A strange bequest, perhaps the strangest castle ever, and the handsome stranger who insists that it’s his: these are the things facing Miss Isolde Goodnight at the start of Tessa Dare’s Romancing the Duke. But she is perhaps better prepared than most ordinary Society misses,for such an unusual turn of events – as the daughter of a writer famous for his tales of fancy and fantasy, most staring the younger Izzy, herself. . Armed for adventure (and short on any other actual choices), Izzy decides to accept her new castle, the Duke who’s hiding away from the world inside of it, the menagerie of weirdness it entails, and see what kind of real life story she’s found herself in this time.
The answer includes hidden panels & secrets straight out of any self-respecting Scooby-Doo episode; a cast of characters who would fit in nicely at a modern day cosplay competition; Plans A through F; some harsh realities about being disabled in Regency England (ugh. Even period appropriate ableism makes me mad.); secrets on the part of both the hero and the heroine; and at least one scene that was closer to Monty Python than anything else. (I did expect someone dressed as shrubbery to enter stage left at any moment.) I really enjoyed it, especially liked that it had enough laughs to balance out the tougher scenes – Let’s just say that Izzy has issues – many, many issues, but that is nothing compared to Ransom, who blunders around a lot and is basically the embodiment of every GIF I could find of the Beast from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, (particularly the one where Belle won’t let him in, and he makes a “you see” gesture), only less hairy. I decided not to include them, but you get the picture – he’s a wounded warrior (sigh, but kind of in a good way: I’ve got a weakness, I know it.), and even when he’s being a jerk, you’re still rooting for him to get his crap together.
First in a series where – apparently – ladies get left castles, which sounds either awesome or horrendous, and I’ll probably check out the rest to see which way they go.
I did not respond favourably to the hella twee in this book. Malin loved it.
What Mrs. J said. I found the book diverting, if somewhat overly silly. I had no problem with the twee, but can understand that the book is not for everyone. Unlike say Unraveled or The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan. If anyone I share them with dislike those, they are dead to me.