Awesome. Sweet. Read in one seating. Short. Can’t wait to read more in the next book. Loving all the books I’ve read by this author.

The Duke’s Embrace by Erica Ridley
The Duke’s Embrace by Erica Ridley is the seventh book in the 12 Dukes of Christmas. These books include quirky characters, a town always full of Christmas spirit and lots of hope and love. Ms Eve Shelling wants to write for a newspaper. Real News, not the rehashed and same old stuff that her father insists putting in the local paper. She just needs to find the right story to convince him.

Local blacksmith Monsieur Sébastien le Duc has helped his family run the blacksmiths and to pay off all the other debts. What he is not ready to do is to move back to France. He feels connected to here, but his brother really wants to go back so he agreed. And that is how Eve can help - find them a buyer for the smithy. Only things start to change for Eve and Bastian. What will have now?

Another fun read by Erica Ridley is The Duke’s Embrace. I have to admit I didn’t like all the characters - specifically Eve’s father, however, having said that the story was a good read.

The Duke's Embrace (12 Dukes of Christmas, Book 7) by Erica Ridley is a nice addition to her Dukes of Christmas series. The town of Cressmouth- better known as Christmas- has so many interesting and unique women residing there. This time Eve Shelling, a journalist with the local paper, has her eye on the local blacksmith Monsieur Sébastien le Duc.

There are mysteries associated with Monsieur Sébastien le Duc (such as his little smuggling operation), but he is very open about his overwhelming desire to return to the country of birth, France, once he has saved the necessary money. Eve is very interested in Sébastien and his efforts to obtain the rest of the needed funds by selling his business. Meantime, Eve is increasingly frustrated by her inability to sway her father, owner of the newspaper, to understand that real journalism is not printing the same articles year after year.

I love Erica Ridley’s writing and have especially enjoyed the 12 Dukes of Christmas series. However, of the 7 books I’ve read so far, I have to admit that The Duke's Embrace has been the least interesting to me. I think, perhaps, a lot of that is due to Eve’s father. The character was very unpleasant and I felt that dragged the story down.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The Duke’s Embrace by Erica Ridley is another warm,delicious read. The two main characters are strong willed yet unique, with trouble backgrounds and worries. The story is not predictable and has many unexpected twists and turns. I especially like the insight into each characters upbringing. Highly recommend this book and all the Dukes of Christmas stories I have read so far.

Miss Eve Shelling is a journalist who wants her father to take her seriously and let her write her own stories for his local paper. She’s searching for the perfect story and she thinks found the perfect story for the front page story of the upstanding blacksmith, Sebastien le Duc and his family. She gets more than she bargained for when she discovers nefarious smuggling career, she must choose between the man she loves and printing the truth and ruining him and her love. An excellent story with wonderful characters I voluntarily wrote a review for.

I am not a fan of journalist main characters, but the heroine is earnest. The hero is a hard worker but also has some secrets.
I was charmed and smiled at the ending. Those who enjoy historical romance won't be disappointed.

There is an intimate scene, so this can't be classified as clean.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC from Netgalley.

Loving this series. Having to go back and read from the beginning I'm enjoying it so much. Love these men and the fabulous women.

I have read all of the books in this series as of yet. I am loving this series so far.
Sebastian and Eve’s story is one of my favorite books so far in the series. I would have liked to see more of a conflict but other than that it was awesome. I can’t wait to read the rest of the 12 Dukes of Christmas.

It was an okay read, but nothing i'd wish to reread. It was too quick, it didn't get enough character or world building and i found the characters boring, therebefore i didn't exactly get behind the insta-love this book provides either.

The seventh Duke is having a happily ever after! Yay! After Desiree Le Duc found her hapiness with Jack, I'm very pleased that this time Sebastien Le Duc is the main character of this book. Although Sebastien is regarded the 'Beau of Chressmouth, Bastien is trying to get back to France with his brother Lucien. But first they have to sell the smithy.
And how to reach out to the people in Chressmouth better than via the local newspaper? So, when Bastien contacts Eve Schelling, he is surprised to find out that this wonderful woman is nearly running the newspaper on her own.
Eve wanted to be taken seriously as a journalist, but one mistake made her father distrust her. So now she is struggling to come out from under her fathers wing and become a famous journalist. So, an article about the infamous Le Duc brothers may be her ticket to fame. Because the whole world will be shocked when they hear about the smuggling that Eve discovered.
Five out of five stars from me and a special thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc.

Eva Shelling wants to be a respected journalist. She knows that won't happen unless her father agrees to let her write more relevant stories. The paper needs to be more that a travelogue praising Cressmouth. Since her father owns the paper I didn't think she would be successful. Eva deserves her father's respect and his love, but he won't do that. I hated to see her blame herself for her mother's death. Meanwhile local blacksmith Sebastien le Duc and his brother want to sell their business and go to France. They've been living in England for years. Now they can go home and try to reclaim their birth right. Can Sebastien leave this snowy village where he's found love? He knows the more time he and Eva spend together, the more he wants to be with her forever. I enjoyed watching their love grow. I wanted them to be happy. They both deserve it. The past has caused them both so much pain. Eva's father is a problem. I didn't want him to destroy their future. I wasn't sure that he could be stopped. Erica Ridley wrote a sweet, emotional romance that made me smile. I liked both the setting and the characters.
I received a copy of this book which I voluntarily read and reviewed. My comments are my honest opinion.

