Laura Lee Guhrke continues her American Heiress in London series with another delightful love story, How to Lose a Duke in Ten Days. This story of an arranged marriage that turns into a true love match follows When the Marquess Met His Match. This time a rich American heiress with a soiled reputation offers a marriage of convenience to an up-to-his-eyeballs-in-debt duke who just wants to leave behind his mooching family and explore Africa. They both agree to present a happy front for a while before going their separate ways--he to Africa and she to a life of her choosing as an English duchess.
But five years later things have changed as Edie, the Duchess of Margrave, soon discovers. At the train station where she is putting her 15-year-old sister Joanna on the train to finishing school, Edie's husband calls out to her. His life-changing experience in Africa has brought him back to England for good. The reunion does not go well, to say the least. Edie is shocked and hurries home, leaving her husband Stuart on the platform. This is where Stuart meets Joanna. She has escaped the train. She doesn't want to go to finishing school. Before they head back home she asks him how he is going to win Edie now that he's back for good. They come to an understanding--she'll help him with Edie and he'll help her with avoiding finishing school.
Now that Stuart is back for good Edie wants a legal separation, but she needs Stuart's consent. Her past experience with men has her running from his desire (and her own as well) to make their marriage real. But Stuart gambles that he can win her over. She thinks that she has a safe bet when she gives him ten days in which to persuade her to kiss him. If he fails, she gets her legal separation. If she succumbs, they both get the opportunity for the love of a lifetime. I enjoyed watching these two damaged people overcome their psychological and physical hurts, learn to love each other, and claim their happy-ever-after. Perfect for a beach or stay-at-home-in-quarantine read.