Customer Reviews

Desperately Seeking A Duke (Heiress Brides)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The hero and heroine fall in love at first site, and then have to face obstacles to being together before they finally get their HEA.

I think it is very hard to pull off a love at first site book, because falling in love is one of the best parts of a romance for me. If the hero and heroine are already there at the end of chapter one then a lot of that magic can be lost.

One of the problems for me with this book is that inital meeting and falling in love just didn't seem to have the fireworks necessary to make the couple fall in love the way they did.

Second there is no more interaction between the couple til nearly page 100. I like lots of interaction between my leads.

Overall I found this book to be only average.

This book was entertaining enough, but it wasn't that great. I really disliked the use of modern lingo - it was jarring to hear Rafe talk about rockets.

Also, once the heroine realized the big mistake she made, she really ought to have corrected it immediately. It really didn't speak highly of her character.

Don't think I'll complete the series.

It's an entertaining book, but I didn't like it as much as the other author's series (Liar's Club & Royal Four).
The plot sounds interesting, although not very original: three cousins (vicar's daughter Phoebe, beautiful Deirdre and plain and shy Sophie), are trying to catch a Duke to win their grandfather's money. Other important characters are Lady Tessa, mean step-mother to Deirdre; Calder, the Duke; Rafe, Calder's half-brother and a rake; and the vicar.
The problem is that the story is not very well developed and neither very convincing.

Phoebe and Rafe meet one night in a ball and supposedly they fall in love. Although I "believe" in some way in love at first sight, it doesn't seem convincing in this book.
From that point, the book follows a very basic outline:
Step 1 (done): main characters met and fall in love. No matter that we're in the first 2-3 chapters.
Step 2: Big Misunderstanding (or Mistake in this case) --with lots of problems associated-- to complicate the couple's road to love (I almost sounded poetic, lol), in the next chapter (5 or so). What happens? Calder proposes to Phoebe, and she agrees, thinking it comes from Rafe. She doesn't cry off because she doesn't want to disappoint her father after running off with her dancing master ten years ago.
Step 3: to solve the problems caused by the BM, with an angry and hurt Rafe, a very indecisive Phoebe, and Calder, which I disliked a lot.
Step 4: problems solved and happily ever after.
And intertwined, we have a romance between Calder's butler and an Irish maid.

Where's the love story, the romance? Difficult answer. Phoebe and Rafe, although they made a good couple, spent most of the story separated (but very much in love, yeees), so the love story it's not believable.
As this is a romance novel, the lack of "falling in love" is frustrating, but well, the book is entertaining enough and a light read. That's the reason for the 3 stars, although perhaps 2 ½ would have been better.

Phoebe is on a quest; she and her cousins are racing against each other to marry a Duke and gain an inheritance left by their grandfather. Phoebe notices Rafe's manly bum as he is dancing and finds his form and face quite breathtaking.

Rafe spies Phoebe and within a few minutes he decides she is the one for him. He points Phoebe out to his legitimate brother Calder who is soon to be a Duke which proves to be a mistake because Calder has decided that Phoebe is the one for him too. Calder makes a calim only to antagonize and hurt his brother. It was really really hard to like Calder.

Phoebe receives a proposal the day after meeting Rafe and is convinced that he is the one proposing and instantly says yes. She is dismayed to discover that it is Calder who is the legitimate brother and reluctantly agrees to wed him.

Phoebe is controlled by others. Her father desperately wants the match with Calder and Phoebe does not want to disappoint him again as she did when she ran off with her dancing master ten years earlier.

Rafe however is distraught. He must bear stoically the upcoming nuptials and wonders if he will ever get over Phoebe. He desperately wants this engagement to end. Not only does he want Phoebe to cry off, but several others do also and their machinations come to play in this novel.

Rafe is a great hero. Celeste Bradley does a wonderful job of letting the reader feel his emotions. His background is less that respectable but he is trying to reform. He really steals the show. Phoebe though is only an okay heroine. She lacks a backbone throughout much of the novel. When she finally sees the light, she and Rafe are quite the steamy couple, but this occurs late in the story and, for me, there just was not a lot of quality time these two spent together to convince me that they were madly in love. It seemed as if Phoebe spent most of her time with Calder rather than her true love Rafe.

