I absolutely adore everything Harlequin Manga has put out recently and Darian Hunter: Duke of Desire was no different. These mangas take no time at all to read and I highly recommend them.

I am so excited to see a lot more of these Harlequin romance manga comics being released. I love them. They give me a quick, enjoyable, romantic read when I am short on time. And on top of that, it's a taster for the full story and sometimes I go back and get the book to read all the details which sometimes the manga misses. Nonetheless, thoroughly enjoyable. Apologies for the repeat review, but I tend to feel the same about almost all the books.

The story is portrayed beautifully in this manga! Rin Ogata brilliantly was able to capture the desire between Darian and Mariah then visualised them into this artwork. I found the story was a bit odd for Harlequin Historical Romance in which the heroine is a widow. She had a teenage daughter. She is also portrayed as a femme fatale leading our hero to some misunderstanding and unexplainable desire towards her.

Overall, it is fun read tho!

This was another quick read about Duke Darian and Mariah. Things take a turn when they end up having to go to a party together as a couple, which isn't easy as they don't get along, but mainly because Darian doesn't know her entire story.

Darian Hunter, the Duke of Wolfingham, approaches the widowed and much rumored Lady Mariah Beecham to ask her to send his besotted brother packing. He believes her fame does not make her adequate for his brother… until he falls for her himself. Will he be able to see through the gossip and reach for a happiness that has eluded them both? Romance and adventure combined in a very pleasant manga romance you will not want to put down.

I felt like there just wasn't much to this story. In comparison to other historical romances I've read, it added a little bit extra with the aspect of being spies, which was good. However, there just wasn't enough content.

The woman is swept into lust by his strong powerful kisses, even though she doesn't like him. The man is swept into lust by her soft yielding body and he is convinced that she is using her womanly wiles over him. (Keep telling yourself that).

He wants to serve his country but he must protect his younger brother from the wiles of this older woman. He rushes into judgement thinking the woman is wild but he begins to come to his senses when she gives him a good slap across the chops for his impertinence!

But the two of them overcome their dislike of each other when they have to work together to foil a plot to kill the prince regent and as they work together they begin to learn the truth about each other and this is truth that leads to love.

This was a nice regency tale with an adventure at the heart of the story. This has really great art and although it wasn't really a favorite of mine, I still enjoyed reading it.

Copy provided by Harlequin and SB Create via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

3.5 stars

This was a beautifully illustrated manga, one of my favourites in terms of the depiction of the couple, the flow of the blocks as the story moved along and the intimate scenes were so tastefully but realistically illustrated. Darian and Mariah were consistently drawn and I liked the visualisation for them.

I found the story not as exciting as the visual but I did really appreciate that the heroine had a teenage daughter. This isn’t something you see very often in historical romance, so it felt that bit different. There was definitely a process to go through before Darian could become likeable but there was hope of redemption.

A fun read with excellent illustration.