Series: The Duchess Society, #0.5
Traits & Tropes: widow; childhood friends; titled hero; geologist hero
Publication Date: 11.23.20
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; Derbyshire, England, 1820
Heat Level: 1
Rating: 4/5
Georgiana Whitcomb, the widowed Countess Winterbourne, has been labeled the Ice Countess because of her refusal to conform to society’s dictates that insist she must remarry. She is determined to maintain her freedom, but a rather inappropriate wager with her childhood love threatens to change everything.
Dexter Munro has spent the past few years traveling and pursuing his passion for geology, making a name for himself as an expert in the field. His father’s failing health and imminent passing have brought Dex back to England to take on the responsibilities of the Duke of Markham. One of those duties includes fulfilling the promise he made to his father to choose a wife by Twelfth Night. But the only woman Dex has ever truly wanted is adamant she won’t marry again, despite her feelings for him, leaving Dex with very little time to convince her that what they have is special and worth going after with all her heart.
I can kind of go either way on whether I enjoy the childhood friends trope, simply because they can sometimes become mired in the same sort of regret for time lost that plagues the second chance trope for me. Thankfully, that was not the case in this instance. After a dismal first marriage, Georgiana was definitely bitter and afraid, but her sentiments were at least relatable, even if she did cause Dex a great deal of perhaps unnecessary angst. I really liked that Dex was persistent but not pushy, helping Georgie see that relationships can be different from what she knew before, and she didn’t need to be afraid to follow her heart. I did want to see more explanation of why Dex left Georgie behind in the first place and why she was forced into marrying an old man, rather than just being explained as Dex being young, dumb, and unaware of his feelings. This just resulted in Georgie coming off as prickly and snappish in some scenes in which her behavior was probably more justified than we as readers realized. Nonetheless, I did appreciate that Dex knew what he wanted as a mature man and wasn’t afraid to go after it. Dex was an adorable nerd but that translated into a charmingly awkward sense of romance that I couldn’t resist any more than Georgie could, and I was quite relieved when she came around and stopped trying to preserve a sense of freedom that brought her no joy. Georgie and Dex both show a considerable amount of growth, especially considering this was a short novel, and I enjoyed their journey.
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