Mr. Cavendish, I Presume (Two Dukes of Wyndham, #2)

by Julia Quinn

book data

569 ratings, 3.43 average rating, 92 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		16%
4		29%
3		38%
2		10%
1		4%

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published

October 1st 2008 by Avon

binding

Mass Market Paperback, 370 pages

url

http://www.juliaquinn.com/books/cavendis...

characters

Amelia Willoughby, Thomas Cavendish

setting

The United Kingdom

isbn

0060876115 (isbn13: 9780060876111)

description

There went the bride...
Amelia Willoughby has been engaged to the Duke of Wyndham for as long as she can remember. Literally. A mere six months o...more

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01/26/09

Brenda (natesmomb) rated it:

bookshelves: -2009-read, romance-historical

Read in February, 2009

Ok, this one is really hard for me to rate. I liked it a lot, but I was frustrated by it too. It's Thomas's story and I so wanted to find out what happened between him and Amelia and how he handled dealing with the resolution of Jack's situation. But most of this story was a retelling of The Lost Duke of Wyndham from Thomas's and Amelia's POVs. I found the different perspectives interesting and we were given some details that didn't appear in Jack & Grace's book. However, I'm not the most patien...more

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10/07/08

Isis FG rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, author--julia-quinn, info--full, reviewed, romance--historical-england

Read in February, 2009

recommended to Isis FG by: continuation of a series

When I can, I like to read books in a series close together. They just work better for me that way. But these two Wyndham books? They really should NOT be read back-to-back. I liked this one to a certain extent, but more often than not I found it really tedious to get through. The gimmick of these two books - telling the same story from two different perspectives - just didn't work for me. So this one was a very weak 3-stars, probably more of a 2.5.

Mr Cavendish, I Presume is th...more When I can, I like to read books in a series close together. They just work better for me that way. But these two Wyndham books? They really should NOT be read back-to-back. I liked this one to a certain extent, but more often than not I found it really tedious to get through. The gimmick of these two books - telling the same story from two different perspectives - just didn't work for me. So this one was a very weak 3-stars, probably more of a 2.5.

Mr Cavendish, I Presume is the 2nd book in the Two Dukes of Wyndham series. What makes the series unique is that the two books aren't just connected by character or theme; they are actually simultaneously told. In the first book you get Jack and Grace's POV's about how Jack might actually be the true Duke of Wyndham, and in the 2nd book you get Thomas and Amelia's POV's.

The first book tells the story of how Jack was the unknown, and probably legitimate, son of John Cavendish...and that if he was legitimate, he would be the true Duke of Wyndham. And the second book focuses on the man who believed HE was the Duke - Thomas Cavendish. As the only remaining heir to inherit, Thomas was raised to be Wyndham, and he was also betrothed at a very young age to Amelia Willoughby. Now it's all falling apart. Soon, he may be a nobody. It figured that it would happen just as he was beginning to realize that maybe he did want to marry Amelia.

I don't think it would be quite wrong to say you could read just one of these books and know almost everything that happens. All you would really miss would be few romantic scenes between whichever H/H. But otherwise? You could read just one and completely understand the story. Each book pretty much tells you the same exact there. Once you read book one, there's nothing unique about book two other than a different H/H. You know exactly what's going to happen next, exactly how the plot is going to end up. It left me with absolutely no anticipation of what was to come in the book. Plus there were some scenes that were almost a complete repeat of scenes from the first book. Those were rather boring to have to reread.

For me, the two books weren't unique enough. And reading them so close together just made it rather tedious to make it through the second one. I did like Thomas and Amelia and wanted to see how things would work out between them, but the repetition of everything else was rather boring.

I would much rather the 2nd book not been a simultaneous story, but just a connected book. And I have to admit that I'll think twice before reading another pair of books that tell the same story from two different perspectives. (less)

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10/01/08

Cherise rated it:

bookshelves: historical-romance

Read in October, 2008

This is the second book of the Two Dukes of Wyndham Series. However, this can not be described as a sequel as it takes place at the exact same time that the first book did, The Lost Duke of Wyndham.

