Desert Isle Keeper
The Duke, the Lady, and a Baby
So, A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby walk into a bar… (I couldn’t resist opening with a classic bar joke.)
A Duke, the Lady, and A Baby, the first novel in Vanessa Riley’s Rogues and Remarkable Women series of Regency romances, is a one-stop reading experience. It delivers extraordinary storytelling with pleasing amounts of passionate kisses, winsome characters, mystery and intrigue, humor, and coconut bread (yes, a recipe is included).
For the past four years, West Indian “mulatto” heiress Lady Patience Jordan has been unhappily living in England with her aristocratic husband. When he commits suicide, Patience is forced into the Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam) and her baby boy, Lionel, is claimed by her husband’s cousin, Commander Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington. After Patience is released from her wrongful confinement, she accepts the aid of Widow’s Grace, a secret society of justice-seeking widows. The group’s leader, Countess Shrewsbury, vows to help Patience to regain custody of Lionel and to settle the unfinished business that will assure the safety of her and her son.
Guided by the Countess, the fiercely determined Patience assumes a false identity and secures a job living and working at her former home as Lionel’s nanny. The territorial nanny-mama reluctantly abides by Busick’s strict rules (i.e. crawling practice) for “little soldier” Lionel. It isn’t long before the couple bonds over their mutual adoration for the baby and develop feelings for each other. Patience admires the handsome wounded soldier’s integrity, and Busick appreciates the beautiful nanny’s refreshing candor. But with suspicion and lies between them, trusting their hearts seems too big a risk for either to take.
I was totally swept away by Riley’s detailed historical descriptions – from military uniform adornments to shady gambling hells (how wicked!). I can say with confidence that I have consumed enough BBC documentaries on the Regency era to recognize that the author meticulously researched period-appropriate dress, language, and customs. I also enjoyed the inclusion of West Indian culture, which effectively highlights the challenges that Patience faced as foreign born “blackamoor” in an interracial marriage.
Patience and Busick are awesome apart, but spectacular together. She is a defiant woman and mother who formerly served as a compliant wife. He is a reformed rogue who serves as an honorable man and father. Both fight for right in their own way. That shared quality coupled with frequent repartée and powerful mutual physical attraction leads the pair to develop a deeply authentic love complete with longing stares and lip locking.
Not only did I adore romance protagonists Patience and Busick, but I also cared about the well-crafted secondary characters. Notable sidekicks include Jemina, former Bedlam inmate and Patience’s amnesiac partner in crime, and Lord Gantry, Busick’s confidante whose wife has mysteriously gone missing. Riley deserves credit for utilizing supporting characters to enrich the narrative instead of to serve an arbitrary purpose.
I have only one criticism to report, which did not detract from my sincere enjoyment of Riley’s solid work. The exclusion of Patience’s incarceration at Bedlam and her subsequent release is both surprising and disappointing. It is the inciting incident of the story, yet this defining moment in Patience’s journey is relegated to brief snippets of dialogue and fleeting recollections. A prologue could possibly have bridged the information gap while providing even more fascinating content.
A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby is a brilliantly crafted Regency romance that is a must-read for #histrom fans. Readers who support women’s resistance and fans of iconic nanny-employer musical romance Sound of Music will appreciate Vanessa Riley’s nods to both. I am all-in on the Rogues and Remarkable Women series and eagerly await book two, which based on the teaser, should prove to be another engrossing read.
(Check out my Behind the Review video blog post on Vanessa Riley’s A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby.)
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Book Details
| Reviewer: | Liz Donatelli |
|---|---|
| Review Date: | June 30, 2020 |
| Publication Date: | 06/2020 |
| Grade: | A |
| Sensuality | Kisses |
| Book Type: | Historical Romance |
| Review Tags: | AoC | interracial romance | nanny | PoC |
Re historical accuracy, I would just point out that there is an extant Earldom of Shrewsbury; I even met the current earl in the course of my work 20 years ago or so. The title was first granted in the 11th century and the title is considered the “premier earldom”. My point is just that I wish writers would take great care not to give fictional characters titles that are alive and well. I don’t suppose the current countess knows about this book but if she did, I wonder what she would think about being a fictional character in a book!!
“I wish writers would take great care not to give fictional characters titles that are alive and well.”
Yeah, you think especially traditionally published authors would at least have someone in the editorial department fact checking to avoid these issues. And, traditionally published or not, how hard is it to do a Google search before sitting down to write a story to make sure your character doesn’t share a name with somebody who actually exists? Even for a short story, I always run potential character names through Google to make sure I haven’t accidentally created a combination that belongs to a celebrity, sports star, or serial killer.
The trouble is, that the more tradtionally published titles I read, the more convinced I am that they don’t have editors who either know or care about these things.
That’s been my impression as well. Beyond cover design, a possible advance, and bragging rights, I see fewer and fewer reasons to be traditionally published.
For me, the big draw is that I wouldn’t be going into the process alone. If I were to self-publish, which I’m considering, I would have to arrange everything, including the part which makes me tired just thinking about it : promotion and marketing. Whereas an established publisher already has a built-in readership and a sales team.
