RRP £5.99 Lowest New Price £3.01

Avon Books Number of pages: 384 Language: English (Original Language) Language: English (Unknown) Language: English (Published)

RRP: £5.99
Enjoyable but lacking in substance
Review date: 2009-01-05 Rating: 8 out of 10

The latest in Eloisa James' "Desperate Duchesses" series focuses on Isidore, the Duchess of Cosway, and her husband Simeon. They have a rather unusual marriage in that, despite being wed for eleven years, they have never actually met. They were married by proxy when Isidore was 12 whilst Simeon was travelling in Africa and India and he has never returned. In James' previous book in this series we learned that Isidore accompanied a friend to a country house party in order to try to get some reaction from Simeon. It works - Simeon arrives at the house party and takes Isidore back to London.

Isidore didn't know what to expect in her husband and finds that he's a man who doesn't conform to society's idea of a gentleman in clothing and general dress. However she does find hm very attractive and knows that she, herself, has many admirers. However when Simeon's initial plans to have a 'proper' wedding change to suggestions of an annulment, Isidore has to decide whether she wants to continue with her marriage with its many inconveniences, not the least of which are the problems at the Ducal seat and with his mother, or whether she wants the freedom she has never really had. And can Simeon, who has learned self control and calmness on his travels, ever get to grips with his fiery wife?

Eloisa James writes well and the interest is always kept up in this book. There were some rather unusual plot events (having the water closets cleaned out in the house, for example) and the side plot of Jemma, Duchess of Beaumont, and her troubled marriage was explored further although unresolved. Where the book falls down is depth of plot (this was actually a fairly simple story and I wasn't always convinced by the interactions between Simeon and Isidore) and historical accuracy where characters used American words in the time of George III (such as 'diapers' for 'nappies' and various American sentence structures which aren't used in England). I had looked forward to this book as I enjoyed the previous one but felt somehow as if it didn't quite satisfy and some of the improbabilities in the plot were too much to ignore.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2009