Review: Someday My Duke Will Come

Someday My Duke Will Come by Christina Britton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

But she would not allow that passionate side of herself to gain the upper hand. She had vowed long ago never to let it rule her again; she was not about to lose that battle now. 

If you read the first book in the Isle of Synne series, A Good Duke is Hard To Find, you'll remember the hero's cousin and ward, Lady Clara, and his business partner and friend Quincy. I'm a newcomer to the series and while I missed seeing some of Quincy's sea adventures and business building that could have been shown in the first, I didn't have a problem starting here. Quincy is back in London for the first time in decades after his father's death and overhearing his mother say she was going to force him into the Navy at 15yrs old. He decided to run off and join an American merchant ship on his own terms. His mother is still hateful towards him but he learns that his three older brothers have died and he is now the Duke of Reigate. 

Following her heart had given her nothing but ruin and shame, and a secret heartache that haunted her to this day. 

Clara is 31yrs old and due to an instance in her past, never thinks she will marry but now that her younger sister is getting married, she doesn't know what she will do with herself. She's always felt a connection with Quincy and when his mother tries to force an engagement on him, she jumps in and says he is already engaged to her. Thus, we have our “just friends” fake engagement. The first half of the story spends more time in our characters' heads, a lot with Clara and this mysterious issue from her past (more frequent historical romance readers will probably guess). I thought the first half was pretty slow moving but with the fake engagement set-up and a jump to the Isle of Synne, Clara and Quincy started to spend more time together. 

She laughed, and the happiness lighting her face nearly had him stumbling on the walkway. He knew in that moment he would do everything in his power to keep that light in her eyes. 

I never really felt like Quincy's character gave me anything beyond a penciled outline; like I mentioned, though, I didn't read the first book and more of his sea adventures could have been covered there. Clara had more to her but so much of it was the constant hovering of her mysterious past mistake. I read a good amount of Regency romance, so that could have affected my enjoyment, but the characters and storyline, unfortunately, felt like going through the Regency motions. Clara has a great-aunt that could be Lady Dansbury's (of Bridgerton series fame) understudy, the sprung on you dukedom, hidden scandal, and mean/evil parent. All these are elements that, in some way, over and over bring readers to the Regency sub-genre but there just wasn't any life or feeling delivered behind them for me here. 

Yet there was a steadiness to his gaze that grounded her. Just then he smiled. It was a small thing, barely even lifting the corners of his lips. But it gave her the encouragement she needed to do what had to be done. 

In the latter half of the story, when Clara and Quincy are internally saying they love the other, I can't say I felt why or saw how. For the most part, there isn't a lot of physical contact between the two, there are two bedroom scenes, descriptive but quick, and because of the lack of prior physicality, they feel sprung upon. The overall tone and pace of the story was placid, towards the ending there is some strife with Quincy's mother trying to dig up dirt on Clara but even that gets resolved fairly sedately. In fact, Clara's past issue, Quincy's insolvent dukedom, and a late reveal by Quincy's mother all just kind of work out with bows. There's not a lot in this story to get excited about but readers of the first in the series may want to pick this up to see any sparks from Clara and Quincy realized. 

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