Meet the damaged dukes from the Napoleonic wars and the spirited, strong-willed, and beautiful women who help them discover the joy of living again. Romance, intrigue, and passion ignite in this stunning new series.

Lord Reeve Malliston, Third Duke of Nidderdale, is a brilliant military tactician with a musician’s eccentricities. A favorite of the Duke of Wellington, he’s called to fight on the fields of Salamanca. The English victory is supposed to be Reeve’s defining accomplishment, but war is cruel to the duke, who is discharged from the battlefield nearly deaf and with two fingers missing. He comes home a disgraced and broken man, or so he believes.

After his lady wife dies under mysterious circumstances, nasty rumors abound that he went mad, that war shattered his mind and he murdered the mother of his two young daughters. With little care for the social consequences, he does nothing to combat the gossip and descends into debauchery, leaving his children under the dubious care of a pernicious governess and her sister, his equally uncivil housekeeper.

When yet another instance of domestic chaos greets him and his daughters beg him to intervene, Reeve suddenly decides to enlist his old comrade’s daughter as their new governess. With this new woman to be both surrogate mother and tutor, Reeve plans on resuming his risqué lifestyle without worry or guilt. But Miss Caroline Sedgwyck, though affectionate toward the children and levelheaded overall, is anything but docile. She sees right through Reeve’s penchant for impropriety, much as he detects that her calm indifference to him is a facade. The two constantly test each other as Caroline challenges the duke to do what is best for his family, while Reeve stirs Caroline’s passions. Desire, friction, and friendship blossom in equal measure between them—is Caroline the woman to quell the Duke of Havoc? Will she restore the music to his soul?