Customer Reviews

This Duchess of Mine (Desperate Duchesses)

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

 

 

This is book five of the Desperate Duchesses series and it is Jemma, Duchess of Beaumont, and Elijah's, Duke of Beaumont, story. We were first introduced to these characters in book one, Desperate Duchesses, at that time Jemma had recently returned from nine years of self-imposed exile in France where she was rumored to have run rampant. Jemma was a beautiful provocateur and she delighted in tweaking the sensibilities of her seemingly stodgy husband. Elijah, an upstanding member of the House of Lords, had recently experienced a frightening collapse on the floor of the House of Commons. This collapse precipitated his insistence that Jemma return home. It was time for her to settle down and give him an (legitimate) heir.

As the series progressed the characters of Jemma and Elijah evolved. We realized that Jemma cultivated her outrageous reputation. We also realized that this reputation might not be entirely deserved. Jemma acted as she did for two reasons: to pay Elijah back in spades for betraying her when they were young newlyweds and to make sure he did not forget her. Elijah, in turn, was revealed to be a proud man grabbling with making amends to his wife and his own mortality. His public collapse was not his first and not the only sign of his imminent demise. His father died young and Elijah realized his own time was most likely limited. Elijah always seemed to take one step forward and two steps back when he tried to repair relations with his wife.

The book begins with Elijah rescuing Jemma from the king's yacht. (See When the Duke Returns for the details of the prisoners plot and attack on the yacht) The excitement of the rescue brings Jemma and Elijah together but their physical reunion is halted when Jemma witnesses another collapse. Jemma now realizes that Elijah's collapse in the House of Commons was not a random event. She resolves to heal him and their marriage. In typical Jemma fashion, she decides that she must seduce him away from all other distractions. As she plots to woo Elijah, she sets up the Marquise de Perthuis, a beautiful young French woman, as a rival for his affections. (Never mind that Elijah has no interest in the Marquis and is more alienated than enticed by her machinations.) Elijah, steady as always, turns the Marquise's interest to his advantage.

The relationship between Jemma and Elijah has always resembled a chess match between masters and in this book Ms. James uses the game to great effect. The blindfolded chess match that consummates their relationship is sensual and clever. There are funny bits in this book and heartrending moments too. At times the plotting of the novel seems off, not so much in a secondary storyline involving the Duke of Villiers, but in the primary storyline. We don't expect the course of true love to run smooth, especially with these two, but sometimes their actions don't seem reasonable. For example - Jemma's seductive schemes seem to come and go and appear a bit improbable given her knowledge of Elijah's illness. The character's prior infidelities are explained and excused as much as is possible, but might taint the story for some.

The secondary storyline involving the Duke of Villiers and his illegitimate offspring is compelling and holds great promise. His story will be out in July/August in A Duke of Her Own

All in all an entertaining, if not perfect, romance. (Kind of like the main characters.)

The prior books in the Desperate Duchesses series are: Desperate Duchesses, An Affair Before Christmas, Duchess By Night, When the Duke Returns

I was tempted to only give this 3 stars because the central relationship between Elijah and Jemma is weak. Eloisa James didn't pull the plot together until almost 150 pages into the book. By then, my mind was wandering. I couldn't figure out (and I don't think James could either) where the source of the tension was in their relationship. Was it the fact that Jemma had left their marriage early on to live in Paris? The fact that they had both had affairs? Was Elijah's work the first priority in his life above his marriage? Would something cause his life to be cut short? They come together again at the beginning of the novel to produce an heir, but they obviously both still love each other. The reader knows they love each other within 100 pages, so I think James scurried around presenting too many ideas in which to keep the plot moving along another several hundred pages. Sadly for me, none of the plotlines were interesting. I've given this 4 stars, however, because there's no doubt that James is a good writer. She knows the Georgian time period well and her writing is smooth and authentic. She doesn't use contemporary language in her prose or in her character's speech. I appreciate that. But, the main reason I began to enjoy this novel was for the character of the Duke of Villiers who is a secondary character. I'm assuming his story is next. James spends quite a bit of time on him and his search for his children in this novel. I'm really looking forward to reading about his frantic search for a wife who will help him care for his bastard children. That looks to be a funny, enjoyable tale. This one, however, plods along at a slightly placid pace.

'This Duchess of Mine' reminded me why I gave up on most romance novels. It reads as though it were outlined long ago when the series was conceived and then written quickly at a much later date.

It begins in media res - which works only if one has been reading the series. I haven't. James could easily have written a prologue catching up new readers - and perhaps she would have kept them.

The story doesn't go anywhere much, just fills the pages. Jemma and Elijah, the Duke and Duchess of Beaumont, have decided to have sex after a nine year hiatus, and James attempts to make them (and the reader) anticipate the event for a long boring while. Elijah has a fatal heart condition, but the reader who knows James knows that he may Just Manage To Live, so the suspense generated by this is limited.

This felt like the prelude to a far more interesting story - Villiers is a much more compelling character - and I sincerely hope that James takes the time to frame his story in a way that new readers can catch up. Someone will have to kindly drop me a note and tell me how things go, because I won't be taking this path in the future.

