Series: Belmore Square, #1
Traits & Tropes: class difference; titled hero; forbidden
Publication Date: 08.16.22
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; London, England, 1814
Heat Level: 2
Rating: 2/5
Narration Rating: 3.5/5
Since her father’s printing business has taken off, country girl Eliza Melrose must now prepare herself for a debut in London society, as well as the prospect of finding a husband, neither of which she is eager to do. She’s more interested in adventure and learning new things to write for her father’s paper, much to his consternation. The more he fights to keep Eliza’s strong will in hand, the more she pushes against him. When Eliza meets the brooding Duke of Chester, a man whose reputation is ruined by terrible rumors, she finds it impossible to resist unraveling the mystery that surrounds him.
I really liked the premise of this story. It’s so rare that we get a heroine trying to navigate high society when she wasn’t raised with that expectation, and I really liked that aspect. Johnny is set up well as a brooding hero, if a bit dramatic. I think this story would’ve benefited a lot from having some chapters told from Johnny’s perspective. Instead, it is completely from Eliza’s point of view and in first person, so we get nothing but her perceptions. Since she is only nineteen, and a fairly young and sheltered nineteen, this means we as readers do get a fairly narrow scope of the plot, limited by her naivete and lack of maturity. I’ve also never really noticed this before, but this story being narrated in the first-person present tense sometimes made it difficult for me to differentiate between the heroine’s dialogue and her inner thoughts and also made it a challenge to figure out who was speaking at times (I listened to the audio.) This is more of a modern book with some period clothes than a thoroughly researched historical; it had a ton of modern language (especially the volume and manner of curse words used by Eliza) and lots of errors with titles, which drives me bananas and didn’t help with how modern this sounds.
Aside from the more stylistic issues, I definitely found Eliza to be very dramatic and over the top in nearly everything she did, said, or thought. She pouted way too much, and the story became quite repetitive given that it is only told by her. She spends most of her time pouting about something, trying to figure out what’s going on with those around her (but never actually asking them), and seeking out gossip to write about. She’s adamant that she only writes truthful stories, yet she is quick to believe every piece of gossip she hears about Johnny and that just made no sense to me. He never seemed to be trying to entice her, as she accused him of doing, rather, she was the one who kept seeking him out. Her treatment of him was very much all over the place, as was much of the story, and I found myself at turns confused by it and sometimes just bored with it because nothing seemed to be happening. Eliza was exceedingly dramatic about everything and, though she sometimes did have good reason for it, this made her a bit tough to root for, though I did admire her loyalty to her family, even when they didn’t deserve it. I think I would’ve liked this so much more if her family had perhaps communicated more and faced their issues together a bit like the close-knit unit they obviously were before their move to London. Instead, they were just exasperatingly dismissive of Eliza.
I think my biggest issue here is that I have no idea how Johnny and Eliza fell in love and I’m not entirely sure I believe it. Much of the plot in terms of how things wrapped up with him was just a bit absurd given his high rank. Eliza believed everything this villain said much too easily and that definitely made me question her supposed shrewdness. I think the last straw here for me though was when a horse was described as ‘yowling.’ Just no. This is certainly a sound that cats make, but never horses and as a lifelong horse person, this sort of thing just drives me batty. Nothing to do with the story, just me being weird.
Overall, I really loved this concept, and I would read more books in this series/from this author, this one in particular just didn’t quite pan out as I had hoped. Ultimately, I never really felt the romance between Eliza and Johnny. Their interactions mostly consisted of her sniping at him for something and him being growly and telling her he could never be with her, then the denouement and resolution just tied everything up in such a rush that I wasn’t wholly satisfied. It just didn’t hold my attention and I never felt the chemistry between them.
I voluntarily listened to and reviewed an audio advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/1266250699
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4666640058
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