At first I was a tad confused. It took me a good chapter or two before I realized this wasn’t a prologue, suddenly Grace is single and Thomas is still a Duke. I have to admit I am not thrilled with the way she decided to write this series. A lot of what I read in this book I had alre...more This is the second book of the Two Dukes of Wyndham Series. However, this can not be described as a sequel as it takes place at the exact same time that the first book did, The Lost Duke of Wyndham.

At first I was a tad confused. It took me a good chapter or two before I realized this wasn’t a prologue, suddenly Grace is single and Thomas is still a Duke. I have to admit I am not thrilled with the way she decided to write this series. A lot of what I read in this book I had already read in the previous book, albeit this time, occasionally, it was from a different perspective, it was still repetitive information. It also took away a lot of the enjoyment of reading as there were little to no surprises and I already knew how it was going to end. Having read the previous book I knew who the true Duke was, knew how it was discovered, etc.

While the previous book concentrated on the romance between Grace and Jack and his discovery of his family ties. This book concentrates on the same discoveries but from the romantic views of Thomas and Amelia. Two people who have been betrothed since the cradle.

I think it was an interesting idea to try to have two stories in one series, both taking place at the same time… Had the whole Duke thing not been the center of each story, it may have worked. But what was exciting and mysterious in the last story, just proved much too monotonous in this one. Entire scenes are reused from the first book leaving me in a consistent state of déjà vu while reading.

Thomas and Amelia are wonderful leads and their relationship was fresh and new, thank goodness, so this book wasn’t a total loss as I enjoyed their romantic part of the tale, immensely. With all that said… I can’t help but feel a little cheated as the author chose to only write half a story. Had I not read the first book I probably would have rated this one a lot higher. Instead of making two books out of one story she should have combined them making it one book/one story with two perspectives. Would have made a more compelling tale and would have saved a tree or two in the process. ;)

Cherise Everhard, October 2008
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08/02/08

Ron rated it:

bookshelves: romance

Read in August, 2008

The story covers much the same narrative terrain as The Lost Duke of Wyndham, only this time around the focus is on two of that novel's supporting characters: Thomas Cavendish, who starts out the story as the Duke, and Amelia, with whom he has been affianced for an arranged marriage since they were children. To be honest, for most of this book I thought that, as a character, Thomas worked better in the first novel, when there was a sense of--well, mystery is perhaps not the right word--to his ac...more

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10/14/08

Isabelle rated it:

Read in October, 2008

This is book #2 of the Two Dukes of Wyndham, but I don't know if it really counts as a different book. Basically 90% of the book is the same as the first book, only seen from another character's perspective. The author has done this before in another book but only with one scene, which made it much less tedious. The "new" scenes of the book were really good though, which made reading this book not a total loss. Hopefully the author doesn't try doing this again. In theory it might ...more

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06/20/09

Juliana rated it:

bookshelves: historical-romance

I don't know what happened to Julia Quinn after her Bridgerton series ended ... but it wasn't anything good. Her first book following that series, The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever, was one of the worst historical romance books I've read - the first half was very promising, but the second half wasn't just disappointing or a letdown after what preceded, it was just in-your-face straight-out bad with horrible actions on behalf of the hero and really horrible plot twists by the author (see...more I don't know what happened to Julia Quinn after her Bridgerton series ended ... but it wasn't anything good. Her first book following that series, The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever, was one of the worst historical romance books I've read - the first half was very promising, but the second half wasn't just disappointing or a letdown after what preceded, it was just in-your-face straight-out bad with horrible actions on behalf of the hero and really horrible plot twists by the author (see my review of that book for more details).

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume is the sequel to The Lost Duke of Wyndham and before buying or reading either of these books, I combed through many, many Amazon.com reviews. Readers were very disappointed by the fact that the two books take place simultaneously and not only at the same time, but in the same place with the same characters in the same situations. Both books seemed to be a resounding failure, but the second book seemed to be criticized more for the fact that people hadn't realized Quinn was going to do this and so instead of getting the whole new story they expected, they had 300+ pages of deja vu.

I therefore decided that I would only read one of the books and decided to go with Mr. Cavendish, I Presume since the plot appealed to me more than the first book's ... Well let me just say this: I haven't finished the book and don't really plan on doing so anytime soon. It was just so ... not good! The idea for the story is an interesting one - though write one book for it, not two - and being a HR aficionado I can say that I don't think I've ever read one with a similar plot. Discovering that someone who was a commoner is actually a nobleman? Happens all the time. But the other way around ... not so much. However, even Julia Quinn's writing skill cannot make up for the fact that she completely botches this story, taking an interesting and original plot and completely failing to deliver an interesting and original book.

