Desperate Duchesses (Desperate Duchesses, #1) in Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn

Dec 03, 2011 Zumbagirl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite, georgian-romance, adorable-child, friendship, world-s-best-husband, close-siblings, hero-adores-heroine, bastard-child, sweet-and-steamy-romance, worlds-greatest-father

I've wanted to read a book by Eloisa James for a long time and finally have had the opportunity - and I LOVED IT! I can't believe how much I loved it. This book has something very special to me in it and wins my two favorite tags - world's greatest father and world's greatest husband - which, let's face it, some men can only be one or the other, and often neither. This is a story which sets things up for the six books in the series. That's a tough job because it has to lay the groundwork and I've wanted to read a book by Eloisa James for a long time and finally have had the opportunity - and I LOVED IT! I can't believe how much I loved it. This book has something very special to me in it and wins my two favorite tags - world's greatest father and world's greatest husband - which, let's face it, some men can only be one or the other, and often neither. This is a story which sets things up for the six books in the series. That's a tough job because it has to lay the groundwork and gives us tons of characters and problems they must work out. (There weren't too many characters that you'd forget them or get confused)

Our heroine, Roberta, is 21, motherless, has a poet for a father, and wants to get married - very specifically to a duke, the Duke of Villiers. Our hero, Damon, is an earl and is delectable, but is raising his bastard son, Teddy, the cutest little boy on earth. Roberta needs to spend time in London and attend balls in order to snare her duke. She decides to involve a distant relative, Jemma Beaumont, to help her launch into society. Jemma is Damon's sister and is married to the Duke of Beaumont, Elijah - but she's been separated from him, living in Paris, carrying on several affairs. We learn more about this couple through the book. Jemma willingly complies, quite happily, to sponsor Roberta in her quest to get Villiers. It was somewhat annoying how Roberta was so crazy in love with Villiers, but love is blind sometimes. She wants a very different kind of man than her father, who is very emotional and demonstrative. Well, Villiers is cold as ice and fits the bill.

There's an interesting theme that runs throughout the book - the game of chess. I like how Ms. James used this tool - especially how they played chess in the bedroom - chess and sex both being games, to the characters involved.

Teddy was a highlight in this book and Damon's relationship with him was so special - I fell in love with Damon for this reason alone! Not everyone likes it when a child is in a romance novel. In this particular case, it was very nicely done, not overly drawn out, but perfect.
But Damon gave us many more reasons to love him. He's not an alpha hero, maybe a gamma hero - he knows what he wants and sets out to get it, but isn't overly aggressive about it. It was fate that sealed the deal and he was very appreciative for that. He knew he loved Roberta early on and had to figure out his strategy.

This was a treat and I can't wait to read another of this series and others from Ms. James.
...more

4 likes · Like · see review