Series: N/A
Traits & Tropes: gambled away; bluestocking; fake rake; marriage of convenience; hero with a secret; former soldier
Publication Date: 10.25.21
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; London, England
Heat Level: 2
Rating: 3/5
Lady Victoria Kirby is truly only interested in the pursuit of archaeological study. She could care less about spending time amongst the ton, where she is scorned for her looks and vitriolic wit. But her father thinks he knows what’s best for her, so he wagers her away in marriage over a game of cards.
Derek Kent, the Duke of Chase, spends much of his life acting in defense of women, helping them out of bad marriages using his bad reputation as a terrible rake. When he sees the marquess brazenly gambling away his daughter, Derek can’t stop himself from rescuing the girl from marriage to a known lecher. She has a reputation for being bitter and cantankerous, and not much to look at, so Derek thinks he may have actually found the perfect wife, one who will enable him to uphold the vow he made to his late father—to never have children. Surely, this woman will never tempt Derek to break his word.
Yet, when Derek comes to know the intelligent lady Victoria truly is, he knows he’s in a heap of trouble and he may break his vow and lose his heart all at once.
I’m not sure exactly what I expected from this one, but definitely more light-heartedness than we got. The characters were hard to root for because their characterizations seemed to be a bit all over the place and hard to pin down. I’m not sure if this erratic behavior was intentional or just a result of the writing style, but it was a bit odd, and I struggled to really care about the characters. I liked that Victoria and Derek were quick to believe the best in each other and support one another, but their communication breakdown near the end of the book just felt cheap and formulaic. Given how well they communicated their way through tough issues up to that point, it just didn’t seem right that they’d breakdown then, at least not so wholly and for such a long time. I did like that Derek helped Victoria become her own woman outside the ton’s control and that she eventually helped him to live for himself as well. Once again, this is a historical romance that is really just hiding preachy feminist diatribe in which all men are terrible, excepting a very few, and women are only ever abused by them. Not only does this oversimplify the time period and the situation, it also paints broad generalizations that feminism is meant to fight against, not perpetuate. I’m sure this wasn’t the intent, but I seem to keep reading this over and over again in my historicals, that I’d rather read to escape from the oppression of daily life, rather than having even more reminders in my reading, so I’m just tired of it at this point. Overall, I liked the concept of this story, but the execution felt a bit forced for me, the flow just seemed a little off, and the characters were hard to get behind, especially how unreliable their chemistry seemed to be.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/2473898976
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4276372880
Comments
Post a Comment