A Duke of Her Own
Undoubtedly, A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James was one of the most highly anticipated novels this year for me, as it was for many other readers. The final volume of the Desperate Duchesses series, it was to contain the romance of the charismatic Duke of Villiers, who’d lost a fiancée to another man in Desperate Duchesses, almost died and befriended, not-quite-wooed another lady in An Affair Before Christmas, and lost a third lady to a rival in This Duchess of Mine. If a man was due his romance, it was he. So yes, this is a book I really wanted to read, and expected to love. Unfortunately, it disappointed me sadly – so badly, in fact, that I put it aside for a number of weeks because I just couldn’t be bothered to read on.
The novel begins well enough: Leopold Dauntry, Duke of Villiers, promised on his almost-deathbed that he would personally look after his six illegitimate children. Because of a dishonest lawyer, Leopold lost track of where his children were, and has since rediscovered four. He quickly realizes he needs a wife to bring up the children, and to ease their way into society, his future wife cannot be anything less than a duke’s daughter. At present, there are only two ducal daughters unmarried and of appropriate age in England, and Leopold seeks out both.
At a ball, he meets Lady Eleanor Lindel. Although Leopold and Eleanor hit it off very well from the first, both want to test the waters further before committing themselves. So Eleanor, her mother and her younger (but married) sister Anne visit Lady Lisette, the other candidate, in the country, as do Villiers and his eldest son Tobias. If all of this sounds rather calculating so far, that is because it is. Villiers wants the best possible mother for his children, Eleanor wants to avoid becoming an old maid, and Lisette wants love and attention. Both ladies were embroiled in affairs of the heart in the past, and both are influenced to this day by what they lost.
It is with the beginning of that house party that everything unraveled for me. Lady Lisette is an eccentric, and so is her household. For various reasons, several members of the house party (including the chaperones) fall ill, or depart, or hide in their rooms. So the main characters are left more or less to their own devices. You’d expect they’d use this opportunity to get to know one another better, and they do, but they go about it in a strange way. The heroine is attracted to Leopold, but she’s somehow still reluctant to finally forgo her first love, so she both flirts with him and pushes him away. Leopold’s other possible love interest behaves, in turns, charmingly and abominably, and he’s the only person in the whole novel who only perceives her charming side. Leopold spends the whole middle part of the novel doing precisely nothing. He spends time with both ladies and is stumped in utter passivity. Nor does he understand the women in the slightest, which I find difficult to believe from a man who’s 35 and has had some dealings with the other sex. I found all this vacillating on behalf of the three main characters tedious in the extreme and it made me stop caring about them.
Matters become more exciting again in the last third of the book, and some explanations for the general brainlessness the characters have exhibited so far are given. But that was too late to salvage the novel for me.
On the plus side I ought to mention, the vignettes of Leopold’s children are charming and not cutesy at all, the sex scenes are late in the book but luscious, and I adored Eleanor’s sharp-tongued sister Anne. Alas, she was in too few scenes (partly, I believe, because she does not suffer fools gladly).
As the conclusion to a series I had enjoyed a lot overall, A Duke of her Own was quite a letdown. This was especially disappointing because the characters could have entertained me far more had they been granted a different plot and less dithering. As it is, I recommend the book for those who want to see the series wrapped up, but definitely not for newcomers to Eloisa James. She has done better.
Recent Comments
I like this book a lot–it’s one of my favorites of hers. It’s sexy, very funny, and redeems its hero beautifully.
Sorry, I don’t know why all the paragraphing disappeared from my comment when I hit “send” making it unwieldy to read. The end phrases before indentation are
1) audition of sorts.
2) refreshing change from the usual romantic novel
3) more rational choice
4) finicky mother comes to believe
5) all enchanting.
Hope this helps?
