The Duke
4 Stars

The second chances romance between Imogen Pritchard and Cole Talmage is particularly appealing mainly due to the fact that the hero and heroine are atypical fare for historical romance. As a barmaid and a nurse, Imogen is as far from an aristocratic debutante as it is possible to be, and Cole, despite being an illustrious duke, is suffering from both a physical disability and severe PTSD (which goes a long way toward explaining his irascibility and general "asshatness").

Imogen and Cole have incredible chemistry and their arguments (think liberal Democrat versus moderate Republican) are some of the most sizzling and entertaining in the genre.

As always, Byrne does not shy away from the harsher realities of Victorian England whether it be the plight of prostitutes and abused women or the suffering of soldiers returning from war with both physical and mental wounds.

The minor suspense plot is the weakest element of the book as it is quite underdeveloped and somewhat rushed at the end. Nevertheless, the climax and resolution are intense and exciting.

All in all, a lovely read and I look forward to Gavin St. James's book next. ( )

4.75 stars

Loved it. ( )

Rethinking my rating from the other day. I've really enjoyed the first three books in this series as well as Kerrigan Byrne's writing and had even pre-ordered this book and the next one. Now that I've had time to sink my brain into this one, the premise of the story is kind of awful.

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

The basics of this story is that Imogen, our down-on-her-luck ingenue is just waiting table to pay her father's debts when the shady guy she's working for/who holds her debt sells her virginity to a duke. The duke, thinking that his buying of this woman will save her from a worse fate (some other guy), still rapes her and goes on his merry way. She convinces herself that he was gentle and falls in love with him.

Fast forward a few years, and in a "I'm trying to be Shakespeare's Twelfth Night" sort of way, these two move in to house next door to each other. He pines for the girl he slept with that night, and she'll be damned if he finds out from her that she is, in fact, his mystery girl.

While the story has it's good parts, the roots of the story lead me to the 1-star review. SHE WAS RAPED AND FELL IN LOVE WITH HER RAPIST. SHE WAS A VICTIM OF SEX TRAFFICKING AND FELL IN LOVE WITH HER ABUSER.

THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY. From the beginning, this book felt a little icky to me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it until letting myself digest it for a few days. Now, looking back, I don't know why it didn't slap me upside the head the second I read the first chapter.

I'm sad to say that I'll be giving up on this series because of this book. ( )

I found the hero to be a bit of an ass just a little too often for me to like him all the way. So I didn't enjoy the book as much as I hoped. But there were lots of good parts.

2nd read- I really tried to cut the hero a lot of slack reading this again, and felt that I was having some success with it, gaining a little deeper understanding of why he was being a cad, holding some empathy for his plight, but somehow I had entirely forgotten their last row until I came to it, and 90% of my new understanding for him was tossed out the window. (In a bit more detail-) I had decided that his character had been a snob before his trauma, but that his rudeness was then exacerbated by a combination of things. His disappointment thinking he had found her and then waking up to realize he hadn't, an unwanted attraction to a new woman when he didn't want to find anyone else appealing, and bursts of anger from his PTSD. None of it excuses his awful behavior, but it does make it more understandable. Their final conflict though, hoo boy, he should be beyond pleased to discover "both" of his loves are indeed found AND love him back! Instead he arguably physically assaults her, uses her, doesn't take precaution when they don't have any sort of understanding yet, and then verbally attacks her! What an absolute ass! I'm all for a flawed hero, but unfortunately this one's flaw is being a spoiled brat, which really just isn't appealing at all. Beyond the hero, the heroine's drunken ridiculousness was kind of absurd. Maybe if she had been on laudanum or something and didn't realize the alcohol would interact so poorly with it it could be more buyable, but as it was, it played out pretty weakly. I really enjoyed the couples from the previous books though, and the villain was above average interesting. And if I break up the story into pieces, the parts in between the hero being an ass were engaging and enjoyable. ( )

This book for me is a bit of a mess. The H and h are a mess, he is bitter and horrid and I just couldn't like him.