Grade: B+
passion rating: hot
In Waking up with the Duke a married woman has an affair with her crippled husband’s best friend. Their story, beautifully written by Lorraine Heath, is a moving and lovely read. If not for an overly dramatic scene near the end of the book, it would have been a DIK (Desert Island Keeper) for me.
The heroine of the novel, Lady Jayne Seymour, has devoted herself to caring for her husband, Lord Walfort. Three years ago, Walfort and his cousin the Duke of Ainsley were out carousing in celebration of the news of Jayne’s pregnancy. Their carriage crashed; Walfort was terribly injured and left paralyzed from the waist down. In her grief, Jayne lost their baby — her first and, due to Walfort’s impotency, what would seem to be her last. Jayne loves her husband but misses the physical relationship the two had; since the accident, Walfort doesn’t share her bed, kiss, or touch her. She’s lonely and mourns the life of wife and mother she always thought she’d have.
Ainsley is grief stricken as well. He was driving the carriage the night of the accident and blames himself for all Walfort — and Jayne - lost with the crash. He knows Jayne loathes him for his carelessness that night and makes every effort to stay out of her sight. So, when Walfort asks him to come early to the first hunt he has hosted since his accident, Ainsley wishes he could say no. He can’t, of course; Ainsley would do almost anything to pay the debt he feels he owes Walfort. When he arrives, however, Ainsley is unprepared for what Walfort asks of him. Walfort tells Ainsley his debt will be settled if he will get Jayne pregnant and allow Walfort to pass the babe off as Walfort’s own.
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