The Duke Who Loved Me by Jane Ashford Book Review

 

Title: The Duke Who Loved Me
Author: Jane Ashford    
Publish Date: August 24th, 2021
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Source: Huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for review! 

The Duke of Tereford is accustomed to getting his own way, but she's going to teach him a thing or two about love...

James Cantrell, the new Duke of Tereford, has inherited a dukedom in disarray and is overwhelmed by his unaccustomed responsibilities. Then he gets an idea. Cecelia Vainsmede served as liaison between James and her father, and she knows a great deal about business matters, his own in particular. She's also quite pretty. Ever the pragmatist, he suggests a marriage of convenience.

Cecelia has always been good at working with James, but she doesn't understand how he can be so obtuse. He clearly doesn't realize that he's the duke she's always wished for, or that his offer is an insult. But when a German prince arrives in London and immediately sets out to woo Cecelia, James will have to come to terms with what he really feels for her. Is running away worth the cost of losing her, or will the duke dare to win her once and for all?

Bestselling author Jane Ashford takes you to a dazzling Regency England you won't want to leave!

Penelope's Review

This book actually started out really great, but I found that I didn't love how the romance progressed or how the book ended. Everything felt very unfinished and unresolved, which is unfortunate because I felt like there was a lot of potential here! 

The main female lead is Cecilia and I thought she was a great character. She was relatable, which is always important and also very responsible and organized from having to run her father's estate. James, our male lead, was a decent character... but not my favourite. He got on my nerves a bit at some points, but I found his pragmatic attitude humorous at other points. The two together had ups and downs. In the beginning, I wasn't sure I liked the idea of the two of them together. In fact, I didn't know that was the direction the book was going to take at first. But then the idea grew on me. Especially when the German prince entered the book and it seemed like there was going to be a bit of a war for Cecelia's affections. But the interactions between the three ended up being a bit lackluster, in my opinion.

And then the book just... ended. It was really odd. The reconciliation happened so abruptly that I thought for sure I had missed something. Unfortunately when an ending is disappointing, it tends to overshadow the good parts of a book. I tried not to let that happen, and will admit that there was quite a bit I enjoyed. But overall, this wasn't my favourite regency romance. 

Rating: 3/5 Devils