profile Image for Mrs Moa.
496 reviews29 followers
February 15, 2024
This book is who billionaire romances should aspire to.

An upcoming Aotearoa author meets a self proclaimed play boy billionaire.

Sparks fly, steam rises, no time for a simmer - this is boiling hot!

Loved it

✨gifted
Profile Image for JessicaA Gonzales.
142 reviews1 follower
March 12, 2022
A MUST READ!!! JULIETTE BANKS IS MY FAVORITE AUTHOR TO DATE!!! i have read everything she has published and have not been disappointed. i started out with her paranormal romance and this contemporary book is off the charts HOT!! the steamy sex scenes are hot. love the characters, the story, everything had me turning the pages on this book. i cant wait for FLETCHERS STORY and to continue in this series!!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Profile Image for Emily Merry.
109 reviews
May 14, 2023
In my era of reading every Google play free romance book while I wait for my placement to be over

My favourite part of this book was the secret spy stuff and political drama
Profile Image for Alonna Irizarry.
680 reviews7 followers
June 17, 2024
Billionaire/ vacation/ forced proximity/ blackmail/ instalust/ OM/OW drama

This one dragged on. It felt like this book could’ve been half as long and still cover basically the same story. Overall underwhelming.

The MMC is a domineering CEO with commitment issues. The FMC is a budding romance author with major baggage. The meet at his hotel, sexual tension is palpable, things happen, eventually they get a HEA.

Profile Image for Mia Epsilon.
Author 12 books13 followers
July 16, 2025
Not bad Just not great

I thought this would be yet another predictable man with $$$ does anything he wants… and I was right. There were some new half twists, but also some that stretched belief.

What I liked:
Strong heroine who is a romance writer, down to earth, and a romantic
Hero with a heart buried under all the arrogance

What I didn’t like:
He’s known all over the world and often in the media, yet no pictures of him and heroine going all over the island, kissing, etc?

This hero supposedly runs a billion dollar company and doesn’t put together after she told him at least 3 times, that her father is Hawaiian and that Hawaii IS the US so why would she need a visa?

A cat 5 hurricane and they stay in rooms on the at least 37 or 40 floor? A cat 5 no one knew anything about until it hit? In this day and age? A cat 5 that left everything relatively untouched the next day?

The whole ending was all tell, tell, tell. It wrapped up in a couple of convenient paragraphs. Sloppy writing, really.
Speaking of….several typos.

Literally hrs after mad sex with hero…she is kissing another guy? He broke her heart so she is going to break the heart of this new dude?

Just hit me wrong in several spots. Hard to picture this couple as a Couple.
Profile Image for Big Sho  ✨.
66 reviews1 follower
May 31, 2025
I needed a billionaire romance and I got it, It is very enjoyable. I didn’t put it down once i started but I still wanted more from it. I want to read one of the spin-offs though cos I am curious 😂
1,236 reviews14 followers
January 14, 2025
I did mostly enjoy it but there’s a quite a lot wrong with it. Spelling mistakes, missing words, & plots that didn’t make any sense.

I was going to actually score it higher, but the plot just went crazy and unbelievable and it spoilt it. I don’t know where to start with this one. There’s a lot of spelling mistakes, incorrect words used, and some pretty big plot mistakes.

At the beginning of the book Daniel who is a billionaire and runs the family hotels, is getting o**l s*x from a woman he has just met. I hated Daniel at first and to be honest he didn’t really grow on me. I hated the way that he treat women and the way that he thought of them. As the book progressed I liked him a bit more but I still didn’t love his character. I thought he was weak and shallow.

Daniel is being blackmailed into marrying a senators daughter, because of a loan his dad made years before. At first he doesn’t really do anything about it but accept his fate. Eventually he fights back and they actually investigate it and fight it.

When he meets Harper, (Who is a romance author and is meeting her publishing team there.) he instantly wants to f*ck her, charming man. 😡 Harper had a terrible childhood with her dad having a whole different family in Hawaii. The mum just seems to put up with it, and it’s made her very bitter and hateful to all men. Harper has just been dumped by her boyfriend who lived with her for five years.