This is one of the few romance novels that I re-read regularly, finding something new to admire each time. I think the author reached perfection in this tale with deft plotting and language. There are no shop-worn tropes here. The two main characters are social equals (he a Duke, she a Duke’s daughter) and both are witty, a real treat in their dialogues. They meet to consider each other for marriage in a business-like manner yet both feel a spark of attraction. Eleanor wants to move on from pining for a youthful lover who wed someone else. Leopold, Duke of Villiers wants a good mother for his brood of 6 illegitimate children (5 are his, 1 thrown in for her mother’s sake). At age 35 after almost dying in a duel, he wishes to atone for his earlier profligacy by gathering them to raise under his roof. He feels particularly guilty on discovering that his arrangements for their care were defeated by a crooked solicitor leaving them in difficult circumstances. The stature of double duchess is needed to smooth their way into society and there are only 2 eligible Duke’s daughters, the second being Lisette, a childhood friend of Eleanor’s. The two ladies and the Duke spend several days at a house party in Lisette’s home in Kent, getting to know one another, an audition of sorts. Lisette comes strong out of the gate in the motherhood sweepstakes as a hands-on involved patron of an orphanage where the Duke has come to collect twin daughters. There are hints of underlying instability by those who know her but she is ethereally beautiful and surface charming. Eleanor is gorgeous once her feisty married sister Anne bulldozes her into a makeover but has no experience with children. However, in her dealings with 3 of Villiers’ brood and the orphans, she shows good maternal instincts that Leopold doesn’t register enough even when he witnesses them – probably because what he’s registering is overpowering lust for her and that clouds his judgment. He can’t bring himself to believe that the woman he craves in his bed is also the better choice for his children. To be fair to him, Eleanor is too noble to tell him what she knows of Lisette’s weaknesses, expecting him to divine them himself in the short space of time available. On a couple of occasions, out of excess politeness, she outright misleads him about Lisette’s suitability as a mother. So the thing keeping Leopold and Eleanor apart is their combined nobility, what a refreshing change from the usual romance novel. Eleanor’s first love Gideon, Duke of Astley is suddenly widowed and comes to tell her he will rectify his past mistake and marry her after his year of mourning. However, the burning attraction with Villiers continues to grow during their numerous interactions (so many entertaining scenes on a shared balcony) and builds to a hot flame. When they become lovers (surely not a plot spoiler?) the meeting of minds and bodies is “joyful” though both feel they are stealing an interlude before parting ways to marry the partners they assume are their more rational choice. Unlike them, the reader realizes Eleanor and Villiers are perfect for each other as they confide past pains and offer consolation in turn, showing true intimacy, yet without losing their zing. Eleanor gets Leopold past his stone faced “Dukeness” to flirt and yes, even laugh. He builds up her bruised self-esteem ironically to the point where she is strong enough to leave him as well as Astley, to find a man for whom she’s first choice, not second. How the Duke known for his arrogant pride and flamboyant dress in previous books in the series woos back the lady he finally realizes he has wounded but can’t live without is swoon-worthy. Best romance suitor ever…as even Eleanor’s finicky mother comes to believe. The way Eleanor learns to read Leopold’s eyes, the refreshing honesty and directness between them, the witty banter, the flirtatious game they play with her having to be kissed into “remembering” his given name, the sexy mutuality instead of one pursuing a reluctant other are all enchanting. Best use of a dog for comic relief and to advance a critical plot point. Best sister as “wing-man” and smart mouth. Children believable and not annoying. No villains per se, just flawed people. Astley even redeems himself. Minor characters drawn as deftly as Dickens. Best description of betrothal ring and story behind it since Gabaldon’s… Read more »
Just now seeing this reviewing the top 100
This is one of my top ten – read many times. James manages to make a book be Austen-esque but with much faster pacing & much more sexy ;)
James really hit her stride her in this book – bringing together her keen intelligence, knowledge of history (& always Shakespeare!) & love of a good story. Every character & their motivations are fleshed out…..& there was no boogeyman or otherwise needed for the climax: humans & their needs, desires & inevitable outcomes fuels the plot. Very much a novel set in it’s time period in a most delicious manner!
Love this book A+