The Bachelor

Jeffries’s lackluster second Duke Dynasty Regency romance (after Project Duchess) follows Lady Gwyn Drake, whose youthful indiscretion has blighted much of her adult life. Gwyn is set to make her London debut at the improbable age of 30 when her former flame, the odious Lionel Malet, uses their past relationship to blackmail her. Imprudent Gwyn responds to his threats by confronting him with a gun that she admittedly has “no clue” how to use and has to be rescued by dour war hero Joshua Wolfe, a relative by marriage who is working on Gwyn’s brother’s estate as he recovers from injuries. Wolfe is attracted to Gwyn despite his better judgment and agrees to accompany her to London as her bodyguard at her brother’s insistence. Their inevitable romance encounters very few obstacles, and Malet’s continuing, misguided attempts at coercion, espionage, and rape are easily quashed. Readers new to the series will find it difficult to keep track of the tangled branches of the Drake family tree, and, despite Jeffries’s lively narration, the characters’ banter is oddly wooden. This one’s a disappointment. Agent: Pam Ahearn, Ahearn Agency. (Mar.)