Also, although Amelia, the heroine, seemed like she could have been interesting (she was somewhat immature at times - or at least, from what I read of the first quarter/third of the book), the hero, Thomas, was ... ugh, I don't even know! He's just so NOT appealing in the beginning of the book and I am almost never, ever, ever turned off by the hero - I'm always much more critical of the female lead than the male one. He's detached and pretty uninteresting and although there are some promising aspects of his personality, they don't make up for the blandness that Quinn writes him with. Thomas' complete inattention to Amelia and focus his grandmother's companion, Grace, is a huge turnoff (there's not supposed to be any attraction between them or anything going on, so why have it then?). He seems a very lonely and sad man, but instead of exploring this and really defining his character, Quinn kind of just lets Thomas languish in front of the reader, hinting at his complexity but not enough to draw us in.

I did skim to the end of the book to see how the HEA turned out and I have to say that the last 2-3 chapters and epilogue were enjoyable ... but there is no way I am plodding through the rest of the book to get to that, sorry. So ending my glowing review on that note ... does anyone want to buy my copy of Mr. Cavendish, I Presume?(less)

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12/26/08

Jacqueline rated it:

bookshelves: historical-romance

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in December, 2008

recommended to Jacqueline by: Found while browsing books.
recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys Quinn as an author, since her style is rather unique unto itself.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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11/27/08

Christa rated it:

bookshelves: booksfree-com

Read in November, 2008

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest Julia Quinn book. The storyline was interesting, and the characters were very likeable. I also liked the way the story was so interwoven with the first book from the series, but I believe I would have appreciated this even more if I had read them back to back. The two books take place at the same time, and I remembered some of the same events being told in the previous book from the point of view of the main characters in it, which was very interesting. I bel...more

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01/22/09

Debbie rated it:

It was kind of odd reading basically the same story of The Lost Duke of Wyndham from a different point of view. I am surprised that I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit especially since I thought The Lost Duke of Wyndham was pretty bad. I did not expect the two books to pretty much cover the exact same story. If anything else I thought this one would start a little bit after The Lost Duke of Wyndham as we see what Thomas Cavendish do with his life. I enjoyed seeing the developing attract...more

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11/14/08

H.S. rated it:

bookshelves: reviewed, romance

Read in December, 2008

If you enjoyed the first book, The Lost Duke of Wyndham then you should NOT read this book.

I was extremely disappointed in the fact that the author copied the first book and pasted it into this one. There probably is no more than 50 pages of original material in this book. Seriously!

This book deals with Amelia and Thomas and quite frankly, the way this "romance" is told, does not justify a book. I think Quinn realized that after she sold her publisher on the ide...more

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02/07/09

Lizzy rated it:

bookshelves: chick-lit, romance--historical, romance--series

Read in November, 2008

I must admit that after the first book, I didn't have much use for Thomas (Mr. Cavendish, of the title), but my affection for him (through this novel) was a wonderful surprise.

Amelia, his fiancee, experiences the same surprise as she gets to know him over the course of the book. Their marriage was arranged by their parents when they were young, and just as Thomas starts to discover just how wonderful his betrothed is, he can't do anything but watch his life, his very existence slip ...more

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12/30/08

Stacy rated it:

Read in December, 2008

Amelia Willoughby has been engaged to the dashing Duke of Wyndham since she was an infant. She is properly raised to become a Duchess. They meet and dance and talk politely but he never takes any real interest in her. One evening, as the Duke makes his grand entrance and works his way over to her for their customary dance she decides NO and declines a dance with him. No one ever says no to the Duke and his interest is finally peaked. After a stolen kiss in the garden Thomas suddenly thinks ...more

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03/24/09

Vonna rated it:

Read in March, 2009

Julia Quinn disappointed me a bit on this book. This is the second book in the series..I had read book #1 and anxiouly awaited the release of this one. However, upon beginning reading, I soon came to realize that it was basically the same book as #1...3/4 of it was the same story with only the last 1/4 (if that) of the book was "new" material. I feel that I got cheated and should have only paid 1/4 of the book price since I paid full price for the first book and only 1/4 of this book I...more