I also had a very savvy and conscientious editor when I was with Samhain. I didn’t write historical romance back then, but I had a character fall into freezing water and my editor asked about the character managing to survive until he was pulled out a short while later. I remember my reply referenced both Titanic (the film) and the hypothermia experiments carried out by Nazi doctors. So while I’m sure there are some editors who aren’t concerned about accuracy, I did have the good experience of working with one who was.
Yeah, I’ve noticed small/indie presses tend to do a better job editing than the big publishers these days. I think it’s because of the sheer volume of authors and manuscripts the Big 5 have to wrangle that it becomes more of a factory model production line in a lot of cases, whereas smaller presses have more time to dedicate to each book. Plus, the Big 5 can afford to churn out a number of mediocre titles as long as they have a few big hits and big name authors in their portfolio. Indie presses don’t have the luxury of screwing up if they want repeat business, hence the more intense editing. Additionally, a lot of small presses were founded by authors and/or editors who were fed up with not having their niche interests served by major publishers, so there’s a labor of love aspect going on too. Anyway, these are just some observations I’ve had.
As for promotion and marketing, I’ve heard quite a few traditionally published authors say that you only get the big advertising if you’re already a proven winner like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, etc. It’s kind of like the old joke that a bank is a great place to borrow money if you can prove you don’t need it. More and more mainstream publishers are leaving authors to largely fend for themselves and sometimes include requirements that authors maintain active social media accounts.
I’m glad you had a good experience at Samhain (so sad they’re out of business!). I know you’ve said before that you were done with the insecurity of small presses, but Transmundane Press has two very conscientious editors I’ve worked with for speculative short stories under a different pen name. They might be interested in some of the speculative romances you previously published through Samhain. Oh, and I recently learned Nicole Kimberling, former Samhain author who wrote the SF romance “Happy Snak,” started her own small press for queer titles entitled Blind Eye Books. Don’t know if either of these options would interest you, just thought they might be worth looking into.
Getting back to advertising, that’s the big rub isn’t it? I’m afraid I don’t have much advice on the romance end of things because it really is true that erotica sells itself. As for going it alone, I am happy to report that KDP has really streamlined their submission process. Just use MS Word and download their free Kindle Create software for making e-books plus free templates for making paperbacks and you’re good to go.
P.S. I wrote back to your post on “Desperately Seeking Medievals” to answer the question you asked, just in case you didn’t see it. :)
If I were to sign with a publisher, I wouldn’t expect the big advertising that the big names in the industry get, but even basic help in this regard would be better than nothing at all. For my first book, Samhain sent out advance reading copies and got a review from a fairly well-known romance author.
That’s something a major publisher would do as well (just today, I read some advance reviews of the next Lyssa Adams book where readers thanked the publisher for sending them copies). Putting money into a title means publishers would like to see some return on their investment, so while I don’t think they’d be sending me on a book tour, I also don’t think they’d leave marketing up to me alone. A major publisher also tends to have an established readership, which is another benefit I wouldn’t have as a self-publisher.
I was very disappointed when Samhain went out of business, so the only small presses I’d take a chance are ones which I know are established and successful. I’m sure Transmundane and Blind Eye Books are good presses, so thanks for suggesting them, but if I wasn’t aware of them already, it means (to me) that they’re not big enough in romance for me to take the risk. Self-publishing is actually preferable here because at least I’d keep the rights to the books.
Thanks for answering my question in the other blog post! I’ll check it out.
Those are all good points, Marian, about some advertising being better than no advertising. I admit my experience with trad publishers is limited and biased- based largely on horror stories I have heard from other authors. But I can see the other side of it as well. I think we can agree that no matter what the publisher, authors have it rough (unless you’re one of the big wigs- we can all hope!) :)
Keeping the rights to your books- and higher royalty rates- are definitely advantages to self-publishing. I’ve been very happy with KDP. Good luck!
Based on the review I purchased this from Amazon because I needed a break from my anxiety about my school’s insistence on returning to in-person teaching.
But I actually returned it because I found it unreadable. As a woman who breastfed three babies, the whole nursing once a day is ridiculous. And having people call someone “Duke” instead of “Your Grace” was just grating. I know we can’t expect the historical nuances of a Georgette Heyer all the time, but how about some basic knowledge of titles and some minimal realism. I also have to say that I have stopped reading many historical romances because of the insistence on having every male hero be a duke. Again, the anachronism is just too much to take. Can’t we have historical heroes who aren’t fabulously wealthy and titled? Is a good plain Mister just too hard to write about these days? Thanks for letting me rant. I love well-written historicals, but I’m finding fewer and fewer of them.
I used to read HR almost exclusively but read very little these days for the same reasons as you. There are many, many readers who would love to read more HR about non-titled characters, but publishers have it in their heads that “Dukes sell” – one of the team even reviewed a book recently where the hero WASN’T a duke, but the word still appeared in the book title! One of our reviewers, Marian, is also an author, and wrote an historical romance in which the hero was an architect; agents and publishers alike told her to make him into an aristocrat becasue otherwise it wouldn’t sell. *shrug* They don’t inhabit the same corner of Romancelandia that we do, obviously.