Customer Reviews

The Taming of the Duke (Center Point Platinum Romance (Large Print))

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I have to agree with the reviewers who were disappointed with this book. I was disappointed with the Rafe/Imogen angle. I read this whole book expecting to see glimmers of when Imogen discovered Rafe was playing Gabe and I never saw them. We were never in Imogen's head and hearing her thoughts, so I felt sort of disgusted with her. It seemed like she really was having an affair with Gabe.

From things I have read elsewhere, I believe Ms. James realizes her error and she is backtracking trying to remedy it. For me, it is too late. I didn't like all Ms. James earlier books, but I have enjoyed the Essex sister's stories. But this one has me shaking my head. I would really like to have known that Imogen knew it was Rafe. I think that would have made some delicious scenes, where she knew it was him, but he wasn't sure if she knew. That never happened and the book came to an abrupt end. If the tidbits were there that she knew, they were very vague. I don't like to be hit over the head with something, but a few more helpful hints wouldn't have hurt. I honestly don't believe the author had any hints.

One thing I did enjoy about the book was Miss Pythian-Adams and Gabe. Their story was tremendously entertaining. When EJ gets it right, she gets it very right.

I hope Ms. James listens to her reader's comments and does a better job with Mayne's story. That is one I hope she gets right.

While I always enjoys Ms James' writing style and her wonderful dialogue the romantic relationship here just didn't work. Well one of them did and one of them didn't as there is a "secondary" romance that is not so secondary.

Rafe is the rather blithely tipsy Duke of Holbrook who unexpectedly found himself guardian to four sisters in first in the series, MUCH ADO ABOUT YOU. He's perpetually rumpled, shaggy-haired and paunchy. He's just discovered that he has an illegitimate brother, Gabe, whom he welcomes into the family fold. Rafe is also carrying a torch for one of his wards, the impetuous widow Imogen, Lady Maitland. Unfortunately, Imogen does not share Rafe's feelings, rather his drinking and dishevelment disgust her.

Imogen has never come to terms with her husband's death, their too brief time together (a week), nor the realization that she loved her husband far more than he loved her. She is determined not to marry again and so she decides to take a lover. When Gabe arrives on the scene she sets her cap at him. Unfortunately for Imogen, Gabe's head has been turned by Gillian Pythian-Adams the fiancee from whom Imogen stole Draven, her late husband. Keeping up so far? When Imogen corners Gabe and arranges an assignation, Gabe later changes his mind and asks Rafe to take his place. And so begins the mistaken identity farce that Ms James hoped to create.

Unfortunately, I think Ms James tried to be too clever by half and tripped herself up. A Shakespearean farce works for Shakespeare, but not in a story where you are supposed to believe that these are "real" people. It was never clear to me that Imogen knew she was with Rafe instead of Gabe until well after they had had sex. Not good! And I really wondered at Rafe's self-respect to allow her to fall for him all the while thinking he was someone else. Pathetic! And, once he gives up drinking and loses a few pounds, Rafe is suddenly handsome? He was never, to my memory, described as handsome in either of the prior books in this series. Though the author attempts to convey Imogen's vulnerabilities as regards her marriage, I never warmed up to her. She was just so brittle and hard and I felt that Rafe deserved better. Personally, I had always hoped that Rafe would wind up with Josie who is so warm and down-to-earth.

On the other hand, I did enjoy the relationship between Gabe and Gillian very much. At times, their romance overshadowed Rafe and Imogen's, however. Ms James loves to coyly tease her readers by playing musical chairs with her characters but I just don't think it worked this time. Well, it looks like Josie will wind up with the world weary Mayne eventhough he supposedly has become engaged at the end of this book. I'm going to hope that Josie gets a story she deserves!

This is the third book in the Essex sisters' series about four daughters of a viscount who, upon his death, are made wards of Rafe Jourdain, the handsome but frequently inebriated Duke of Holbrook. This book focuses on Imogen, who is married for only two weeks when her reckless husband is killed in an accident. It nicely redeems the troubled heroine, who up until this point in the series has been rather hard to like. It is now a year since her husband's death, a year filled for Imogen with loneliness, anger and a good deal of self-destructive behavior. She returns to Rafe's estate, determined to turn her life around. She does not feel ready to marry again, but hopes to find a man with whom to have a discreet affair. Who should also be staying with Rafe but his long lost look-alike brother Gabe. Gabe has all of Rafe's good points, but without his perpetual drunken haze, and Imogen immediately sets her sights on him.

Meanwhile, she and Rafe spend endless hours goading and tormenting one another - she over his drinking and he over her loose behavior - but it is clear that something is simmering right below the surface. They look more like a frustrated and bickering married couple than a guardian and his former ward, which is not lost on his very observant brother. So after Gabe reluctantly agrees to meet Imogen for a nighttime rendezvous, to which they are to come in disguise, he gets Rafe to take his place. Rafe's disguise gives him the courage at last to approach Imogen as more than his ward. He spends a passionate night with her and finally admits to himself that he loves her. However, Imogen thinks that her memorable encounter is with Gabe, and so the complications begin.

