Month: March 2019

The Duke’s Untamed Desire by Amy Jarecki

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Regency Era (1811-1820)2 Comments

The Duke's Untamed Desire (Devilish Dukes, #1)The Duke’s Untamed Desire by Amy Jarecki

Barbara’s rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: Devilish Dukes #1
Publication Date: 4/2/19
Number of Pages: 250

I always love the stories this author has to tell and this one is no exception. The story and the characters are great. So, you are wondering why I gave it only 3-stars aren’t you? I love historical romance, but I want it to be accurate within the societal norms and context of the times and this isn’t anywhere close to that. There are so very many issues …

Lady Georgiana is the daughter of a very rich and very influential baron and she married way below her station. Her husband was a commoner, an inventor and very poor. They worked together to develop a steam-powered pumper to help put out fires. The invention wasn’t complete when Daniel (her husband) died in an accident, so Georgiana spent the next year perfecting the pumper herself. It is all ready to go and she’s brought it to London to try to sell units and find a wealthy investor.

In order to get her parents to agree to her bringing the pumper and storing it at their home, Georgiana had to agree to accompany her mother to various social engagements during the season. She could do that if it allowed her the opportunity to demonstrate her pumper and find appropriate investors. Her first showing at the Southwark Fair was a total disaster. Not because the pumper didn’t work – but because they were short-handed and the hose got away from them. That loose hose ended up aimed at the Duke of Evesham and doused him with two-hundred gallons of high-pressure water. Oops!

Fletcher Markham, the Duke of Evesham, lost his mother in a house fire and he’s been looking to find a viable steam pressure pumper for years. Now, he’s furious because he’s just seen yet another scam of a machine and it thoroughly doused him. He told the woman that she should just throw the thing in the Thames.

Later, Fletcher meets Georgiana in a social setting and he doesn’t recognize her from the pumper demonstration. He’s very drawn to her – and she’s very skittish. She recognizes him. As he pursues her and she knows he doesn’t know who she is, they begin to draw closer.

I really enjoyed the adventures of Georgiana and Fletcher finding their HEA. It wasn’t a smooth road nor an easy one for them – but it was a truly lovely story.

The same story could have been told using correct period norms and I would have happily given a 5-star rating – and that accuracy wouldn’t have taken a thing away from the story. Within the first 5% of the book, there is a scene describing the old duke summoning his lawyers to his deathbed and ‘legitimizing’ his twenty-six-year-old illegitimate son – because he has no other sons. So, he legitimizes this son and declares him his ‘legal heir’. That just couldn’t have happened – laws of primogeniture wouldn’t have allowed it. There were so very many other things that were just so much more modern – like everybody’s comfort with Fletcher entering Georgiana’s bedchamber, women business-people conducting business at social events – well, just many things that could have easily been done correctly to the period without detracting from the story. Then – there is feeling the baby flutter – like bubbles – at two-months pregnant.

Bottom line – if you don’t care about period accuracy (but then why read historical?), then this will be a 5-star read for you because the story is really good.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

View all my reviews

When A Duchess Says I Do by Grace Burrowes

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Georgian Era (1714-1837), Regency Era (1811-1820)4 Comments

When a Duchess Says I Do (Rogues to Riches #2)When a Duchess Says I Do by Grace Burrowes

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Rogues to Riches #2
Publication Date: 4/2/19
Number of Pages: 384

I thoroughly enjoyed this read that is populated with wonderfully complex, likable and very relatable characters. The writing, of course, is excellent and the plot is well delivered. I had a hard time buying the actual scenario of the plot, but I enjoyed the story anyway.

Duncan Wentworth is the sweetest, most honorable, really, really good man I have read in a long while. He’s totally selfless and helps his family and friends no matter the circumstances, yet he is totally unaware of the high esteem in which they all hold him. He just sees himself as a poor relation. His cousin Quinn, Duke of Walden, has sent Quinn to the Brightwell estate to set it to rights. Brightwell has fallen into disarray since the last duke died and Quinn wants to give it to Duncan – who doesn’t want it. So, Duncan isn’t happy, but he’ll do his very best to do what Quinn wants. Little does he know that things will soon take a turn toward the bright side.

Matilda Wakefield, Duchess of Bosendorf, is a widow who has spent most of her life traveling around the continent with her art dealer father. She’d always wanted a home – a permanent address – and that was why she had married her German duke. Now that he is gone, she is living in London with her father. Well – she had spent all of her life thinking her father was an art dealer, but now she isn’t so sure. She found evidence that he might be a spy for a foreign government – and – her want-to-be fiancé, Colonel Lord Parker, saw her with the document. She can’t take a chance on Parker turning her father in as a traitor, so she takes off with basically nothing except the incriminating document – including no money.

After being on the run for months – just barely surviving, emaciated and half-starved, she ends up on the grounds of Brightwell – just in time to rescue a very handsome man from two poachers. She doesn’t dare tell him who she is or anything about herself, but the offer of a warm fire and a warm meal entice her to at least go to the house with him for a short time.

Duncan knows there is more to the woman that she is admitting. He recognizes the signs and knows that she is afraid and needs help. Something he is only too willing to give. She doesn’t trust him or anyone else – and plans to leave as soon as she can – but, that leaving seems to keep stretching out. They grow closer and closer – and then the villain strikes. Can Duncan save Matilda? If he can, it won’t be easy.

I adored the supporting characters. My favorite was Stephen Wentworth and I cannot wait for him to get his book. He was a genius and a lovely young man who was constantly chafing against his physical limitations and I will absolutely love seeing him get his HEA.

While Matilda’s husband was deceased, she was not the Dowager Duchess. For her to be the Dowager, she would have had to have had a son, grandson, step-son who was the new Duke and also had a wife – otherwise, she was still just the Duchess. This book was also an example of perhaps the author getting stuck on a particular letter for names – we have Walden, Wakefield, and Wentworth.

I certainly enjoyed the story and I hope you will as well.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

View all my reviews