A Good Duke Is Hard to Find by Christina BrittonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
2.5 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.
Three fiancés in as many years had left her.
Lenora is at the church ready to make her way up the aisle when she notices that her fiancé is not at the end to greet her. When she sees the look on her bestfriend Margery's face, Lenora knows that she is not getting married today. The scandal of losing another fiancé and the unforgiving nature of her father have Lenora escaping to the Isle of Synne with Margery to stay with Margery's grandmother and the place Lenora spent her summers. Her father tells her she has the summer to wait out the scandal and then he will betroth her again and she will marry his choice or he will disown her.
“You cannot go, Peter.” she called after him. “Your mother, she wanted me to care for you.”
Peter is back in England for the first time in thirteen years. He left after his mother died, he blames the Duke of Dane for not helping when he and his mother went to him for help. He goes to the Isle of Synne to pay back, with interest, the money the Duke's sister gave him and to show that he made something of himself. When he gets there though, he learns the Duke is gravely ill and the Duke's sister guilt trips him to staying at least a month based on a promise he made to his dying mother.
With a low oath, he stepped back. For a devastating moment, she felt the loss of his closeness down to the very marrow of her bones.
A Good Duke is Hard to Find is first in the Isle of Synne series and as I have already read the other two in the series, it was nice to see how it all began. I remember complaining how the setting of the Isle wasn't utilized enough in the other two, here I was happy to venture around to some sites with the characters and learn about the local lore of a maiden and her Viking lord. This provided some setting and while it's obvious that Lenora's friend Margery, Peter's friend Quincy, and the Duke of Dane's daughters will be future leads, their characters helped fill out the world. There's some tease for a secret Lenora is keeping about her first fiancé, who was Margery's cousin but it was fairly obvious and because of that, it dragged on a smidgen too long, especially when there wasn't really an impact about it. I would have liked to have a little more about how Peter made something of himself in America, we get a bare bones outline but I think that would have flushed his character out more.
He never imagined that anyone could breach the walls he had put about himself.
Until Lenora.
Together, Lenora and Peter had a lukewarm romance for me, it was pleasant but didn't particularly wow me. They had an instant physical attraction, kiss a little before the halfway point, and then are in love. I did like how they spent time together and talked but it was more told they're instantly attracted, instead of me reading and following along as it was developed. Since they're already thinking about love by the middle, what keeps them apart is the promise Peter made to the Duke of Dane to never marry so that his line will die with him and his property and fields will go fallow and, yeah, historical romance readers have been here before.
And he saw that what he had thought to be delicate and in need of protection was, in fact, enduring and strong.
Like Lenora. Like his love for her.
This actually turned out to be my favorite from the series and I think it was because of something that I usually complain about, setting up the foundation for the series. This is a little longer than usual historical romances and its due to spending time exploring the island (setting), introducing the world's characters (world building), and the romance between the leads. It made the pace a little slower but I liked the adding and spending some time with the first two components. The romance didn't end up giving me the development and emotional building that I personally like between romantic leads, for two characters that had instant attraction there was a decidedly lack of bedroom scenes; I think there ended up just being two(?) quick ones. The later half has Peter still being stubborn about his “never marry!” and Lenora's father comes in with some betrothal villainy that works to shake and wake-up Peter to deliver our happily ever after. I liked some of the time given for certain story components but the romance, unfortunately, fell flat for me.
