Another excellent book by Courtney Milan. She serves up her heroines in the smart and sassy range; each of her romances has a feminist slant. Her women are not to be trifled with, and they will keep the men on their toes. Which requires the men to be thinking 3-dimensional characters as well, which is refreshing. I very much enjoyed these books and am looking forward to reading more of Courtney Milan. A few clever verbal exchanges initially did not save this book, I'm afraid. The heroine's character had an interesting premise of a grey mousy character who blended expertly in with the shadows through years of imposed repression of her true spirited and intellectual nature. Unfortunately, there were too many inconsistencies in her character and her background. On one page, she resented her misguided great aunts for raising her to become this meek non-entity and a few pages forward, she credited the same elderly ladies for always giving her the choice of self-determination. The hero himself was very insecure and like a moth seeking light, he desperately grasped onto people expressing any hint of warmth his way. Not capable of own original thought, he plagiarised the heroine' own words in his socially inflammatory publications and with little thought of the harm the action might befall her. There certainly were a lot of inadvertent thoughtlessness associated with this Duke, who'd rather not be one. As a powerful peer, he could achieve social reform far more effectively if he had learnt to utilise and overtly channel his political power and social standing towards achieving such ends rather than through clandestine distribution of pamphlets that had little overall impact. I made the 70 % mark before giving up through the sheer force of Ms Milan's reputation alone. Once again, she (like the hero in their first sex scene) missed the target for me and I might have to conclude that perhaps the two of us are incompatible.
What do You think about The Duchess War (2012)?
thanks to Katrina for the rec ! loved it and can't wait to read the series
—thica
Beautiful characters. Witty dialogues. An unforgettable love story.
—salemlulua
