Wild and irresponsible Grant Chandler, disowned younger son to a duke, met an equally reckless Sophie Huntington during her first Season. They fell madly in love and scandalized the ton with their antics. After they gave in to their desires and consummated the relationship, Grant asked Sophie to marry him. She refused and married his best friend, Robert, the Duke of Mulford, by special license two weeks later. After a tremendous row with Robert, Grant left the country and hasn’t been seen in ten years. Of course there is more to this story than meets the eye, and Smith makes good use of flashbacks to tell each person’s side of the story and their interpretation.

Grant supported himself by becoming Europe’s most notorious jewel thief. He just stole the fabulous Devil’s Eye ruby from a nasty sultan and made enough from the proceeds to finally retire. This event coincides with the receipt of a letter from Robert, saying that he fears he is being poisoned by someone close to him and begging Grant to return home. Sure that Sophie is the one responsible, he returns to England, looking forward to finding the necessary evidence against her and while he is at it, to having an affair with her, hoping to scourge himself of his obsession with her once and for all!

Sophie spent the past ten years being a good wife to Robert, who married her when she discovered that she was pregnant – and to provide a cover for him and his (male) lover. She is a good mother to nine year old Lucien, who is, of course, Grant’s child. She and Robert had a good marriage, all things considered, and she truly mourns his passing.

When Grant shows up, Sophie is terrified that he will learn her secrets. Grant knows that she is keeping something from him, which only confirms his suspicions that Sophie is responsible for Robert’s death. He uses his guardianship of Lucien as an excuse to force himself into Sophie’s life. All believe Robert died from eating tainted food, but he was indeed poisoned. And Grant’s questions stir everything up, making the real killer desperate to lay the blame on someone else – namely Sophie.

I had a slew of problems with Grant. He rationalizes being a thief because he only steals from “bad” people. Oh well then, okay. And I’m so tired of the I must have sex with her so that I can move on with my life plotline. Why do romance heroes do this? It never works. Oh yes, punish the woman by giving her the best sex of her life – that’ll teach her! His hurt feelings color his view, not just of Sophie, but of everyone he deals with, including his brother (who makes several attempts at reconciliation, only to be rebuffed). Grant is a whiner. I hate whiners.

I did like Sophie though, who has worked hard to control her reckless nature. She thinks she’s succeeded until Grant returns and stirs up old memories and longings. But she is no fool – she knows that Grant is seducing her as some kind of punishment and she decides to go along with it. Yes, he may think he’s punishing her, but she’s going to have a great affair to look back on when it’s over. Good for her, I say! Her greatest fear, of course, is that Grant will discover that he is Lucien’s father, and she has some bittersweet moments as she watches the two men in her life bond. I must say, however, that Lucien was written far too young for a nine year old. He spoke and acted more like a six or seven year old.

The Duchess Diaries gets its title from diary excerpts which head up each chapter. This diary was written in 1701 by the third Duchess of Mulford, and found by Sophie when she was compiling the family history. Sophie feels the young girl’s situation mirrors her own in several aspects and so spends a good deal of time looking for the second volume of the diaries which she hopes will answer some questions raised in the first volume. While the excerpts did eventually turn out to be germane to The Duchess Diaries, they didn’t do much for me, as they all consisted of a young girl dramatically bemoaning her impending marriage and loss of her true love. As you may imagine, with 27 chapters in this book, it got very old, very quickly.

Smith is a good writer; the narrative flowed smoothly and her characters are well-defined; even the secondary characters had some depth to them. But the problems with the hero and plotline made this only an average read for me.