After enjoying his brother's romance, I was also set to see serious Christopher Pringle going on his wife hunt with the reluctant assistance of Matchmaker, Miss Gloria Godwin, stargazer and more.
Wish Upon a Duke is the third of the Twelve Dukes of Christmas series of loosely connected holiday town themed historical romance.
Wish Upon a Duke finds us still in the isolated, snowy mountain top village of Cressmouth where its Christmas all the time and romance seems to be in the air. With Nick the rake wedded and happy, his younger brother, Chris, thinks he has a decent shot of finding a woman to love him and go on wondrous traveling adventures with him because Chris never stays in one place longer than a month.
But suddenly, with the Rake reformed, Chris is inundated by eligible and excited young ladies who are more interested in a mild flirtation or easy seduction than love. His new sister in law determines this calls for a matchmaker to help direct his efforts. Too bad, he's already made a bad first impression on the village matchmaker when he all but called her a nitwit on her stargazing walk the previous night.
Gloria is still twitted about the proper, rule-following Chris insulting her intelligence in front of the group she was guiding. She knows her stars- boy, does she know them. She wishes on her Duke star frequently to find her own man to love and love her back. But, Chris is the opposite of what she wants. He's a rules guy and worse, he won't be staying in Cressmouth and never going anywhere. Gloria is determined that bad things happen whenever she left home so she refuses to set foot outside her village and she enjoys her make believe imaginary trips and pretend for fun. But, one failed match after the next, it grows harder and harder to see why this beautiful man can't be for her.
With a new couple comes a new set of difficulties. Christopher grew up in the same acrimonious household as Nick. Nick channeled his escape into raking while Christopher escapes his past in never staying still. Meanwhile, Gloria lost her sailor father at sea, her fiancee left for India with promises to return and didn't, and her mother faded away in grief so Gloria avoids any part of life that reminds her of these losses. Both are engaging, fun people and enjoy some flirty and then sexy encounters. It was obvious what had to happen to make it work, but they both had to let go of the past.
So, another light, fast, and sexy installment in the series. It doesn't dig too deep, but remains an entertaining romance. I look forward to seeing our quirky bird expert, Victoria, find romance next.