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Desperate Duchesses (Desperate Duchesses, #1)

Eloisa James

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May 30, 2011 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-romance, romance

I enjoyed the first Eloise James book I read enough to try another, and this is that other, and ... I am deeply deeply disappointed. I can not STAND the main heroine, Roberta - she is a stuck up little idiot, I do not understand her motivations At All. She is presented to us as a level headed and intelligent woman (well, I THINK that's the feel the author was going for, but maybe not), but yet ... she trips this guy (no, really, she accidentally trips him) and decides ON THE SPOT that she must h I enjoyed the first Eloise James book I read enough to try another, and this is that other, and ... I am deeply deeply disappointed. I can not STAND the main heroine, Roberta - she is a stuck up little idiot, I do not understand her motivations At All. She is presented to us as a level headed and intelligent woman (well, I THINK that's the feel the author was going for, but maybe not), but yet ... she trips this guy (no, really, she accidentally trips him) and decides ON THE SPOT that she must have him, no matter how much of a jerk everyone says he is, and no matter how attracted she is becoming to her distant cousin many times removed whom she is sort of co-rooming with (they are both staying with his very rich Duchess of a sister, Jemma, in London). I do hope Roberta ends up w/ a jerk, because she strikes me as an ass. Damon Reeve, Lord Somethingorother (Gryffyn?), the nice sexy brother, deserves someone better.

One interesting side note: - unlike most romances (which have one set romance that is obvious from the get-go), this one is setting up quite a few potential romances. The Duchess, Jemma, is finding herself strangely attracted to her estranged husband, the Duke of Whatchamacallit, and he also to her. Meanwhile, Jemma is also finding herself maybe a little interesting in Duke Jerk that our heroine Roberta is interested in, and HE to her (to Jemma, that is). Duke Jerk also occassionally thinks positive thoughts about Roberta, who is of course inexplicably head over heels for him. Damon is unquestionably besotted with Roberta, and she is hot for him, but refuses to admit it to herself. Not any love triangles, per se, but three different potential romances. Interesting. If Ms James can see this through to a satisfying ending, I may change my tune a bit about how much I am disliking it.

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I finally finished it, and I am pleased to say it gets much better. I can see now that the author was trying to set up the characters so that they could grow and change through the story. A noble effort, but it didn't really work for me, the characters were more like caricatures than real people, so it felt a bit ham-handed. It was also rather obvious that Ms James was setting up for a series of stories, and that can often be awkward when there is a bit too much backstory about an apparently secondary character. So, I didn't love this, but I haven't given up on Ms James as a romance writer. Yet. ...more

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Jan 28, 2010 Tracyene marked it as to-read

Jul 31, 2014 SandyC marked it as to-read

Shelves: meet-and-greet

Jul 04, 2015 Deedee marked it as to-read

Shelves: d2-no-articles, alliteration, cover-yellow, two-word-title, series-1st, d2, e3, romance-unread, year-2007, romance-regency

May 01, 2016 Yani marked it as to-read

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