Love and marriage don’t have to be strangers…
Gambling. Carousing. Flirting. Charlotte, Duchess of Rutherford, will do anything to escape her painful marriage and force her husband to divorce her. But when Phillip, Duke of Rutherford, promises a divorce if Charlotte will help him become a better husband for another woman, she wonders if she really wants to lose him…
Title: | Seducing the Duchess |
Author: | Ashley March |
Series: | n/a |
Pages: | 302 |
Category / Genre(s): | Historical |
Trope(s): | Marriage in Trouble |
Point of View: | |
Location: | |
Setting: | England |
HEA: | ✔️ |
Release Date: | 28th September, 2010 |
Unlikeable characters, unlikeable romance
I love a good ‘second chance at romance’ story and the premise of this story really seemed to tick all the boxes for me. Unfortunately I was probably about 5 pages in before I began to have serious reservations about the story. Or, more accurately, the characters.
Philip has decided that he loves his wife despite marrying her for reasons other than love and not having spent much time in her company over the last few years. He wants her back and wants to atone for his sins so he is, in some ways, sympathetic. Charlotte on the other hand was just terrible. She was a shrew and instead of being strong she came across as a hard, unlikeable harridan who acted childishly and pathetically to get back at her husband. Her behaviour was atrocious and didn’t endear me to her one bit.
Because of my dislike of the characters it was very hard to care about them or the things that they did. There were very few tender moments and the love scenes didn’t interest me – possibly due to my lack of emotional involvement with the story overall.
To be honest, I found it really difficult to find the enthusiasm to finish this book. I even thought that the conclusion left it open to the couple falling out once again – but perhaps that’s just me being cynical. I don’t like giving books low ratings but I’m sorry to say I just can’t recommend this book to you. 1 star and I’ll be giving this author a miss from now on.
Ashley March is a writer of historical romance fiction. Her works include My Lady Rival, Seducing the Duchess, Romancing Lady Cecily, and Romancing the Countess. A native of Texas, she currently resides in Denver with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs.
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