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sophiesmallhands's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Classism
Minor: Death, Racism, Death of parent, and Murder
caseythereader's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Thanks to Avon Book for the free copy of this book.
- THE DUKE GETS DESPERATE was my first Diana Quincy and it won’t be my last! I loved this enemies to lovers, competence is hot, are we fated mates story.
- I am not usually a big enemies to lovers fan, but this book does it right. It’s not “oh we had a misunderstanding and therefore hate each other forever,” it’s they legitimately have reasons to be pitted against each other and also legitimately keep pissing each other off but also they love how smart and stubborn and capable the other is and simply can’t keep away from each other.
- I also love that Raya is a Palestinian American heroine who is proud of her heritage. She belongs in this time period and in this book, an era and genre that often ignore women like her.
- THE DUKE GETS DESPERATE was my first Diana Quincy and it won’t be my last! I loved this enemies to lovers, competence is hot, are we fated mates story.
- I am not usually a big enemies to lovers fan, but this book does it right. It’s not “oh we had a misunderstanding and therefore hate each other forever,” it’s they legitimately have reasons to be pitted against each other and also legitimately keep pissing each other off but also they love how smart and stubborn and capable the other is and simply can’t keep away from each other.
- I also love that Raya is a Palestinian American heroine who is proud of her heritage. She belongs in this time period and in this book, an era and genre that often ignore women like her.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Racism and Alcohol
noellelovesbooks's review against another edition
4.75
Content Warnings: Racism, sexual content, sexism, classism, and toxic relationships.
Mention of: murder, death, and death of loved ones.
***I received an ARC, via Netgalley, from Harper Collins...as part of their influencer program.***
Diana is one of my FAVORITE historical romance authors. Between the POC rep and the ease in which one can start her books...I just adore the characters she writes.
Raya seeks financial independence and is stunned to learn her cousin has left her a castle. Seeing that the castle has seen better financial days she starts to formulate plans to bring money back in and make sure the castle prospers. She WILL show her family how valuable her financial opinions are and that they were wrong to force her out of the family business.
Strickland always believed he would inherit the family castle and was devastated when his father's will stated he passed the family seat to Strick's stepmother. Having been promised by his stepmother he would inherit once she passed...he's infuriated when he learns that she willed the family home to a cousin...a cousin she's never even me in person!
Watching these two, extremely stubborn, people clash while also fighting their mutual attraction... *chefs kiss*
I cannot wait to see, and devour, the other books Diana writes into this series!
Mention of: murder, death, and death of loved ones.
***I received an ARC, via Netgalley, from Harper Collins...as part of their influencer program.***
Diana is one of my FAVORITE historical romance authors. Between the POC rep and the ease in which one can start her books...I just adore the characters she writes.
Raya seeks financial independence and is stunned to learn her cousin has left her a castle. Seeing that the castle has seen better financial days she starts to formulate plans to bring money back in and make sure the castle prospers. She WILL show her family how valuable her financial opinions are and that they were wrong to force her out of the family business.
Strickland always believed he would inherit the family castle and was devastated when his father's will stated he passed the family seat to Strick's stepmother. Having been promised by his stepmother he would inherit once she passed...he's infuriated when he learns that she willed the family home to a cousin...a cousin she's never even me in person!
Watching these two, extremely stubborn, people clash while also fighting their mutual attraction... *chefs kiss*
I cannot wait to see, and devour, the other books Diana writes into this series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Classism
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and Murder
themeadowlibrary's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
“Castle Tremayne had made a woman out of her.”
When this book opened, I loved the first sentence and thought it was going to be a super fun read. I was very wrong.
It’s not that anything was awful, it just was meh. For example, I am a fan of archeologist heroes normally, but there was just something about Strick that annoyed me. He was completely against monetizing anything, so how does he plan to save his home? It started to veer into him being really unintelligent. I liked Raya a little more, but she still wasn’t a character I was excited to read about. In fact, there weren’t any characters in this book that I really loved.
The writing was very clunky in parts. At times the plot did not make sense to me, and the pacing felt off. Also some details did not ring historically true. One major thing that stood out to me was, no matter what’s going on behind the scenes, I don’t think servants at this time period would speak so harshly and correct their employer in the way they did from the very beginning of the book.
The mystery plot was really predictable; all it served to do was make me anxious and annoyed. Most of all I just never felt hooked- into the story or the characters.
It may be just that it didn’t resonate with me, because there were some good scenes (I love when Raya gets into the cider). Overall though, not my favorite.
Star Rating: 2/5
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, inheritance, class differences
CW: Death, murder, violence, racism, classism
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism
bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Alcohol
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