I have been a big fan of Eloisa James& have read all of her books. I, honestly, was not that happy with the start of her Deperate Duchess series. I found the stories to be too fragmented, packed with too much details about too many people. But eventually, I developed an interest in and liking for all those characters as the series progressed and have progressvely liked the books more& more as the series grew. Jemma is such a fascinating character and an unusual historical heroine that I have been impatiently waiting for her book to come out. I didn't have high expectations, as the story's beginning was explained in detail in the previous books, but the rest of the story didn't disappoint me. I have always liked Jemma & I loved her in this book. I loved Elijah as well & was tearing up midway through the book as Elijah's condition worsened. James's writing was so gripping, that I felt so anxious & helpless about his condition. As a physician myself, I was racking my own brains for a possible solution available in that era & was greatly relieved when Dr.Withering showed up on the pages :-)Don't want to give away the story. But let me just say that Digoxin rocks!! :-)The romance between Jemma & Elijah was so sweet and touching. Waiting for Villiers story next. BTW, just wanted to add that I'm so glad for Amazon Kindle. Don't have to wait a few days for the newly released books to be shipped from Amazon anymore!

I had very high expectations for this book and have been waiting through all the other books just for a glimpse of Jemma's and Elijah's Story. I was pleasantly surprised by the storyline and loved the depth of characters. Yes, you are guessing at the source of their problems for a while but who has just one source of many problems anyway. There were a few times I felt the book jumped from one subject/place to another too quickly and I got lost. Overall the book was a fun and emotional read for me and the characters and their story drew me in. I loved seeing the bond between them grow because they finally began to communicate with each other.

Eloisa James can do way better than this. This...I don't even know what this is. It's...I can't even put it into words. What was even happening? There was a big lack of emotion. And Jemma was dumb, shallow, and mean.

Jemma, the Duchess of Beaumont, walked out on her husband, their marriage, and his mistress. Years later, she is called home from France to produce an heir. Jemma and Elijah do their best to grate on each other's nerves. As an MP in the house of Lords, and now ill (bad heart), he must decide whether he will take her to bed or possibly die in service to his country. Jemma ends up doing all in her power to find a cure for what ails him and to get him to return her rekindled love. Eloisa gives us a great inside view of Parliament, the medical community, and the somewhat painful lives of England's upper class.

I think, to fully enjoy this novel, you must read at least a few of the ones before it in the series. Without them, most of the emotional punches won't make much sense. There just isn't room to set them up properly without boring long readers of the series. The short version to "what went wrong with them?" is "they were idiot kids." The long answer is more complex, and told well in TDoM. I admit to being one of those readers hoping for a much more adventurous end to Elijah and Jemma's tale. Over the course of the book I was won over - the result was the correct one.

TDoM is full of the things Eloisa James is adored for - interesting details, characters acting like real people with lives existing outside of the Ton. New readers might be confused at the setting, it's not made crystal clear at the outset that this isn't the Regency. (Friends hanging out in each others bedrooms and the like might seem very odd to a reader who isn't used the Georgian period.) Jemma's sudden talent for product invention also seems out of place, which is part of what knocks a star off for me. Overall, this is a great addition to the series, firmly focused on the main characters and well paced. I finally see why people care about Elijah.

I've read two previous James books: Desperate Duchess [which I've yet to get through] and A Kiss At Midnight. With A Kiss At Midnight, I just found the scene when the H&H got together kind of tawdry and a bit ugly. The hero kept going downstairs to spend time with his future wife, then going upstairs to have sex with the heroine. Yuck! And with Desperate Duchesses there's too much going on in the book. It's hard to tell just who the H&H are. I really think the entire series is really Elijah and Jemma's love story, with some filler love stories put in to stretch it out for five books until their story is finally told.

I would have given the book four stars, because a big chunk of their story is left out of this book and if you want to know the whole story you have to read the four previous books. I actually have the first two: haven't gotten through the first book and bought the second book almost two years ago and still haven't gotten around to reading it. I may have to skim through it to get half of the story I missed between Elijah and Jemma, and just let the rest of it go from the two other books.

Disregarding the feeling that I've missed a huge chunk of their story, I really loved this story. I didn't have the problems that some of the other negative reviewers had. I didn't have a problem with Jemma having had affairs. Elijah's initial betrayal set that in motion, especially with adding insult to injury by proclaiming he was in love with the woman he cheated on her with.

I didn't have a problem with Jemma trying to set up a woman as a rival for her with Elijah. She seemed to do it for two reasons: one, she needed Elijah to choose her over another woman, because in the past he seemed to choose his mistress over her, and two, she found out Elijah never had the fun most men his age did, and she wanted him to have some fun. The game quality fitted with the H&H's relationship. They were master chess players and the game was always a part of their relationship.

I found the chess interesting, as well. Each time has something that's the latest fad. In Jemma and Elijah's time that was chess. In our present time it's twitter. I thought it added an interesting element to their first love scene.

I'm also glad a cure of sort was found for Elijah. I work in a nursing home, and when someone is dying there, I always hope for some miracle. I'm glad they both got their stuff together and lived a long life together.

My only complaint is I wish their entire love story had been in this book, opposed to stretching it out over five books.

This book was very good and included some interesting details that really made it stand out from many other romance novels. I won't go into the entire plot as most of the other reviewers already have, but the story of Jemma and Elijah was very engaging. The chess details (even though I don't even know how to play chess) were very entertaining. The medical plotline was awesome. As someone from the medical field, I really enjoyed reading about their adventures in finding a cure (a medication that is still used now) for Elijah's heart problems. I did wonder why they had been apart 9 whole years since it seems like they were meant to be together, but since the book began as they were on their way back to each other, coupled with the fact that I couldn't give the book 4.5 stars, I will give it a 5 star rating. LOVED IT. :)