Along Came a Duke by Elizabeth Boyle | Audio Review

Series: Rhymes with Love, #1
Tropes & Traits: titled, stuffy hero; spinster heroine
Publication Date: 05.29.12
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; England, 1810
Rating: 3/5
Narration Rating: 3/5

At nearly 25, Tabitha Timmons has become a spinster, a vicar's daughter with no fortune, living essentially as an unpaid maid with her aunt and uncle. When she inherits a fortune from an estranged uncle, she sees her chance for freedom at last, except for the fact that she'll only inherit if she marries the prim and respectable Mr. Barkworth within a month's time. She feels no spark of passion with him, but finds she has no choice. Unfortunately she does find that spark with the notorious, ruinous Duke of Preston. Preston finds a kindred spirit in Tabitha and is determined to save her from a dull, soul-crushing marriage. He dogs her movements around London, despite her protests, and soon Preston becomes rather determined to ruin Tabitha's secure, staid match and bring about an extremely different future for her with him instead.

This narration was really very good and I don't think I would've given this book the rating I did without it. As far as the story is concerned, I found the characters to be rather vapid, especially Tabitha, whose constant harping at Preston didn't make much sense when considered alongside her expectation of his saving her. This was a good madcap distraction, though it did reduce to rather a farce in the end and I was a bit annoyed by the tedium. The one intimate scene was rather rushed and not very romantic, though I suppose that fits the madcap theme of the book, but I never really felt much bond forming between Preston and Tabitha beyond physical curiosity. Some of the dialogues were unnecessarily long and a bit tedious, but I just sped up my narration and powered on because it's apparently just not in me to DNF. I also found Tabitha and her friends to be rather lacking in intelligence, but I suppose if they'd thought to question anything about her inheritance, we wouldn't have had much story. I really couldn't bring myself to care much about the characters in this one, but I will still probably try other books in the series/from this author as I didn't have any issues with the writing itself.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3270168838