Eventually they fall in love, but Daniel’s impending marriage hangs over him until Harper accidentally finds out. This is where the plot went crazy. Daniel and Harper both say that they are falling in love with each other. Yet within days Harper is kissing another man and convincing herself that she’s not in love with Daniel, and she could have a future with Cooper the new guy. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ So within a few weeks she’s convinced herself that she never loved her ex, (Yet she lived with him for five years.) and she didn’t love Daniel who broke her heart. Erm….. is she crazy?

🔵 The plot with the senator is never really explained and it’s annoying.
🔵 Daniel’s engagement was announced in the papers, yet it never said what they told the press.
🔵Loads of spelling mistakes and incorrect words.
🔵 Why did Harper write her books around Daniel’s hotel in Hawaii when she’s never stayed there?
🔵 Harper tells Daniel, that every winter she escapes New Zealand, and goes to somewhere hot. It never says how that’s possible as she was in finance before she was an author. How did she afford it?
🔵 It infers at the beginning of the book that there might be something mentally wrong with Harper’s mum. As she won’t stop texting her and phoning constantly. Yet later on it’s never mentioned again.

Not the best book I’ve ever read. Daniel doesn’t fight for Harper at all, until someone pushes him into fighting for her. So romantic…….. Not.
Profile Image for Jo.
77 reviews
August 9, 2024
So frustrating!

I was so looking forward to this "best selling Indie author" but-
Right off the start, in an international market you do not have to explain that Americans use the term flip- flops. It didn't add to the character, or the story at all. It literally pulled me out for just a minute contemplating why the hell the author thought the reader needed the lesson. Like, everyone gets it. We all use different colloquial terms.
Next up, no, February is absolutely not hurricane season in Hawaii. Eastern Pacific starts May, the rest of the Pacific and Atlantic start June, both End in November. Google is free and fast. This really annoyed me once again pulling me right out of the story. Such a simple thing to fix and such a big negative impact.
Going along with this train of thought, when a hurricane is coming, we know many days in advance. And stores/hotels/etc are closing up and preparing before weather starts. It's not like a rain storm, it doesn't just suddenly downpour. The hotel,Daniel, and the guests would have been warned way ahead of time. This was just ridiculous to me as someone who grew up with hurricanes. I feel like no research was done on this point. Just heard about it or saw a movie once and guessed?
A recurring irritation- the lanai. It is NOT A BALCONY! It is more like a covered porch or veranda. Rarely will you see one above ground floor, above a second floor is almost unheard of.
After everything else, the little things that pulled me out of the story just made me pedantic. So, onward,
Why did the author insist on having all the characters complain that it was hot and "unseasonably hot"? February in Hawaii is average 78°F. (Which is on par for February in New Zealand) Nobody in America thinks that is so hot. Even if it was hotter, very few Americans would complain that 80 was scorching hot. That's pretty mild in the warm states. So, the only character who should have mentioned the heat might have been Harper. I just couldn't understand why all these American dudes were saying it was so hot. In February. In Hawaii. Again, a little research would have fixed this for me. I just kept thinking, have you every been to Hawaii? Read a book about it?

It made me really sad, because the characters were good (a little pressed that we kept hearing about Harper's age -over and over ad nauseum- and nobody else's) and the story just dragged you right in. Had you hoping the characters made it together.

There were a few points I wish were clarified (mostly secondary characters), but overall, the story could have been so good.
Profile Image for Izzy SM.
421 reviews6 followers
October 14, 2023
A romance writer out of a bad relationship who vowed to never marry and a billionaire who thinks relationships are the devil meet when both travelling to one of his hotel for her book adaptation to screen and sparks fly.

It had some clichés, but not too much and the plot was actually realistic (for a romance novel, of course). The way their relationship developed and what they thought of it was rather realistic.

There was a good character development, especially for the MMC.

It's third person POV which I don't like at all. Surprisingly, this one was well done and didn't bother me as much as usual.
Didn't love all the past perfect tense paragraphs. No need for those.
27 reviews
February 25, 2022
Yet another great book with a meant to be couple!
Juliette knows how to write her characters into reality! You feel you know Harper and Daniel-- find yourself rooting for them, as you feel their pain and joy. And the steam may give you some ideas !! (*significant others should thank Juliette!!)
I also love the story's basis for the drama, and in my gut I feel the senator is not yet done with the Dufort family. Kudos on the start of another wonderful series. Highly recommend this book. Now bring on Fletcher's book!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 198 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.