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12/07/08

Dyanne rated it:

bookshelves: romance--historical

Of course you have to read this if you have read "The lost duke of Wyndham" But as a "story happening at the same time" as that book, this book was very disappointing. Seemed the ever great Julia Quinn missed this time. Seemed very forced. Like she had the story in mind while writing Lost duke, but did quite have it figured out and had already promised it to the publishers. Certainly will not put me off of Julia Quinn books, but don't make this your "first" J. ...more

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11/21/08

Erin rated it:

bookshelves: historical-setting, romanticnovels

Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: romance fans, Julia Quinn fans

Excellent romance novel! Entertaining, a good story, and part of a series. I'm not sure how I missed the first book in the series (The Lost Duke of Wyndham), but all through this one, I kept thinking, "She must be planning another book featuring Grace Eversleigh because it seems like there's a whole 'nother story here." Turns out, yes, Julia Quinn wrote Grace's story first! And since Amelia Willoughby has four sisters, it looks like Ms. Quinn should be able to get at least four mor...more

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12/14/08

Jaimey rated it:

bookshelves: romance-regency

Read in April, 2009

In a nutshell: Thomas Cavendish faces the loss of everything he holds dear when his grandmother kidnaps Jack Audley, who may or may not be the true Duke of Wyndham. Along for the ride is Thomas's long-time betrothed, Amelia Willoughby, who may or may not still be his fiancée.

Characters: Amelia is an ok character, I guess. I wasn't very attached to her but I didn't hate her either. She was a little two-dimensional as compared to Ms Quinn's other heroines—very similar to Grace Evers...more In a nutshell: Thomas Cavendish faces the loss of everything he holds dear when his grandmother kidnaps Jack Audley, who may or may not be the true Duke of Wyndham. Along for the ride is Thomas's long-time betrothed, Amelia Willoughby, who may or may not still be his fiancée.

Characters: Amelia is an ok character, I guess. I wasn't very attached to her but I didn't hate her either. She was a little two-dimensional as compared to Ms Quinn's other heroines—very similar to Grace Eversleigh from The Lost Duke of Wyndham, actually. I will say that I found Amelia's constant urge to grow a spine rather believable for a Regency lady raised with the understanding that she would marry a duke one day, raised to honor her parents' wishes above all things. It wasn't until she felt like she was being treated unfairly that she decided she'd stand up for herself.
Thomas seems a little different from Ms Quinn's usual heroes—the ones I've read so far, anyway. He is very proper, never doing anything wrong, always adhering to duty, ever conscious what is due to his title and position. For all that, he is not all that arrogant. He is quite good friends with his grandmother's companion, Grace. This strikes me as a little unlikely considering how proper he tends to be but I was willing to go along with it. Meanwhile, I think Ms Quinn did a good job portraying how a man who was raised to be nothing but a duke could feel a little lost when faced with the removal of that dominant part of himself.

Storyline: In Mr. Cavendish, I Presume, the focus is on Thomas Cavendish, the possibly dispossessed Duke of Wyndham. There is a lot of introspective ramblings pertaining to each of the main character's feelings on what was happening. Some of these were absolutely necessary, some felt rather redundant. But, as an author myself, I know how difficult it can be to accurately determine how many reminders for a character's actions are necessary, and how many are too many. And honestly, I don't think it is something that really can be determined due to the differences in readers.
The romance of this book was odd, to say the least. Thomas was engaged to Amelia since childhood. Neither one had a choice in the match. Both accepted it but Thomas took his time getting around to the actual marriage. What was weird was the fact that Amelia seemed half in love with him even though he took her completely for granted. It was difficult to believe.
I was a little surprised at how few detailed love scenes were in this book. Not to say that Ms Quinn is normally overly graphic, but I seem to recall far more in her previous novels. (This is a point in this book's favor, by the way.)