This story takes place against the backdrop of an amateur theatrical production of a comedy being staged at Rafe's estate, and it is a very apt setting. "The Taming of the Duke" is like a Shakespearean comedy of errors, rife with intrigues and misunderstandings, and with twin-like brothers to boot. Of course Rafe has all the most important roles, and he performs them all admirably. His effort to quit drinking is one of the most interesting aspects of the story, and lays the groundwork for his clear-eyed pursuit of Imogen. The leads' insecurities play nicely off each other to create both humorous and tender moments. The humor somewhat overshadows the romance, though, and the pretense drags on too long and is resolved too late, weakening the romantic impact. The book is well-written, however, with good dialogue and a very attractive hero. There is also a fine secondary romance involving the enigmatic Gabe, and the appealing Gillian Pythian-Adams in an encore performance.

After finishing this book I was curious to read what others thought because I found it to be quite different from other historical romances. I was somewhat dismayed by the negative remarks and was prompted to write my first review. Although I agree with some of the criticisms, I found the mentioned weaknesses (not being more privy to the heroine's thought process) didn't affect my enjoyment of the story. I should mention I haven't read the others in this series, although I plan to now. I enjoyed the book precisely because it is different from many of the historical romances I've read in the past in that the hero is quite flawed and is even somewhat physically deteriorated. His flaws are both invisible and visible. The author doesn't attempt to offset his flaws with wonderful traits and in fact showcases his undesirable side. When the heroine, Imogen, comes to the hero's "rescue", I loved that his struggles showed an ugly side. (Don't want to give away too much of the story here). And while it is true that the reader is much more privy to Rafe's thoughts than Imogen's, I was quite taken in by Rafe's struggle to become worthy of Imogen. I also enjoyed the interplay among the other characters and the Shakespearean elements. I would recommend it to anyone looking to read a historical romance that is well researched and presents a unique backdrop for the plot and features an unlikely hero. As with anything that doesn't quite fit the "mold", it won't be everyone's cup of tea. As with almost all historical romances, one has to be willing to accept some unlikely scenarios, and in this case a seriously flawed hero. I loved it and plan to pass it along to a reader who will appreciate its unique romance.

I debated about buying this book and I should have gone with my gut instinct. It was a waste of time. The only reason I finished the book was because I paid for it, otherwise, I would have shipped it off to the local Goodwill store. I didn't particularly like Rafe and Imogen in Kiss Me, Annabel and they were no better in their own story. If anything, I wish the book had centered more on the Gabriel/Gillian story - that was a more interesting/heartwarming storyline. Unless you find this at a used book store or at the library, I wouldn't recommend wasting your time and hard-earned cash on this one.

I bought this book for a long flight and was looking forward to a great read. I could not have been more dissapointed. I felt like I walked into conversations without any context. The first chapters with the sisters bantering back and forth was terrible.

I could not finish this book. Nothing made sense to me. I will admit that I did not read the first books in this series, but I have picked up many books in a series and while I knew I needed to go back and catch up, I understood the plot. A great author or even an okay author should be able to engage a reader anywhere in a series.

This was like watching Matrix 2 without seeing or understanding the first one.

I will refrain from summerizing the plot, as many other reviewers have done a fine job.

All I have to say is that I really, really wanted to like this book, and I was really looking forward to it, for I loved Imogen's and Rafe's interaction in Kiss Me, Annabel. The first half of this book was decent, and I enjoyed it; however, something happened in the second half. The characters seemed to lose their wit and edge. I found myself trying to stay awake and wondering if (and when) the story was going to be resolved.

I don't know what happened, but this story just stopped drawing me in, and when I finished, I was disappointed, for I was expecting a much better story than the one I read.

Having said all this, I have to admit that this book might have been better if I hadn't had such high expectations for it.

this book was so badly written. i couldn't understand how the two main characters fell in love with each other. in the other books as supporting characters they had more meat to them than in their own book. several scenes in this book had sooooo much potential to expand into something more, but the author never expanded and explored those possibilities. the ending was so rushed, when i was reading it i thought to myself "huh?!!! that's it?!!!" the way james wrapped up the ending was so lazy. not worth the time and money at all.

For some time now, I've had people recommend to me the writings of Eloisa James. Set in England's Regency period (1790-1820), they tend to be light novels of romance, courtship and a scandal or two that usually involve a hero and heroine overcoming various difficulties to have everything come right at the end. More often than not, this formula is rocky at best, having been done over so many times that what the reader ends up with is a soppy, tangled story that is riddled with cliches and outright foolishness.

And over the years, I've gotten rather jaded with historical romances. Most of what's out there aren't much more than thinly disguised erotica with characters wearing fancy dress and speaking in modern idiom. And sadly, James is fitting into this category for me. Midway through this one, I was sorely tempted to just fling this into the rubbish and give up.

