Review: Dreaming of a Duke Like You

Dreaming of a Duke Like You by Sara Bennett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

A wave of dizzy nausea washed over him. He could hear his heart beating fast. He watched, speechless, as the lawyer bowed obsequiously low before him and called him “Your Grace.” 

Given up to a foundling house when he was three years old, Gabriel has had to make his own way in the world. Winning a gambling hell at twenty-two, he has amassed quite the wealth now five years later and apparently a dukedom. It turns out that his father did marry his mother and he is the legal heir to the Grantham title, much to the surprise of his grandmother, who delivered him to the orphanage when his mother died. Gabriel doesn't want the title but with six half-sisters that need him to help get them accepted in society and a dukedom that needs his financial expertise, he can't refuse it. But he's going to need some help, too. 

Gabriel Cadieux, the gambling hell owner with the heart of ice, and the new Duke of Grantham. And he was looking back at her. 

Currently staying with her aunt in London, escaping her stepfather and some scandal attached to her name, Vivienne finds out that her younger brother Will is in heavy debt to a gambling hell. Not wanting Will to jeopardize his inheritance that he will come into in three years, she takes a night trip to the hell and tries to reason with the owner but finds no quarter there, instead some attraction. When it's discovered that Gabriel is the new Duke of Grantham, he then comes to her with a plan to forgive her brother's dept if she helps his sisters learn how to succeed in society. 

Gabriel leaned down to whisper in her ear. “We are like two peas in a pod, are we not, Miss Tremeer? Both of us playing our parts and hiding our true selves from the world. But I see you and I think you see me.” 

Dreaming of a Duke Like You was a sedate historical romance that I wished the leads had spent more time together. The first half flowed babbling creek well with introducing readers to Vivienne, Gabriel, and their world and circumstances they were currently battling with. There were times that it felt like a primer for the future series, two bestfriends for Gabriel, along with his six sisters, and a brother and friendly cousin for Vivienne, get decently filled out stories to tease interest for future books (along with helping to fill out worldbuilding). Vivienne and Gabriel meetup a few times and they have gentle friendship chemistry, which leads Gabriel to coming up with the idea that Vivienne could help his sisters in favor of him forgetting her brother's debt (and getting her brother to help out at his club). This deal is struck around the half-way point and the second half we get to see them together more. 

There had been something missing in his life for a long time, and it was only now that he understood what it was. Vivienne Tremeer. 

This was a softly toned story, Gabriel was a quietly goes about his way with some vulnerabilities in his new position, which causes the reason “Why can't they be together?”. His grandmother has the Dowager battleaxe personality and insists that he must marry a titled, no hint of scandal to her, debutante of her choice. So while Gabriel starts to admit to himself that he has feelings for Vivienne, he feels he can't marry her for the sake of his sisters' success in the ton. Vivienne is a Baronet's daughter but there is a whiff of scandal that followed her from Cornwall that she spent a night alone with a man. It's a valid reason that works but it gets dragged out too long; I'm talking at 85% Gabriel agrees to his grandmother that he will marry her bride choice. The latter second half loses some of it's momentum because of this dragged out, Gabriel keeps dithering leaving Vivienne doing really nothing but waiting for him to get it together (maybe reality accurate, lol). 

Then the new Duke of Grantham had said, his gruff voice full of anger and resolve, She is mine. 

The last ten percent delivers the first bedroom scene (only brief kisses prior) as Vivienne decides to take what she can before she has to leave back home and the last five percent has Gabriel's sisters giving him a talking to get him to eventual deliver the HEA. I wish Gabriel had come to the decision more himself but it was in the vein of his more subdued personality. There's an epilogue that jumps a year and more HEA-ness. If you don't mind your leads not spending a lot of time together, especially the first half and a latter second half that felt a bit fumbling but are looking for more of a gentle tone and characters, this does deliver those two aspects.

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