How to Dance with a Duke (Ugly Ducklings, #1) in Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn

Nov 12, 2012 Jessica rated it liked it

Shelves: romance

Maybe this is a 3.5 Sometimes it sucks to be forced to be so clear-cut with the rating.

Anywho, this was my debut to Manda Collins and I wasn't disappointed. I wasn't bowled over but I wasn't let down either. It's one of those comfortable little books that takes you away for a couple hours, a couple days and you smile wistfully at the end and then move on.

It's certainly no The Hunger Games or The Fault in our Stars.

Cecily is a bluestocking to the extreme and is stubbornly pursuing the mystery of Maybe this is a 3.5 Sometimes it sucks to be forced to be so clear-cut with the rating.

Anywho, this was my debut to Manda Collins and I wasn't disappointed. I wasn't bowled over but I wasn't let down either. It's one of those comfortable little books that takes you away for a couple hours, a couple days and you smile wistfully at the end and then move on.

It's certainly no The Hunger Games or The Fault in our Stars.

Cecily is a bluestocking to the extreme and is stubbornly pursuing the mystery of her father's illness and its link to his missing expedition journals. Coincidentally, Lucas- Duke of Winterson- is on a similar quest; only his brother is missing and he believes it links to Cecily's father and journals. The two literally stumble upon one another during their determined individual quests and before long, decide to join forces.

This book was a lovely suspensful romance with a fairly seamless plot. Cecily and Lucas engage in all sorts of clandestine moments of passion whilst their hunt for the mysterious common denominator in all three mysteries. It indeed leads to their marriage; one that you cheer for but simultaneously wonder why is Collins having them marry so early on in the story.

It is at this point that Cecily's character starts to grate on me. I understand the reasoning for it; there needs to be some sort of stall for Cecily in her discovery of love for Lucas. Otherwise it would be too easy and the book would have ended 200 pages in. Yet Cecily had made some decisions that really piqued me and although I did get over them in the end, there were times that I wanted to shake her impressive intellectual person and declare she does not deserve Lucas in all his protective, honorable, handsome glory.

But that is not here nor there. The ending was done all right. I certainly would consider picking up another of her's at least to see how her cousins and the men make out. Because of course the female cousins and men are going to make out. You can take that in the literal sense as well as figuratively. ...more

Like · see review

Feb 13, 2014 Charlene rated it really liked it

Shelves: public-library, romance, reviewed, top-shelf, regency, series-by-author, search-ohio, recommended

4 - 4.5 stars

I think this is the first book I've read by Manda Collins, but it won't be the last. This author's debut book is well written and a cut above many Regency romances out there.

I liked almost all of the characters, except for the obvious and not-so-obvious villain(s). The weakest part for me was that I suspected the latter almost from the beginning and that the crimes committed were multiple. Having said this, the plot, with the background of a race between the British Museum and the E ...more

Like · see review