My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Well this one is a wild ride, which I really liked. I love a lot of that classic 90’s Mary Balogh in general.
Our FL is a young woman who was forced to “grow up” very fast and keep the rest of her family together and going forward while they were much younger than her, and the book opens with her godmother being like “you should live for yourself now things are settled”. Something has happened with the FL in the past, however, where she considers herself someone who can’t marry.
Our ML (second son of a Duke) left England for Paris 10 years ago after a duel where he shot and injured his older brother, which happened because the ML’s brother impregnated his fiance and they were going to be married now. He was cut off from the family, never spoke to his father or brother again, etc. His brother inherited the title, then died himself, and the ML put it off but now he’s back in London and not happy about it.
ML is our “Heartless” because after the goings-on with his family ten years ago he essentially willed himself into not loving things (his words to us). This is a romance novel though, so you know we are going to angst and drama our way to a change. He proposes to the FL a week after he meets her because he needs a wife and she seems like a good fit for the role and he thinks she’s pretty definitely not because he could love her or anything.
A lot of this book is things that happened in the past being revealed, and how they impact the growing relationship between the Duke and the Duchess. Figuring out some truths, unraveling mysteries, etc. It takes place over a period of longer than a year so that gives it breathing room for a lot of things to happen. For that reason I’m not going to go much into the details, but this has got a very big “suspense” aspect.
I enjoyed the Georgian setting, which was used to dress the ML up in some very flamboyant costuming. The “he was a trend-setter in Paris for a decade” aspect leaned into this.
Read it!
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