Mad About the Duke

Mad About the Duke by Elizabeth Boyle 1013 R

Elinor Sterling is the second widowed Lady Standon and when she sees James Tremont, the Duke of Parkerton, leaving the small house she and her fellow widows have been relegated too by the Duchess of Holindrake, she assumes that he is a solicitor. James is not quite sure what to make of this gorgeous woman who has no idea who he is and he is shocked to find himself agreeing to help her find a husband. Elinor needs to marry a many of very high social standing so that her stepfather, Lord Lewis, will not retain guardianship of her younger sister, Tia. Lewis is an evil man who had already sold Elinor into a loveless marriage to a man with homosexual tendencies, and she dreads to think what he will do to her sister. James' brother and sister are gravely concerned that he has begun behaving in a most improper manner and his servants worry that he has finally given in to the family "madness."

Her friends, the other widowed Lady Standon's who had once been her enemies but are now her close friends, are worried, but get into the spirit of things and hope that James can help her find that passion is more important than a ducal title. James knows he should tell Elinor the truth about who is but he wants her to fall in love with him, not just his title. Elinor begins to think that a passionate affair before marriage may be just the thing to prepare her for the life of duty she will lead with one of the two dukes on her list. James knows that neither of the dukes on her list, )and why is he not on there?) will be completely unsuitable and he sets about wooing her. Meanwhile her stepfather is up to his typically awful behaviors and James knows this is one thing he can give her- her sister's safety. But what will she do when she discovers who he really is: fall in love or run away?

Elinor and James worked together because they both wanted to be with each other and enjoyed time in each other's company. Unfortunately, that is as good as the book gets. Elinor was annoying for being far too practical and why did her evil ex-husband have to be gay? I guess from previous books I am supposed to know that James is typically staid and uptight, but because I have not read them it was hard to get behind the whole worry over him acting out of character. Maybe if the change had been gradual and spread throughout the current book- the one I was actually reading? There were a few sex scenes, not particularly hot and I ended up skipping through them really. I am not normally a fan of secret hidden identities because it's a big secret that causes horrible angst, but it really worked here because it didn't fall into the pitfalls that others do.

I absolutely hated the writing style in this book. It seemed to basically consist of everyone thinking it was so amusing that there was a secret, or thinking how clever they were for acting in such a supposedly "mad" manner when nothing was really amusing and nothing was particularly "mad." I think a good portion of the dialogue between Elinor and James could be classified as banter, but I am reluctant to give it that term as it seemed as if they were talking at cross purposes. Well this book is definitely one for referring back to previous characters in the series and several other related series. I spent the first 20 pages doing "What? Who is this?" over and over again. The book also assumes that I know information that I don't. I was also confused because normally authors would use this referring time to get me interested in the other books and it had the opposite effect: Felicity, Duchess of Holindrake, comes across as awful and I can't ever imagine reading about such a horrible heroine.

Rating: Really pretty awful all around and I don't think I'll buy another Elizabeth Boyle book, and I don't know how I got through it.

Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress

Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress by Elizabeth Boyle

This book is the sequel to "Confessions of a Little Black Gown" and begins by taking up 23 years after the end of the book to continue Philippa, Pippin, Knolles, and Captain Thomash, Dash, Dashwell's ill-fated romance. When we last left our fated lovers Pippin had just agreed to marry the Viscount Gossett after finding herself pregnant when he agrees to see to Dash's freedom. Dash was furious and convinced that Pippin had betrayed him and needless to say they didn't part on the best of terms. Twenty-three years later Pippin is a widow with two very proper English children, John and Ginger, who dreams of her pirate while Dash has lost command of his ship to his son, Nate, and roams around in a drunken stupor. Nate comes to Pippin believing she is the only one who can bring his father back and Dash and Pippin are both conflicted when they see each other again. They're excited, nervous, a little heartbroken, and both feel a little betrayed and guilty over what happened.

Nate has left a note for Pippin's children and friends claiming that she has been kidnapped (although I can't exactly remember why it was important they believe this), but when Pippin's friends reveal their past both children are shocked and immediately decide to go after her. Meanwhile Dash has decided to give up alcohol (and having never known/ seen anyone recovering from a 20 year addiction I can't say whether or not it's accurate but given the fact that it takes about a week I have to say it's not) and Pippin is determined to find the Dash she knew all those years ago and holds him to his promise to give her pirate lessons. Apparently in the midst of these pirate lessons she is able to let go of the propriety that has guided her life the last 23 years and nowhere does she feel more free than when she's with Dash. Unfortunately little secrets from his past, and her's could come back to haunt them (they do but only very briefly) and when Pippin's son shows up the two need to take a leap of faith for each other.

I try not to read other reviews before I write my own but in this case I made an exception and I am certainly glad. Many reviewers were, like me, conflicted over how to review this book. I, like many, had been very much looking forward to reading this follow up because the two seemed like such a fun romantic pair. But maybe it was the immense time elapse or I was just plain expecting to much, but the book didn't live up to my expectations. The first thing I noticed was the inordinate amount of flashbacks contained in this book. The first 200 pages seemed to be half flashbacks! While I understood that there were destined to be a lot of them because Pippin and Dash have a history I wanted more of the two of them re-falling in love now. The only good part of the flashbacks was it made it unnecessary for me to have read the other two books or to refer back to them. And I had a very difficult time trying to make alcoholism into a romantic notion; getting drunk for a night or two, maybe a week, because of a lost love makes sense, but for 23 years (ish)? No. Also those problems from their past (and in my opinion they're pretty big ones) were solved far too quickly.

