William does not want anything in his life to change. He is more than content to continue with his rakish ways, but, when his father dies unexpectedly, he is forced to return to the country and take on his ducal responsibilities.Eleanor Davisham hates how her parents quash her free spirit. They are determined that she should marry, but only a man of their choosing. Determined to live her own … her own life, and terrified of her suitor’s cruelty, Eleanor flees from her home, managing to find employment.
Sparks fly when the new Duke and Eleanor meet. She will not be taken in by his flirtations, and he is astounded to discover that, once he drops his façade, his heart is softening in a way he has never experienced before.
However, secrets haunt their blossoming relationship and, when they all come out in a flurry, Eleanor’s life is left hanging in the balance – and William must decide what he is to do with the woman who has captured his heart.
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Loving the Duke by Eliza McGrey is short and sweet romantic read.
What I like about the story was how they fell in love with each other and how even if they felt betrayed at some point in the story they were able to forgive and forget. The only thing that I didn’t like about the story was the fact that it was really short, I kind of felt like the story was a bit rushed.
All in all still a good read if you want a fast paced romance.
A sweet short story.
Very disappointing. I am surprised by the number of higher stars listed here on Goodreads. This was not a “good read”.
This tome is a very short novella, easily read in less than 1 hours for me.
Heat level: No heat whatsoever, but other writers have made no heat work for a romance novel. This time, it didn’t work. An attempt at compassion and understanding was made, but even the villain was disappointing.
Reality check: Really, poorly researched and expedited. There is no way a horse ranch for the purpose of raising fine blood for the upper class would be so… minimal. These aren’t just “gentlemen’s” ranches for the mere fun of it where the head count was so low. Nor would just an aging couple be running it without adequate hands on board. Nor would they bring on board a young wisp of a girl without any horsey experience whatsoever who has delusions that she could break a wild stallion… with the help of a duke who was equally clueless. (Did they even exist during that century in England? In the Old West of the US, yes. I sincerely doubt there were feral horses running wild and free in large enough herds required for survival.) I give this category a zero.
Characters: No confidence vote here. The heroine’s mum and father had the minimum development and were merely cardstock characters. The hero was rather pathetic and not realistic in terms of this incredible change in personality. Should I feel sorry for him for being less than a rake? No, he was an alcohol binger and a player. As for the heroine, so her parents were scarred by the death of her older brother. Again, I could not be sympathetic at all with her relationship with her parents as I couldn’t even be sympathetic with her parents. So they were overprotective… then why did they even allow their “spare” heir to go to Eton, outside their realm of protection? Didn’t make sense therefore became a real speed bump that interrupted my suspension of disbelief. Quite annoying. As mentioned before, I didn’t even feel the villain had balls. Oh, he seemed to promise much, but that fizzled out quickly.
Plots and subplots: Way too predictable midst the laughable representation of Regency England. Very disappointing. Hate to make the comparison, but even Barbara Cartland’s ghost writers were slightly more believable. I know this sounds catty, but how else could I describe this book? Way too formulaic. Ending rushed. Heterosexual hurt/comfort but way too expected. Sorry, but I’ve read way too much of this.
Editing process: Average errors in punctuation and word usage. Period speak seldom used, but at least there were minimal clichés present. (Yes, there were no references to cell phone wordage! Yay!) At least the misspellings were kept to a minimum.
Would I buy this book? No. All I can say is that at least this book was for free. Sorry, but I would have written this story in an entirely different way even if I wanted to write a Regency romance without the smut. Check out Rose Pearson if you want substance but no smut.
I enjoyed reading this regency era story that revolves around a rakish duke and a strong minded young lady Eleanor. She did not want to be forced into marriage (a common and accepted issue in that era) and decided to find employment on her own! Very gutsy, in my opinion!
Throw in horses and romance!!! Lovely short story!!!
This is my week for reading new authors and here’s another one that I really liked her writing. This story is short and sweet but delightful to read. The characters are well written and the story moves along nicely. The story is about, Eleanor, whose parents are trying to get a man to marry. Of course, she hasn’t found one she would like to marry and really hopes to find love. Then there is William who’s father is the Duke. The problem with WIlliam is that he isn’t ready to settle down and goes into town and does what he wants. This doesn’t make his father too happy. As the story goes along, Eleanor does something drastic and has to hide her identity and William is forced to settle down. At the end of the book, I wanted to read more. I differently have this author as one of my go to reads now..