THE RELUCTANT DUCHESS BY ROSEANNA M. WHITE

It took me awhile to get into this book, but when I did I found it a pretty interesting read. It’s the second in an Edwardian series about intrigues among lords and ladies over an immensely valuable set of red diamonds called the Fire Eyes. Many people, including the villainous Catherine Pratt and her brother Lord Rutherford, are obsessed with these jewels and constantly commit murders and thefts in an effort to get them. However, most of this second book was about a Scottish girl from a hostile and backward family, who is raped by her boyfriend, which forces her harsh and unloving father to set her up with a complete stranger, a British lord who doesn’t particularly like her. The jewel plot was secondary and at times a little confusing, especially since I didn’t read the first book.

The romance was okay—not too lavish, but not boring either—and the genteel set of upper-crust British people was amusing to read about. I was torn about the heroine, Rowena, because I wanted to like and feel sorry for her but sometimes she was honestly just very, very stupid. For instance, she felt her ex-boyfriend was pleasant and charming and listened to her prior to the rape, at which time he turned on her and became an abusive whacko who raped her for fun and then wanted to marry and beat her up. I couldn’t help but feel other people suspected he wasn’t very nice, but she didn’t notice any warning signs. She experienced a lot of post-rape trauma and fear of men, partly because she could never seem to figure out that men are not all the same and was now absolutely paranoid! This led to nightmares as well as poor decision-making in which she continually misjudged the well-meaning British lord her husband while trusting the obviously bad Lady Pratt. She kind of brought some things on herself through dim-wittedness, especially after the plot moved away from Scotland and into England. However, I was glad she and Lord Nottingham had a happy ending and he agreed to protect her and take care of her baby. I wouldn’t mind reading the next book in the series.

I was given this book by Bethany in exchange for my honest opinion.