The Buccaneers—fresh, untutored, and easy-going—conquered 1870s English society, but by the Edwardian era, American heiresses were supposed to be cool and level-headed about their pursuit of titles. Amanda Vandewater embodied this new wave of American invaders when she meets and marries the 9th Duke of Malvern, though she soon discovers she desires more than a coronet and strawberry leaves. Set against the backdrop of the turbulent years leading up to WWI, An Ideal Duchess is the tale of an idealistic American heiress who must fight for her position—and for love—in the face of the strict adherence to duty over desire, of reputation over understanding, and of clinging to the past over embracing the present.

In the tradition of Edith Wharton and Henry James–the conclusion of the romantic duology featuring an indomitable American heiress torn between her quest for romance and her equal desire for independence, and the autocratic English duke she loves, who harbors a dark secret. Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs! When the Duke of Malvern is declared missing, presumed killed, Amanda, his estranged duchess, is his unlikely rescuer. But rescue him she does–and finds him broken and utterly changed by the war. As she takes charge of her amnesiac husband and the manor house that was never a home, she risks falling in love with him all over again. Lady Beryl Townsend fell deeply in love with the most unsuitable man—the politician who used to be her brother's best friend. Now an ambulance driver for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, Beryl has witnessed the depths of man's destructiveness and is determined to seize whatever she can with Captain Anthony Challoner. But he has ghosts of his own to haunt their illicit romance, and when the bloodiest phase of the war begins, will he have the strength to survive? The Dowager Duchess of Malvern has ruled Bledington Park with an iron fist for forty years and watches it ebb away with one shot fired by a Serbian anarchist. War disturbs her carefully concealed past, and draws A Duchess' Heart to an explosive climax that will leave no one unscathed.