Dls’s Comments (group member since Sep 14, 2010)

Dls’s comments from the Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn group.

I haven’t read them in years but I loved them. By
any chance does she have new ones under another name?

Welcome back Ilaine! I don’t know it either

I don’t know this one at all.

No idea at all

Oh, the start to an excellent series.

I love her stuff. Too bad she stopped writing and isnt available on line

I have no idea but I’m really interested! (The only romance I can think of in a radio station I Charlie All Night by Crusie.)

No idea

Absolutely no ide.

I know the book—I started it and got distracted. I should go back …

Awww….

No I haven’t read it (also you left her name in one place).
But it sounds really good.

It’s the Duke who Didn’t by Courtney Milan

“Please. Please allow me to say what I have to say. I’ve put this off so long, and it’s so terrible. I don’t want to say it, but it cannot wait any longer. Not one second. Heroine, I love you. I want you in my life forever.” He paused, throat closing on what he had to say.
She frowned at him. “That’s it? That’s the bad thing that has you looking at me like that? I already knew that.”
“You did?” He frowned. “How did you know that?”
“You’ve told me twenty times since you arrived.”
“That’s—that’s just—never mind. Look. How am I supposed to confess? I wasn’t supposed to say that yet. I’m getting it all mixed up. Heroine, I’m the duke.”
There. He’d said it. Badly, but he’d said it. His breath seemed stuck in his lungs, as he waited for her horrified reaction.
Instead, she looked up at him with a befuddled stare.
“What?”
Right; the truth had to come as a shock. She probably hadn’t even rightly heard what he’d said.
“The Duke of L,” he explained to her. “The fucking duke. His Grace Good Riddance. The Duke Who Didn’t. That’s me.”
Still she did not say anything.
“My full name is J A Y G L W, Duke of L, Earl of M, Viscount W, Baron of—”
Her eyes lit. “G L! What character do you use for L?”
“Um.” He blinked. “Dragon. But Heroine —”
“You know, my father—S L—he uses the same character, just pronounced the Hakka way. I had no idea. What an extraordinary coincidence!” She frowned. “Or maybe it’s not that extraordinary. He’s twenty-four years older than you.”
“Heroine.” He felt as if he were moving through thick mud. The going was painstakingly slow, and the ground threatened to suck him under. “How is that the thing you are focusing on at the moment? Are you listening to me? I’m the Duke of L. I own your home. You owe me fifty-three years of rents.”
That did stop her. She folded her arms and frowned. “Surely not. We’ve only lived here the past eighteen years.”
“Are you not surprised?” he demanded. “Or angry? Or dismayed?”
She put a hand on his elbow. “Hero.”
He shut his eyes. “Yes?”
“I am not dismayed. Just a little confused.”
“That explains it.” He sighed. “It must come as an immense surprise to you; of course you may take time to consider.”
“No,” she said. “Not that. I am…having a moment of difficulty comprehending…one other little thing.”
One little thing.
“No,” he said bitterly. “You comprehend it perfectly well. I am the horrific fiend who owns all your land. You all owe fifty-three years of back rents to me. I took advantage of your friendship, your goodwill, your—”
“Hero,” she said, “will you please wait just one moment before you go on a tirade?”
“I know how it looks, asking you to marry me.” He put his hands in his pockets and looked away. “It’s no good either way. If I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t know what you were getting into, and that wouldn’t be fair. If I did tell you… I don’t want you to feel as if you must do anything, simply because of the stupid situation with the land and the rents and all of that. If you wish, before you answer, I’ll have my solicitor draw up a deed of conveyance.”
“Hero,” she said. “Will you please listen to me? I have a question, and I think you must answer it.”
“It’s true.” He looked down at her, afraid of losing her once she truly understood it. “It’s all true.”
“Listen!” She made an exasperated noise and took hold of his shoulders. “Hero, were you under the impression that nobody knew who you were?”
He blinked. His entire mind went blank. “Ah?” There was a roaring in his ears; his entire body felt like he might blow away on a strong exhale. “What was that you said?”
“I think you heard me. Do you think nobody knows you’re the duke?”
“What.” He wanted to finish the sentence; he really did. The problem was that he didn’t know how. “What.”
“What?”
“What,” he repeated stupidly.
“There is no what.” She shrugged. “Everyone knows you’re the Duke of L.”
He was struggling to fit his mind around this. “Did your father tell you recently? He told me he wouldn’t mention it.”
She was beginning to smile. “Oh, you giant oaf. Are you under the impression that you’re anonymous?”
“Um.” He looked up at the night sky. Stars were beginning to come out, bright and beautiful. It had not exactly occurred to him that he wouldn’t be. “Yes?”
“Let me see if I have this straight. When I was in Dover, and you were off at the station, someone mentioned their cousin Tom in Shanghai to me. I’ve never even been to China. Did it matter? No. They think all Chinese people know each other. There is precisely one half-Chinese duke in all of Britain…and you somehow think that the village of Wedgeford wouldn’t be continually informed of his existence?”
“I…” He hadn’t thought of that. He hadn’t thought at all.
“You cut a ribbon in the May Day parade in London last year. There were tens of thousands of people in the crowd! Did you think, in that massive assembly, that there was absolutely nobody from Wedgeford?”
“But.” Hero swallowed. “But nobody ever said anything? How—that—I don’t understand.”
“Well, first of all.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s Wedgeford rules. We don’t go around asking people where they’re from. It’s awkward and unmannerly.”
He’d realized that. He’d understood it. He just hadn’t…comprehended precisely how it might apply to him.
“Secondly,” she said, “you always seemed a little embarrassed by it. If you’d wanted us to call you something besides Posh Jim, you’d have said so.”
“That’s true, but…” He still could not complete a thought.
“And finally,” she said, “do you mean to tell me you haven’t noticed how much people tease you?”
“Tease me.” He bit his lip. “People tease me?”
“You know. Going up to you and saying things like, ‘Ha ha,
do you think the duke will like what I’ve done to his field?’ and such. Do you think we spend all our time talking about the Duke of L when you’re not here?”
He felt as if he’d been struck by lightning. He felt… He didn’t know how he felt. It was impossible to comprehend. They…knew? How did they all know? How could it be possible? And what did it mean?
That they’d known, and they’d still treated him the way they had… He wanted to laugh with the relief that rushed through him. And he thought that he’d loved Wedgeford before this moment. Ha.
“It was fairly obvious that you were embarrassed by your station,” Heroine said. “Everyone liked you, and it would have been horrific to have to bow and scrape and ‘Your Grace’ you the entire time. Nobody wanted it, least of all you. Ignoring it seemed like the best option for everyone.”
“Except for the teasing,” he muttered. They’d been teasing. They’d been teasing? His entire world seemed to shift on its axis.
“Yes,” she said with a laugh. “Except for that.”
What in all the hells. That had been teasing. He hadn’t even realized. If that had all been teasing…good God, the entirety of Wedgeford was hilarious, and he’d never given them credit for it.
“I feel,” Hero said, his head still ringing, “that I am getting away with something really awful here. Everyone is supposed to be furious.”
“There’s nothing terrible about being loved,” she told him. “People liked you. That’s all that happened. You are allowed to have that.”

I definitely don’t know this.

I have no idea

Also congratulations on the anniversary! I have my 34th coming up Sunday and by comparison we are newlyweds.

I don’t know it.
And yes, this is a great way to find books…

I don’t think I have read it but the scenario is familiar

Ok time to post the answer !