Duke of Madness (Book 1)

The Duke of Elmhurst believes he’ll one day go mad, but in the meantime he’ll build an empire with the help of his lucky watch. When the watch goes missing, spinster Miss Julia Wallace becomes his new good-luck charm — and soon he wants her to be more… An opposites-attract Regency romance by USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Monroe!

Matthew, the 5th Duke of Elmhurst, lives a doomed life. Believing himself destined to become as mad as his father, he has resigned himself to a lonely existence. His only comfort in life? His expanding empire—the success of which he attributes to a mysterious family heirloom, a lucky pocket watch that has been passed down for generations.
But after a visit to Mrs. Rutley's School for Young Women, Matthew is shocked to find his lucky timepiece has vanished! Filled with rage, he decides the thief must be the young lady who conveniently bumped into him during his visit, and assumes she has used her beauty as a distraction in order to pick his pocket.

Miss Julia Wallace is a baron's daughter and certainly no petty thief! However, when a desperate Mrs. Rutley offers her former student's company as a way to placate the Duke of Elmhurst for the loss of his family heirloom, Julia agrees to the arrangement... and places herself in the awkward position of trying to become the duke's new lucky charm.

Handsome and seemingly eligible, Julia has no idea why the duke would be such a committed bachelor. But as the duke and Julia become closer and friendship blossoms, she discovers his bleak secret.
Yet just as the stakes are raised, the passion between Julia and Matthew threatens to become stronger than even the most devastating of threats.
Can anything bank the blaze of true love?

And how much will Matthew be willing to risk for the woman who already loves him so completely... body, mind, and soul?