Life and love requires some tough decisions to be made. How do you choose between the things you want and the people you need? Nick and Mina find themselves caught in the the middle of their heart's desires and their life's ambition in A Duke Changes Everything. In a world full of people blessed with pretty things, sometimes it takes surviving the ugliest of circumstances to help make the right choice. Carlyle takes readers through the good, the bad and the painful to get to the meant to be. ( )

This is my first Christy Carlyle book and I really enjoyed my time with it.

It's got some beauty and the beast vibes. A headstrong female character and a hero who doesn't want his title. So basically right in my wheelhouse for historicals.

Recommend it if you want something fun to read!
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A lovely romantic first book in a new series. The Duke’s Den is an exclusive gaming hell owned by three men – Aidan Iverson (large, red-haired, grew up in London’s worst slum), Rhys Forester, Marquess of Huntley, and Nicholas Lyon (large, scarred, abused son of a mad duke). If this book is an example of those to come in the series, I can’t wait to read the others! It is well written, well plotted and I really enjoyed all of the characters.

Nicholas (Nick) Lyon had an absolutely terrifying childhood. His father, Talbot Lyon, Duke of Tremayne, was a demented, jealous, abusive man who hated Nick because, in his madness, he believed that Nick was not his son. The despicable things he did to his young son will make your hair stand on end, but you can easily see why Nick has become the man he is. Nick carries deep scars both on his body and deep inside. People refer to him as ‘monster’ because of his mismatched eyes and the jagged scar bisecting the left half of his face.

Miss Thomasina (Mena) Thorne is the daughter of Thomas Thorne, steward of Enderley Castle, the seat of the Duke of Tremayne. Mena grew up on the estate and loved it, the tenants, and the people in the surrounding village. Since her mother passed away when Mena was young, she spent all of her time with her father and knows every inch of the estate and how to manage it. When her father passed away, it was just an easy step to assume her father’s role. The old Duke had also passed away and his heir, Eustace, was a drunken wastrel and didn’t care who managed the estate, so he allowed Mena to assume those duties. However, when Eustace also passed away, Mena didn’t exactly mention to the new heir that she was a female.

Mena was an outstanding steward and was loved and respected by the estate staff. However, she was a woman and the male leaders in the area took exception to her acting in the role a man would normally hold. “Over the years she’d mastered half smiles, grown proficient at blank expressions, and she would’ve earned high marks in tongue-biting if anybody was offering a grade.”

When Sir Malcolm Granville showed up at The Duke’s Den and insisted on speaking with Nick, Nick refused to see him because he recognized Granville as a crony of his deceased father and the mentor of Nick’s older brother Eustace. Instead, Nick sent Huntley to deal with the man – assuming that Granville had come on Eustace’s behalf seeking money because, in the three years since Eustace had inherited, he had almost emptied the ducal coffers. Nick wanted nothing to do with his wastrel brother nor the ducal estate that had served as Nick’s torture chamber. Then, Nick heard the words that brought horror and loathing to him – “Your brother, Eustace, is dead. As of a week ago, you’re the Duke of Tremayne.”

Nick pursued every avenue he could find to refuse the title and inheritance, but there was no way around it. If he couldn’t refuse it, then he’d gut it. He’d empty Enderley Castle of all of its possessions by auctioning off everything that wasn’t entailed, then he will lease out the castle and grounds. He wanted no part of that dark, cruel place.

After several rounds of correspondence with the estate manager, T. Thorne, Nick heads out for a personal look at the estate to see what needs to be repaired and handled prior to leasing the estate – and to start the process of cataloging the items for auction. When he arrives early, the scene where he meets his steward is very entertaining and funny.

Mena and Nick are at a standoff. Nick plans to gut and empty the estate, so he can’t really hire a new steward at the moment – and Mena is the one with all the answers to Nick’s questions. The only option is to work with Mena. Mena is agape when she learns of Nick’s intentions but realizes there is nothing she can do except try to make him see what is good about the estate and especially its people.

Their path to their HEA was not an easy one, but their attraction grew and grew until both of them finally realized how much they cared and what each would give up for the other. It was a lovely romance between truly lovable characters.

I hope you will enjoy the read as much as I did.

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"I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher." ( )

A Duke Changes Everything by Christy Carlyle
Dukes Den #1

Nicholas Lyon is a made-man in spite of being born to a wealthy home. His father was a sadistic manipulative evil man that Nick and his mother finally managed to get away from but their lives were not easy and it became necessary for Nick to live by his wits to survive – and – that he did and then some. As the co-owner of a gambling den in London he works hard and earns much money. He has the say over who he will extend loans to and has tried to put his childhood behind him. When he learns that he has inherited the title of Duke after both his father and older brother die he is not interested at all in taking up the reins of the dukedom.

Mina Thorne took over as manager of the Tremayne estate she does her best to keep things going in spite of the previous two dukes not doing well by the house or its tenants. She is hopeful that the new duke will be a breath of fresh air. In some ways he is and yet in other ways he is not. As the two get to know one another things do change and what a delight the relationship was to watch as the two changed and grew and become a couple/partnership.

I won’t say much more but will say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the second book when it comes out!

Thank you to Edelweiss Above the Treeline and Harper Collins for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars ( )