Another great book in this series. I enjoyed reading the story of Bastian and Eve, a Frenchman who had worked his whole life to be able to leave Cressmouth and a woman who strives to prove herself as a journalist. An unlikely pair who can't seem to stay away from each other. I am excited to read the next book about Lucian!

This book follows Eve Shelling, lady journalist looking for more of a challenge and Bastien le Duc, Blacksmith and smuggler. I have read the majority of this series now and this one I think is my least favourite. It was a cute story and very well written, I think the problem for me was that this one had characters and a plot points that really should have been fleshed out more. For instance, I still don't exactly know how these brothers were even involved in the smuggling storyline that was introduced in the last book.

Anyway, quick cute read :)

Bastien Le Duc is Cressmouth's dandy; the secret is that he has pieced together his finery with his own skills. Aristocratic parentage means little when you are orphaned in a foreign land at a young age and must work in a smithy with your siblings to redeem the debt on the very land you inhabit.

Eve is the actual force behind her father's newspaper, The Cressmouth Gazette, and longs to be taken seriously as a journalist. Guilt over her mother's death has kept her in place beneath her increasingly fragile father's thumb. She thinks a well-written article on the Le Duc smithy could be her way out.

But there are layers upon layers-- the Le Ducs have secrets to hide, and Bastien discovers that he has a reason not to return to France and remain a smith if he likes. The truth will out, and it sets them all free. One of those truths is that Eve and Bastien don't want to live without each other.

Erica Ridley tells it much better than I possibly can, as usual.

The Duke's Embrace is a great novella in the 12 Dukes of Christmas series.. Eve and Bastian's story is compelling and well-developed even in a short length, which speaks volumes of Ms. Ridley's writing talent.

Eve wants to be taken seriously as a journalist, and her own father doesn't even take her seriously. She sets out to write a piece on the blacksmiths, and that's where she meets her hero. Bastian's family was torn from their home in France years ago, and he longs to go back. It is his and his brother's main goal in life. Love was not on the horizon for him, but when he and Eve cross paths, it becomes inevitable.

Well written, quick read. Enjoyable.

Ms Ridley never fails to deliver and this is an entertaining, fast and fun read full of action, drama and romance.
I laughed, I rooted for the characters and had a good time.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Part of Erica Ridley’s 12 Dukes of Christmas series about a small town the residents have turned into a permanent Christmas-themed tourist attraction, you don’t need to have read the rest of the series to enjoy this rather charming novella. Sébastien le Duc, French aristocrat turned blacksmith, is the hero of this one, and Miss Eve Shelling his heroine. Eve and her father run the Cressmouth Gazette, more of a promotional pamphlet extolling the town’s virtues than an actual newspaper, but Eve dreams of being an actual journalist. When Bastien asks for her help writing an article to paint the smithy in a favourable light for a potential buyer as he and his brother have plans to return to France, Eve’s willing to oblige.

When she uncovers the truth about how the le Ducs have reversed their fortunes, however, she has a decision to make. Tell the truth and destroy Bastien and his family, or pass up the greatest chance she’ll ever have to make her name as a serious journalist?

This is a romance, so you can probably guess how it turns out. It’s also a fairly short novella so the author doesn’t really do much of a deep dive into the ethics of smuggling, making it feel just a little shallow in execution. Bastien and Luc as gentlemen blacksmiths didn’t really ring true either; they just wouldn’t have been on a social level with Eve despite their backgrounds once they started engaging in trade at that hands-on level.

I’ve really enjoyed other books in this series, and though this one has its moments, it just didn’t quite click for me. Eve and Bastien went from not liking each other much to intimacy really quickly, and I wanted more interaction with Eve’s cute dog Duenna, who didn’t get nearly enough of the spotlight. Important things like Eve’s moral dilemma got rushed over, and I think the novella length did this particular story no favours. It needed to be about twice as long to explore all the nuances. I’m giving it three stars.

Eve is a journalist and an unpaid and unappreciated one at that. She is investigating a story about a blacksmith who happens to have lots of secrets. Bastien just wants to help his brother reclaim what is theirs. This read is fun, entertaining with lots of great characters, plenty of steam and loads of drama. A fun and entertaining historical read.

This is the first book that I read from the Twelve Dukes series.

The description caught me: a young journalist in the regency period, going about with a bullmastiff dog.

It´s a cute romance, that encapsulates a small town. I wish that that aspect could be more developed. But it´s a small novella, so...

An enjoyable read.

#12Dukes #NetGalley

It was wonderful to read more about the le Duc family, with blacksmith Sebastien le Duc meeting journalist Miss Eve Shelling. Eve has a story to tell but if she chooses to go ahead with what will be the scoop of her career, she will lose the man that could make her dreams of love, simply fiction. Sebastien is desperate to return to France to re-establish the family vineyard after having escaped several years ago. However, Eve is threatening to undermine this by revealing the illegal dealings of his family.
I loved both characters, particularly Bastien who in trying to do what is right for everyone, puts his emotions on the line. Eve was not as easy to like given her attempts to under Bastien’s family, but Ms Ridley as always, brings each of the main characters to life in a beautiful romance.
Another great addition to this series. I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.