In the previous two novels in this series about the four Essex sisters, Imogen, the third sister, has hogged most of the narrative and story. In the first novel, she ran off impetuously with a young man, Draven Maitland, only to have him killed off in a racing accident. In the second novel, widowed Imogen spent most of the plot behaving outrageously and trying to get some man to have an affair with her. Now, finally, it seems that Imogen is going to get a story all her very own, and settle down with some appropriate nobleman by the end. But wait, wait, dear reader, there's more! For James needs to muddy things up, as we get to see right from the beginning.

Imogen's would-be guardian, Rafe, the Duke of Holbrook, didn't want to take charge of the four Essex girls, and now it seems that he has more family problems to take care. Seems his late father had a mistress who he was quite passionate about, and Rafe has a brother that's a few days apart in age. Gabriel Spenser has grown up quite aware of who his father was, and has managed to make something of himself -- he's a professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and he would have never come to his half-brother save for one small problem.

Gabe has an illegitimate child of his own, a little daughter named Mary, and he wants Rafe to insure that she grows up with all of the privileges of a duke's niece, bastard or not. And to have that happen, Gabe wants to make things right by Mary's mother -- Loretta is a noted actress in London, but her pregnancy caused her to loose the limelight, and Gabe feels that a successful private theatrical, attended by high society would be just the thing to get her noticed. Unfortunately for Rafe, having family responsibilities like this means that he has to clean up his act, and that means no more whiskey drinking before noon and spending his time lazing about in an alcoholic haze.

To make things worse, one of the people who is coming to help with the play is none other than Gillian Pythian-Adams, the young lady that Imogen's late husband was engaged to before he met Imogen. And Imogen, in her sad-sack whining over her lost husband, is there at Holbrook, looking about for a new husband or at very least a lover to take her mind off of her loss.

As the readers can quickly figure out for themselves, Imogen is interested by Gabe, who isn't interested in her, but in Gillian; Gillian is seeking to bag the Duke for herself, and Rafe is pining for his lost whiskey. In between all of this would-be matchmaking, James introduces a subplot involving a little known play called The Man of Mode and uses some of the story to have the various characters reciting lines to each other. And that's about the most interesting part of the story.

Every now and then things heat up, especially between Gabe and Gillian, but as for Imogen and Rafe, I want to smack them both silly. Rafe is a drunk, pure and simple, and while I admire James' attempt to put a serious note in her story by having him dry out and turn his life around, I found it very hard to take at all seriously. I know through unhappy history that conquering alcohol is a long, uphill battle with setbacks and slipping, and requires nerves of steel and people to help you along the way. Having the hero decide to no longer drink -- and yet still keep having people around him drinking -- was simply too much to handle. The required suspension of belief was just too much to take in this one, and the novel turned from mildly interesting to an outright bore.

While James does do research into the period, and I liked her use of a little known comedy to base part of the story on, the rest of it has the feel of an author who just was tossing whatever she wanted into the story, and not even trying to stay within the times and styles of the Regency period. Which is a pity, as it was a rather straightlaced society that liked to play at being bad, and where a well-turned phrase and wit could really make a person stand out. It was cultured, well bred and literate, but there's little to see of any of that in this one.

Other authors have written far better stories about alcohol addiction, with Mary Jo Putney's The Rake and the Reformer being the best of the lot, set in the same time period, and recently reprinted under the title The Rake.

Summing up, this is a dreary bore of a book. I don?t recommend it, unless wading through the self-pity of the two main characters is your style. The previous two books in the series were so-so, with only the first one being at all interesting, and sadly, there's a fourth book, Pleasure for Pleasure, that is waiting to be read, as I am the sort who feels that an author should be given a fighting chance. But I have a hunch that it will be the last book I read by Eloisa James.

Silly caperings, much whining, alcohol abuse, contrived romance, and other meanderings that really needed an editor to bring the author to heel and to focus on the story, rather than just tossing in this and that to pad the writing. Not Recommended.

How could anyone say this book is a fabulous love story when the story between the lead characters occupies less than 20% of this book?

Eloisa James describes plays, theatres, vistas, furniture (her actual characters, LOL) etc. but this isn't a documentary about the period, for crying out loud! It is supposed to be a romance novel.

So where were the lead characters? Watching a 40-pages long play, in detail. I skipped so many pages to get to the meat, and when I finished the book, I went back to read them. Guess what?! I didn't need to.

For 99% of the book the heroine is in love with someone else, who treats her like a pest. But in the last page Ms. James tries to sell us that the heroine actually did love the hero and not the other guy. Oh, please. No wonder Ms. James had to fix her error by writing another chapter AFTER the book was out and putting a great commercial spin on it. Thank God for the world of internet, otherwise, how could an author "fix" her very unsatisfying, baffling, annoying, "are you kidding me?!" book. Poor Shakespeare, couldn't "fix" anything he wrote...

AM NEVER FOLLOWING THE HERD AGAIN WHEN IT COMES TO THIS AUTHOR!