Criticisms: This story lacked the depth of Ms Quinn's other novels. Honestly, had she just written one book, titled it The Two Dukes of Wyndham, and wrote from the POVs of each of the four—Jack and Grace from the 1st book and Thomas and Amelia from the 2nd book—she could have had a winning novel. It may have been a bit faster paced than her previous novels, but it would have been far less repetitive. Just my opinion.
I read the two books together, skipping over parts that were just a repeat scene. I think this helped weed out a lot of the annoyance due to repetition. While I wouldn't recommend paying full price for this book, I would suggest a used copy if you are a Julia Quinn fan. I do not think two or three books that are inferior to her previous novels is a reason to completely give up on her as an author.

Overall: 3.8 of 5 stars. I enjoyed this one more than the first—probably because I read it at the same time—and found the inner struggle of this hero far more interesting.(less)

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11/17/08

Gail rated it:

bookshelves: historical-romance, hurricane-ike-book

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in September, 2008

This book, as has been said before, covers the same events as the Lost Duke of Wyndham (or whatever the first title is) from a different point of view. I've read other books that did this, and some of those have annoyed me, but this one didn't. I don't know if it was the mood I was in, or that I needed the familiarity, or what, but I enjoyed it. In this book, the hero has been raised all his life as the Duke of Wyndham, engaged since infancy to the neighbor's daughter, who is, now I think about ...more

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11/10/08

Sbuchler rated it:

bookshelves: read-in-2008, romance

Read in November, 2008

Genre: Romance

I enjoyed this book more then the previous in the series (_The Two Dukes of Wyndham_) - it had more humor, and felt a bit more like Quinn’s Bridgerton series. I'm sure it helped that I read this book 6 months after the first in the series, as it covers entirely the same time-frame, and most of the same scenes.

For all that the romance was rather sweet, I think Julia Quinn rather missed the boat on the story - I think the most interesting part was how the o...more Genre: Romance

I enjoyed this book more then the previous in the series (_The Two Dukes of Wyndham_) - it had more humor, and felt a bit more like Quinn’s Bridgerton series. I'm sure it helped that I read this book 6 months after the first in the series, as it covers entirely the same time-frame, and most of the same scenes.

For all that the romance was rather sweet, I think Julia Quinn rather missed the boat on the story - I think the most interesting part was how the original Duke of Wyndham (Thomas, the hero of this book) comes to terms and learns how to function as Mr. Cavendish rather then as THE Duke of Wyndham. That requires some compare-and-contrast with his life as Duke (which was well done in the beginning of this book) but the book ends before he spends much time as Mr. Cavendish.

Secondly, all Thomas' moaning that, ‘if he's not The Duke he has nothing’ is rubbish. I had a huge suspension of disbelief problem with that - his father was the third son of the previous Duke and his mother the daughter of a wealthy manufacturer. Thomas' maternal grandfather would've been an idiot if the mother's dowry wasn't tied up primarily in her children! E.G. Her only son, our hero, Thomas.

For all that much of the book was the same scenes we'd seen previously in _The Two Dukes of Wyndham_ (theoretically told from slightly different perspectives, but not changed materially enough to make me believe that we were actually viewing the scenes from another's eyes) I can't believe that the pivotal scene for the heroine, where she stands up to her father and tells him she won't marry the new Duke of Wyndham, is left entirely out. It's not even mentioned that Amelia found the courage to say "No" despite it being in the climax of _The Two Dukes of Wyndham_!

Many of the scenes from the first book that were included felt to me like they were furthering a different story (the one in the first book) rather then the story of THIS book. I'm sure this is a very hard thing to do, but... I have to compare this duology (unfavorably) to the amazing job that Pamela Aidan did in the _Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman_ books in retelling the same story and same scenes from Austen’s _Pride & Prejudice_ but from an obviously different perspective – some things were left out because Darcy didn't take note of them, others that Elizabeth had passed over in a paragraph got pages and pages of attention. Unfortunately, that kind of perspective changing compare-and-contrast does not happen between _Mr. Cavendish, I Presume_ and _The Two Dukes of Wyndham_.(less)

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11/03/08

Wulan rated it:

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in November, 2008

I am a big fan of romantic novels. I am a hopeless romantic, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Nevertheless, I'm not quite fond of novels that give away too many details when it comes to the love scenes and such.
I mean, when the two main characters decided to express their love (whether it's only by kissing or more), I think that the author should just let the reader imagine freely instead of writing the full details of it.
Julia Quinn did exactly that, which made me dissapointed....more

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