Review: The Duke of Deception

The Duke of Deception by Darcy Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ned bent down and kissed his brother’s cheek. “Lemon cakes,”he whispered.
George’s eyes remained closed, but his lips curved into a familiar, beloved smile. “Lemon cakes. Yes, Ned. Lemon cakes.”
Those had been their favorite sweet. Cook, who’d passed long ago, had made them twice a week and always ensured Ned and George had the first batch while they were still warm. “Lemon cakes”had been something they’d uttered to each other as a gesture of comfort. A sort of “I love you”for boys who wouldn’t dare say such a thing to each other.



Lemon cakes. This got me.

Anyway, good but not wowing. The sex scenes read a bit contemporary, they do hold off until the latter second half of book. Except for the beautiful lemon cakes scene not really anything new or memorable. Hero's brother George was the most I got emotional about, hero and heroine had more of a sedate romance and chemistry; I personally like a bit more spark.

View all my reviews

50%

Lightly, his fingertips grazed her collarbone and the side of her neck, gently stroking. She resisted the urge to close her eyes and lose herself in this simple and yet devastating sensation. If she completely surrendered… What? What would happen?

Reading Update: 10%

“How chivalrous and yet scandalous at the same time,” she murmured.

Review: The Duke of Daring

The Duke of Daring by Darcy Burke
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I didn't feel the romance between the couple and too be honest, this kind of felt like a paint-by-numbers. Heroine dresses as a man, hero is only one who notices, helps her on her adventures, hero and heroine committed to never marrying, hero has sad past, and then heroine gives hero a bj. Err, what? Yeah, that part kind of woke me up, lol. Felt a bit out of place, heroine seemed a bit more modern in the bedroom. I've read better by the author. I don't know, the whole thing left me uninspired with how often I've tread these same storylines. Maybe chalk it up to my been there, done that private island of regency genre t-shirts.

View all my reviews

Review: The Forbidden Duke

The Forbidden Duke by Darcy Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

He kept his back to her. "I would imagine so after being in London. Young women such as yourself are scrutinized in a horrid fashion."
She joined him at the bookshelf. "So are forbidden dukes. It makes one conclude that London, or rather Society, is the problem."

This was a little shorter (150ish pgs) than the average romance book length and the hero's character suffered a bit because of it. His almost completely removing himself from society seemed more sad and odd than understandable. The reason he does this is because he was a notorious rake when he was younger and now he shrugs off society by just eating alone in his club room and only showing up at his stepmother's ball for one dance. A longer page count could have delved into his character more; I felt we were just left with a completely solitary shell.

Heroine was pleasing to read about, with her having lived through a scandal and now older and wiser. She was enjoyable and refreshing as signs of naivety were completely absent. Although, I will say her eagerness to do scandalous things with the duke felt off because of how society turned its back on her the first time. The sexy library scene felt forced in to meet a requirement for at least one sex scene in a story; I think the book would have been better without it.

My favorite part of this story was actually the relationship between the duke and his step-mother. Heroes are broody and dark more often than not (not complaining) and usually their horrible childhood or dark pasts are the cause for this. It was so refreshing to see this step-parent relationship be so sweet and loving. This intangible bumped my rating from just ok to liked. I'll definitely be continuing on in this series.

View all my reviews