Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart
Love By Numbers • Book 3
by Sarah MacLean
Why You'll Love This
A buttoned-up duke who built his life around control meets the one woman guaranteed to destroy every rule he lives by — and the sparks are merciless.
- Great if you want: a bold, unapologetic heroine who outshines the brooding hero
- The experience: sharp banter and slow-burn tension that builds to a satisfying payoff
- The writing: MacLean structures romantic conflict with real stakes, not just misunderstandings
- Skip if: rigid duke reformations feel predictable to you by now
About This Book
For every rule that Regency society invented, Juliana Fiori seems to have broken it — loudly, unapologetically, and usually in front of witnesses. When this bold, sharp-tongued Italian-born woman crosses paths with Simon Pearson, the Duke of Leighton, two worlds collide with spectacular force. He is all control and cold propriety; she is everything he has trained himself to resist. The tension between them isn't just romantic — it's a genuine clash of values, identity, and the cost of belonging, making the stakes feel far more urgent than a simple courtship.
What sets this book apart is MacLean's razor-sharp dialogue and her gift for building scenes that crackle with wit before giving way to something unexpectedly vulnerable. Juliana is a rare historical heroine — genuinely funny, genuinely defiant, and genuinely wounded in ways the story earns rather than simply states. MacLean doesn't soften her characters to make them palatable; she lets them be difficult, and the romance is richer for it. Readers who love sparring leads, layered emotional conflict, and a prose style that moves with real energy will find this one hard to put down.
