The Governess Game (Girl Meets Duke #2) by Tessa Dare

source: purchased
title: The Governess Game: Girl Meets Duke 2
author: Tessa Dare
published: August 28, 2018
pages: 373 pages
genre: regency romance
first line: Alexandra Mountbatten had common sense.
rated: 3 1/2 out of 5

blurb:
The accidental governess.

After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don’t need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud: duke’s heir in the streets and devil in the sheets. The ladies of London have tried—and failed—to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart… without risking her own.

The infamous rake.

Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule: no attachments. When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to give her an education—in pleasure. That should prove he can’t be tamed. But Alexandra is more than he bargained for: clever, perceptive, passionate. She refuses to see him as a lost cause. Soon the walls around Chase’s heart are crumbling… and he’s in danger of falling, hard.

my thoughts:
The Governess Game is book 2 in Tessa Dare’s Girl Meets Duke series but reads perfectly well as a stand-alone. I read the first installment called The Duchess Deal last year. I loved Emma and Ash in that first book as that story  had a Beauty and the Beast vibe going on.

In this second book Alexandra Mountbatten a.k.a. Alex fixes clocks for a living to support herself. When she shows up at Chase Reynaud’s front door he actually ends up hiring her to be a live in governess for his two out of control young wards. She takes the job because she is trying to save up money to buy her own house one day. Hence, Alex becomes an “accidental governess”.  Alex actually ran into Chase at a bookshop months earlier and always remembered him as “The Bookshop Rake” and “Lord Literature” so when she sees him again she is really flustered because she never forgot him after that initial run in.

Ruffled brown hair, fashionable attire, cologne that smelled like bottled sin-and a smile no doubt honed from boyhood as a means to make women forgive him anything.
-p. 2, The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

There is the dating your boss trope in this one which I am not really a fan of but it worked well here. Alex finds unique ways to teach Chase’s wards, two young girls who act out often because their parents aren’t in their lives. Chase starts to fall for Alex pretty early on but he doesn’t think he is good enough for her. He is a playboy with self-esteem issues and does not think himself worthy of love. Tessa Dare’s heroines are strong, smart and independent and Alex is no different. I enjoyed watching these two fall in love.

Although the first book in the series remains my favorite, this one was fun and romantic also. There is star-gazing in this one which I really enjoyed also as Alex is fascinated by astronomy.

She loved him.
Maybe…just maybe…this time, her hoping wouldn’t end in disappointment. Perhaps dreams could come true. She wasn’t wishing on a star. She had a comet now.
-p. 330 The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

There was some humor thrown in as usual in a Tessa Dare novel. The love scenes were nice and steamy as there was great chemistry between these too.  I always enjoy how Dare creates flawed characters who find each other, learn from each other and have a happily ever after together. She tends to write intelligent heroines who save the heroes and show them what true love really is.

Reading Tessa Dare’s romance novels is like savoring tasty morsels of rich chocolate, just one is never enough. I look forward to book 3 in this series. And if I have to pick another favorite by Dare, I’d have to mention the Spindle Cove series and A Week to Be Wicked where the heroine is a scientist/archaeologist.

Every woman was unique, but she was just so different. Strange and brave and clever. She made him different, too.
-p. 138

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About the author:
Tessa Dare is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty historical romances. Her books have received numerous accolades, including Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® award (twice) and multiple RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Awards. Booklist magazine named her one of the “new stars of historical romance,” and her books have been contracted for translation in a dozen languages. -quoted from Amazon

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Disclaimer: This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any kind of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. I am under no obligation to write a positive review. I purchased my copy of The Governess Game: Girl Meets Duke 2 by Tessa Dare.
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