Rafe and Phoebe meet at a party. That night Rafe knows that he has found the one. The next day Phoebe receives a proposal, thinking that it is from Rafe, she directly accepts. Only to later find out that the proposal is from Rafe's brother, Calder, who is going to be the future duke. Wanting so desperately to make her father proud of her again, and to avoid scandal (since she caused scandal when she was fifteen and naive), she goes along with the engagement. Rafe is deeply hurt. But he knows that he is paying for his misdeeds, since he had been a rake. I liked how the author dealt with this realistically.

I liked the relationship between Rafe and Phoebe, I liked how it developed. There were some really charming moments throughout.

However, what I didn't like was that Phoebe bordered on being a "Mary Sue", even when they were attacked in the carriage by ruffians, she was the one who saved Rafe (it just made me roll my eyes). I also didn't like the author's usage of the word "sin" in a few parts of the book. And the author's use of words like "wicked" in the "sex scene", it was just annoying. And I thought that the scene itself needed to be toned down.

However, all in all, this was a nice, light read...okay

When a new author is recommended, I'm like a kid at Christmas...hoping the present I'm unwrapping will be the best. Unfortunately, I cannot say that about this book.

The premise was a good one: A will stipulates that the deceased's considerable fortune will will go to a female descendant if she marries a duke; if after three generations no duke is caught, the money goes to pay the fines of those who smuggle good Scotch whiskey.

The writing throughout was clever and crisp and the first paragraph of Chapter 1 draws you in: "It likely signifed nothing especially portentous, but when Miss Phoebe Millbury, proper vicar's daughter, met the man of her dreams the first part of him she fell in love with was his arse." Who wouldn't want to read on after that?

The problem I had was with the characters themselves. I felt no affinity for Phoebe or for Rafe. Neither had any depth of personality or character; both were selfish and neither trusted the other...hardly a great basis for the grand love they were supposed to have (guess that's the problem with love at first sight/grope). And to top it all off, this ditzy "heroine" doesn't bother to make sure the man asking her father for her hand in marriage is Rafe before she agrees. She just assumes it's the gent she met the night before. (It was Rafe's half-brother, Calder, in line to become a duke.)

That Phoebe's vicar father would hold mistake she made at 15 against her for 10 years was hard to believe; that Phoebe would hold it against herself was even harder to believe considering how Ms. Bradley presented as strong and willful. And it's never really explained why relatives waited until Phoebe (25), Cousin Deidre (23) and Cousin Sophie (27) were practically in their dottage for their "Season."

For me, it went downhill fast with its attempted kidnapping, kidnapping, misunderstandings, etc. I got so fed up with it that I just scanned. Maybe that's how I missed the reason for the delayed Season.

On the other hand, two of the secondary characters, Stickley and Wolfe, almost make the book worth reading. I did not skim their parts. Ms. Bradley handled them with wit which is one reason I went ahead and tried the next two books in the series and I'm glad I did.

While I cannot recommend the first book in the trilogy, I can highly recommend the other two.

I gave "Desperately Seeking a Duke" 5 Stars for writing (Ms. Bradley, IMO, is very good) and 1 Star for the characters and plot.

books sent very quickly and in the shape seller listed them as - very pleased with product

I love Phoebe she made me laugh and Raf makes the book come to life, they were suited for each other. I loved this couple most of all they are fun.

I enjoyed the characters and the story line, looking forward to the next two in this series.

Vicar's daughter Phoebe Millbury has a chance to inherit a fortune. There is one catch, Phoebe must be the first of her cousins to marry a duke. Not only must Phoebe compete with her cousins to marry a duke, Phoebe has a romantic scandal in her past. Then Phoebe meets Rafe Marbrook.

When Phoebe receives a marriage proposal from the Marquis of Brookhaven, she happily accepts. Not only is Phoebe madly attracted to Rafe, as Marquis, he is next in line to the dukedom. Then Phoebe learns that the Marquis of Brookhaven isn't Rafe but his older brother.

I love historical romance and I love Celeste Bradley. The heroes make my eyes cross and the heroines make me long to walk a day in their slippers!

Desperately Seeking a Duke fulfills all my wants for a delicious reading experience. Sumptuous romance, clever dialogue and a battle for riches make Desperately Seeking a Duke a delight!

Annmarie
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed