Customer Reviews

In Bed with the Duke

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I was happy to see Ms. Dodd return to historicals after so many years - I've enjoyed her contemporaries, but her paranormals were only so-so in my opinion. And I liked the premise of the book. However, my main criticisms are that Emma and Michael seem to "fall in love" on something as thin as air - they hardly have any significant conversations! What really made this a three-star book, however, was the excessive use of modern jargon. I highly doubt anyone in Victorian England (or fictional Moricadia) referred to people as "guys" - as in, "I can't believe these guys." It was even jarring to read several times of children being referred to as "kids." Perhaps that was more common - I don't know - but I don't think I've ever come across it in an historical romance set up in Europe. Emma did a completely 180 and suddenly became recklessly "brave," while Michael had very little personality. I only believed in their HEA because it's a romance, so it must be so...right?

Overall - I feel like Ms. Dodd has been spending so much time writing contemporaries that this ended up being a contemporary set in Victorian times. I hope that the next book in the series proves to live up to Ms. Dodd's talent.

This mid-19th Century romance takes place in a fictional country, with fictional royalty and rules of society. Thus it gave me the sense of a fairy tale, and I perceived it that way as I read it. Taken as a romantic fairy tale, one could say this fun and entertaining little romance was absolutely perfect. As a novel itself, it had some flaws, hence the loss of one star. But I thought it was delightful enough to ignore those flaws for the most part!

Emma is a paid-companion. Her family is reputable, but poor. She's rumored to be of the same lineage as William the Conquerer... which perhaps passed some of his spunk down to her. Emma, at first, seems meek and confused and I wasn't sure I was going to like her. However, she "spunked up" rather quickly and soon turned into a feisty heroine. She did have a heroine cliche- she was always running into trouble blindly and with pride. She was also conveniently blind to obvious plot devices, but again, I was able to overlook it.

Michael Durant is a duke son's and a political prisoner in this fictional land. Rumored that he was involved with revolutionists, the evil prince had him tortured for a couple of years to make him talk. Michael never does though- and soon finds himself taking Emma along for an adventure.

This fairy tale was like Zorro meets Sleepy Hollow- it was swashbuckling and exciting, with a "phantom rider" known as the Reaper at the center of the tale. There were a lot of endearing moments between the hero and heroine and if one can suspend reality- you could easily lose yourself in this fanciful story.

And unlike another reviewer, I actually thought this was a better Christina Dodd novel. I read the semi-ridiculous "A Well-Favored Gentleman" and you can see my review on that one! It wasn't terrible- but it wasn't nearly as entertaining as this one and far less original.

My biggest complaint was the unevenness of the writing. there were discrepancies in style, vocabulary and tone. Part of the fun of an historical romance is the immersion in another time's social mores but this was all over the place, parts were so bad I thought it was a group effort with amateur contributors. The editor should be ashamed. Slow reading, inconsistent and really not worth the money.

Boy, y'all are tough. This book reminded me why I used to devour historicals like boxes of Godivas. It's fun and fluffy, with a hero and heroine who discover their strengths in the face of challenge.

True, Emma Chegwidden -- Gods, what a name -- seems thoroughly cowed -- until someone is hurt, whereupon she promptly forgets her fears and sweeps into action. I liked that about her.

I also liked the fact that hero Michael Durant suffers from PTSD as a result of his torture at the hands of the villain, yet still sets out to fight the man every way possible.

There were a couple of lines that jarred me -- there was a line from the hero's point of view when he thought everyone in a ballroom looked like "clones," which tossed me right out of the story. The copy editor should have flagged that one. But that's pure nitpickery of a fun, frothy book that I richly enjoyed.

Best,
Angela Knight

Some of my all-time favorite historical romance books have been written by Christina Dodd - One Kiss From You, Rules of Surrender, Lost in Your Arms, and The Runaway Princess. IN BED WITH THE DUKE started off pretty well and I always love books where the heroine is overlooked, shy, etc. - I thought the fact that Emma had a horrible sense of direction and always got lost was going to add some great humor to the story. The first interaction between Emma and Michael was enjoyable, the setting/plot promised to be very adventurous and action-packed, and the physical scenes between the Reaper and Emma were hot. However, this book ended up being utterly disappointing and in some parts downright offensive.

GENERAL CRITICISMS:
-- Emma and Michael have far too little interaction in the first 2/3 of the book.
-- We don't get to know Michael very well and he remains throughout the whole of the book a somewhat elusive hero.
-- Emma "falls in love" with the Reaper after about a week and then makes love with him ... even though they've never had a conversation (literally, he's never spoken to her), they don't know one another, and their interactions basically amount to a full week of physically intimate evenings.
-- While she's "falling in love" with the Reaper, she doesn't really like Michael ... so yeah, how does that work out exactly, since he's supposed to be the real hero?
-- The subplot of Prince Sandre falling in love with Emma seemed extremely forced; there appeared to be absolutely no real reason that he would single her out and become so transfixed and obsessed.
-- This book ended so abruptly I thought that maybe there were some pages missing at the end (and certain previously-unmet family members seemed to pop up out of thin air).

RAPE SCENE:
I volunteer with a rape crisis hotline and so found the love - a.k.a rape - scene, utterly disgusting. According to the American legal system, the scene between them in the barn qualifies as rape. You have the heroine saying no and struggling; the hero saying, yes you want it, your body is reacting; her saying no again; them having sex. Worst part is that during it all, Emma is saying "no" but apparently thinking "yes" ... does "she said no, but really meant yes" or "she wanted it, just didn't want to admit it" sound familiar? Because those are both justifications rapists use. I like alpha-male heroes as much as the next romance reader, but Michael saying "I own you!" and "I have this right. I take this right!" when talking about having sex with her should turn everyone off.

Christina Dodd has done this in two other books of hers that I read and it was basically the exact same thing and just as disgusting. I really wish she would stop doing that; her normal non-rapist alpha-male heroes are great and she should stick with them. (The other two books were A Well Pleasured Lady and A Well Favored Gentleman).

BOTTOM LINE:
So did I like the book? No. Should you read it? No. Instead, skip this book and read the four books I listed at the beginning of those review, since those show off Christina Dodd's talent and are actually enjoyable and inoffensive.

GOOD NEWS:
This book is apparently part of the "Great Read Guaranteed!" because the Penguin Group is "so confident you will love this book that we are offering a 100% money-back guarantee!" All you have to do is mail them the book, the receipt, and your explanation of why you didn't like the book. So I will be doing that instead of posting it on PaperbackSwap, since I want them to know exactly what it is I object to. [UPDATE, May 11 - Penguin sent me my reimbursement check and just got it today: thank you!]

Obviously people enjoy different kinds of books, but are romance readers and lovers of grisly action adventures the same audience? There's so much awful, sadistic violence in this book that it made me sick to try and read it - even skipping major sections, I finally had to put it down. Dodd is an experienced and competent writer, and this book is not badly written, but it was not a pleasure to read.

Like many others, I was happy to see Christina Dodd with a new historical. Unfortunately, it is written terribly and has a story about as interesting as watching paint dry. Why in the world wouldn't she write something we'd LIKE to read? I don't want to read about a place that doesn't exist - with people that are not the slightest interesting. How depressing it is to end up buying this book and learning that it isn't really a historical romance. It is something - I'm sure she's trying to prove a point about something - but I don't know what. It is just boring. You don't care about the characters. The "hero" is weak. The villian is - what? Boring? I don't know how to describe him. I know the torture is awful. But really - it is just written like a ninth grader would write. It tries - it just is FAR from succeeding.

I love Christine Dodd and some of her earlier historical romances are my all-time favorites, but I am afraid to report that she has lost her way with this book. I am probably repeating what a lot of the other reviewers have already said but I do not like this book because it was full of cliches, underdeveloped characters and the plot is one-dimensional and makes no sense in a lot of places.The book started well with the meeting between a down-trodden lady companion and nobleman suffering from the results of torture and imprisonment. But Emma's sudden development into a feisty heroine and champion of the people was undeveloped, and the reason for the romance between her and The Reaper was flimsy to say the least. I hated the modern language and the sudden, incomplete ending to the story. All in all, I found the story boring and lacked the emotional depth that engages a reader of romantic fiction.

I've been reading this author since CANDLE IN THE WINDOW and I'm so excited to have a new historical from her. IN BED WITH THE DUKE was definitely worth waiting for! I love the way it combined romance with intrigue and adventure. Reminded me of watching a classic movie like Errol Flynn's ROBIN HOOD or something. Ms. Dodd has always excelled at taking traditional elements of a romance and giving them her own thrilling and sexy twist. I really enjoyed being in bed with this book! ;)

Emma is a lady's companion, who has a knack for getting lost. Michael Durant is an aristocrat who has just been released from prison on suspicion of treason in the fictional land of Moricadia. Michael is the son of a duke, but his family in England think that he is dead. Both Michael and Emma meet at a party when Emma gets lost on an errand from her overbearing employer lady Lettice. They meet in the gardens they talk and so the story starts as Michael helps Emma find her way back to the ballroom, as rumors about the dark "Reaper" spread amongst the visitors.

Later that night and by accident Emma makes a fool of her mistress (a little fish falls down lady Lettice's bodice, a fish that is still fighting for it's life lol) and Emma ends up kicked out of her job and on the street in the dead of night with nowhere to go, and she couldn't go back to Lady Lettice's place to get her things. That night Emma is attacked by a wolf and then faced with the dark "Reaper"...the next day she wakes up to find herself in Lady Fanchere's house, with no memory of how she had gotten there. But then slowly she starts to remember that the "Reaper" saved her life and carried her to Lady Fanchere's house. The kind Lady Fanchere hires Emma as her companion. And so the relationship between Emma and the Reaper begins.

The problem is that the relationship between Emma and Michael/Reaper was not developed convingly at all. There was something very trite about it. I mean the Reaper doesn't say a word to her, and suddenly she's in love with him and she wants him etc etc. I can understand her helping him out the second time they met by hiding him from prince Sandre and his men, because he had after all saved her life. But the rest just didn't ring true at all.

And then the Reaper gets shot, and Emma finds out his identity as she is called by his Vallet to treat him since she has experience as a healer. And so Emma helps take care of Michael. But then the author had to insert a very trite/contrived event, by having Emma riding out as the Reaper to divert attention and give the illusion that the Reaper is fine, instead of Raul who is the logical and realistic choice to be riding out. And then when Michael regains consciousness and finds out he gets angry with her, and she gets petulant. Basically the relationship between Emma and Michael/Reaper was developed poorly, and the events, especially towards the end, were again developed poorly and felt contrived. And the character developement was lacking.

This had potential, there were a few good scenes between Emma and Michael/Reaper...but overall I found this to be a trite and unconvincing read.