Duchess Emma Grey Fitzroy has quite the dilemma on her hands. She must welcome her late husband's family into her home for Christmas as her two sons are under the guardianship of their spiteful Uncle Hugh. But things seem to be looking up when the Fitzroy clan arrives with Hugh's wife's nephew Nicholas, the new Earl of Camford, in tow. Emma sets out to seduce the handsome but clueless young Earl in order to get back at the Fitzroy family, but the plan seems to backfire when young Nicholas falls head over heels in love with the older Emma. And he is crushed to learn of Emma's mean-spirited intentions and on the rebound marries one of his aunt's five daughters.

But Emma never leaves poor Nicholas' mind, and a year later he is back begging her to help him to become a better lover to his wife, a project Emma takes on with glee -- only to have this little plan backfire on her as she realizes that she now is in love with Nicholas. As the two struggle to deal with their age differences and their relationships, the glimmer of hope for them to come together seems far-fetched. But then again, miracles do happen at Christmas.

In one of the most complicated plots I've ever seen in a romance novel, author Tamara Lejeune takes her readers on a wild scandal ride with her book, CHRISTMAS WITH THE DUCHESS. With tons of characters, all with their widely varying quirks, it's a good thing that Lejeune provides a family tree chart at the beginning of the novel -- readers will definitely need it! That being said, the romance is lively and the action is fast-paced.