In a way this book was more satisfying than "Confessions" because it didn't have that ENORMOUS and completely overwhelming sideplot, which funnily enough involves this books characters- almost like Pippin and Dash have two books. I enjoyed the fact that our protagonists were older than the usual romance novel fare (why do all heroines have to be 20?) I almost felt like the author herself was confused as to what to do with two mid-fortyish people. She seemed to make up for this by having a ton of flashbacks and shoving their one present-tense steamy scene into the way end of the book (word of warning: unfortunately that steamy scene includes a little interlude where Dash licks between her toes). I liked the historical references to the War of 1812 and how neither side was exactly "right" and to the ways Queen Victoria turned England into quite the puritanical society.

Rating: I give three hearts to those books I enjoyed and found at least entertaining and sweet but despite liking this more than "Confessions" I didn't really enjoy it.

Confessions of a Little Black Gown

Confessions of a Little Black Gown by Elizabeth Boyle

Confessions of a Little Black Gown is part of the series and apparently in the previous book (which I have not read) Thalia and her cousin, Philippa, rescued a dashing American privateer named Dashwell who had once been a friend of the British, but what with the War of 1812 and all, had turned rogue and warranted arrest and imprisonment. Now Lord Larken (whose first name is not revealed until 25 pages from the end) has been dispatched to the house part being thrown by Thalia sister, Felicity, Duchess of Hollindrake, to flush him out from wherever Philippa and Thalia are hiding him (and it really is fairly easy to guess). He goes in disguise as a cousin of the duke's who just happens to be a vicar, which is disturbing for our heroine as she finds herself incredibly drawn to the supposedly virtuous, bumpling, badly dress, country bumpkin. Due to some craziness on Felicity's part, Thalia's luggage had been lost and when the wrong trunk was returned to her she opened it to discover a seductive, and completely inappropriate, black widow's gown.

Our resourceful heroine knows from pretty much the beginning that the "vicar" is hiding his true identity, but she is unsure what that is until other, less important (amost ridiculously unimportant as to be a space waster) bring up the fact that Temple or Pymm (who probably were real leaders of England's spies as they appear in millions of romances) have sent someone to the house to root out Dashwell. Meanwhile Larken begins to wonder if the legendary "Order of the Black Lilly," a centuries old French ring (spies/ plotters/ courtesans) of woman who most don't believe exist, has something to do with Dashwell when he notices something (long story, rather boring sideplot). Larken knows they exist because they are at the root of his father's supposed treason and eventual death. When Thalia discovers that Larkin's mission is to not arrest, but kill, his one time close friend, she wonders if the two of them could ever have a future, but is still drawn to the idea of finding her own adventurer. Her cousin Philippa is madly in love with Dashwell, a love that is supposedly returned, and their's is a nice little sideplot, that provides the only slight glimmer of real angst in the book. So of course their is a big confrontation in the end, that does have a nice little surprise twist, but for the most part it follows by the book (including a chapter ending gunshot that we supposedly do not know who it hit). Their kissy-kissy ending is short, un-angsty, but ends nicely (with no Felicity in sight).

Most authors want to encourage their readers to read the other books in the series (and this is a part of a series) but I have to say that after reading this I have absolutely no desire to read the previous book in this series, Love Letters from a Duke. Despite the fact that much of the background for this book apparently took place in the previous book, Felicity comes across as such an awful person I plan to avoid even the next book in the series for fear of having to read about her bossiness, her meddling, and her all around general un-likability. Apparently Thalia loves her sister, as evidenced by the fact that she has not strangled her, but for the life of me I can not figure out why. Perhaps we are given reasons in Love Letters but I do not care to find out. A brief glimpse of her not being awful is given at the very end- but still a remarkably unlikable character. This is quite a shame as it is incredibly obvious that so much of what happens in this book was really set up in the previous book and we just fill in the holes. But the author does plan to continue Dashwell and Philippa's story is going to continue in a further addition to the series Memoires of a Scandalous Red Dress.

The author seemed as if she was trying to create angst, at least in the scene where Thalia is determined to "break up" with Larkin after their late night tryst, but it just comes across as pathetic, confussing, and altogether un-angsty. The only angst occurs in the side-plot of Philippa and Dashwell and even that is rather rushed. Their are precisely two scenes and while they were "good" they were definitely not "hot" as they just seemed to be missing something: maybe the lead in wasn't good enough and the characters just didn't seem to be that into each other. Lastly- this story takes place over 2, maybe 3 days! The characters meet, rescue a wrongly accused privateer, bring down the Order of the Black Lillies, and fall in love in 3 days! And the black gown the book is named for appears once- on the first night the two of them meet and while a fun little garden tryst does occur, their definitely could have been a little more steam and a little bit more actual wearing of the title "character." I didn't even really remember reading much about them falling in love or learning to like each other because the crazy Dashwell/ Black Lilly (side-plot) was just too overwelming and just covered everything else. But the cover is certainly very well done.

Rating: This was a mediocre spy novel and a terrible romance novel. Oddly enough I look forward to reading Red Dress in the hopes that there's far less spying and much more loving.