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kirbs419's review
4.0
I found it tasteful more accurate in the tellings of the time period... Overall an enjoyable read! I purchased this free on amazon!
shelovestoread81's review
5.0
So I got this book for free and read in a day. I had started another book [b:The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady|12473807|The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady|Richard Raley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1323886219s/12473807.jpg|17458019]and found it lacking in a lot of ways. So I started this one and decided that I did indeed need a change in books. I really did like this book and I hated his brother St. John from the beginning but not really sure why then at the end I saw it come to fruition. I am going to read more by Christine Merrill since I really loved her writing style.
mspilesofpaper's review against another edition
4.0
Sehr unterhaltsam und kurzweilig. Es ist keine anspruchsvolle Lektuere, aber die habe ich nie erwartet. Obwohl man all die Wendungen und drehungen voraus sehen kann, liest es sich schnell und gut. Das Ende ist offensichtlich wie alles, aber etwas anderes zu erwarten bei so einem Buch waere unsinnig. ;-) Ich habe mich gut unterhalten gefuehlt von der Geschichte.
knewton7's review
3.0
A free ebook from Amazon. Typical historical romance with a bit more dithering than normal.
regencyfan93's review
3.0
This was 3.5 stars. I got tired of St. John. I dreaded him showing up, perhaps as his family dreaded seeing him. This would have been 4 stars, if there had been less of St. John
carriekellenberger's review
2.0
Starving and destitute, Lady Miranda is forced to visit the decrepit and crumbling manor of Marcus, a heartbroken lord that has lived on his own for the past 10 years. Arriving late at night with no escort, Marcus is forced to marry Miranda in order to save her honor.
Being from a questionable background, Marcus immediately leaves Miranda at home to inquire into her background, and he discovers some startling information about her. Meanwhile, back at the manor, Miranda has taken charge of the household staff and is fashioning the manor into a home that Marcus can be proud of. She is accompanied by Marcus's evil brother St.John, who is determined to woo Miranda away and ruin Marcus's life forever.
As Marcus and Miranda get to know each other, their relationship blossoms and grows, while St. John continues to try and worm his way into Miranda's confidence.
Another predictable, but free Kindle read. I like these kinds of books because they don't require a lot of thought or energy. Miranda and Marcus's characters are well developed and the story doesn't include all the annoying trappings and misunderstandings that many stories of this genre tend to include.
Being from a questionable background, Marcus immediately leaves Miranda at home to inquire into her background, and he discovers some startling information about her. Meanwhile, back at the manor, Miranda has taken charge of the household staff and is fashioning the manor into a home that Marcus can be proud of. She is accompanied by Marcus's evil brother St.John, who is determined to woo Miranda away and ruin Marcus's life forever.
As Marcus and Miranda get to know each other, their relationship blossoms and grows, while St. John continues to try and worm his way into Miranda's confidence.
Another predictable, but free Kindle read. I like these kinds of books because they don't require a lot of thought or energy. Miranda and Marcus's characters are well developed and the story doesn't include all the annoying trappings and misunderstandings that many stories of this genre tend to include.
turophile's review
3.0
1. The Incovenient Duchess, Christine Merrill (January 2016, owned ebook)
The story begins with the Marcus, Duke of Haughleigh, appearing at his mother’s deathbed. At least she claims she’s dying, but she’s done that before. Before she passes into the next realm, she wants to see her eldest son, a widower, married off and on the route to producing an heir. Marcus, who lost his first wife in childbirth a decade ago, has no interest in marriage but promises his mother he’ll meet this young woman an old friend of hers is sending.
Miranda Grey appears at his door a few weeks later. It turns out his mother was dying, and now he’s trying to deal with the estate and his ne’er do well younger brother and get back to London. He’s surprised when a sopping wet Miranda shows up on his doorstep. His instinct is to refuse him, but he realizes she’s talked to the local pastor on the way out there and her virtue may have been compromised by venturing to and staying overnight in a house with two bachelor. He quickly arranges to marry her without a license – this way he can investigate who she really is and annul the marriage if the answer doesn’t make him happy. If it turns out she is acceptable, he’ll accept her because he needs an heir after-all.
She reluctantly accepts his proposal and immediately begins turning around the household while the Duke’s in London. She works on brining it back to its former glory while trying to avoid the advances of her new brother-in-law and also deal with her new awareness that she’s attracted to men and wants some badonga-donga.
The story was well-constructed, but the underlying element that he’ll accept her only if her story checks out and she’s an acceptable virgin bothered me a little bit. It was redeemed a bit by his personal growth, but that underlying hint of woman as commodity drove me crazy, even though I know that was prevalaent in history.
This is Christine Merrill’s first book and though I didn’t love it, I enjoyed it enough to read more of hers, especially since she’s from my home state of Wisconsin.
3.25/5 on the romance scale
The story begins with the Marcus, Duke of Haughleigh, appearing at his mother’s deathbed. At least she claims she’s dying, but she’s done that before. Before she passes into the next realm, she wants to see her eldest son, a widower, married off and on the route to producing an heir. Marcus, who lost his first wife in childbirth a decade ago, has no interest in marriage but promises his mother he’ll meet this young woman an old friend of hers is sending.
Miranda Grey appears at his door a few weeks later. It turns out his mother was dying, and now he’s trying to deal with the estate and his ne’er do well younger brother and get back to London. He’s surprised when a sopping wet Miranda shows up on his doorstep. His instinct is to refuse him, but he realizes she’s talked to the local pastor on the way out there and her virtue may have been compromised by venturing to and staying overnight in a house with two bachelor. He quickly arranges to marry her without a license – this way he can investigate who she really is and annul the marriage if the answer doesn’t make him happy. If it turns out she is acceptable, he’ll accept her because he needs an heir after-all.
She reluctantly accepts his proposal and immediately begins turning around the household while the Duke’s in London. She works on brining it back to its former glory while trying to avoid the advances of her new brother-in-law and also deal with her new awareness that she’s attracted to men and wants some badonga-donga.
The story was well-constructed, but the underlying element that he’ll accept her only if her story checks out and she’s an acceptable virgin bothered me a little bit. It was redeemed a bit by his personal growth, but that underlying hint of woman as commodity drove me crazy, even though I know that was prevalaent in history.
This is Christine Merrill’s first book and though I didn’t love it, I enjoyed it enough to read more of hers, especially since she’s from my home state of Wisconsin.
3.25/5 on the romance scale
abkeuser's review against another edition
3.0
The set up of this felt a little off to me. But otherwise it was an enjoyable introduction to Ms. Merril's writing.
wealhtheow's review against another edition
3.0
Miranda is gently born but after her father gambles their money away, she works as a maid. The woman who raised her fears that she's growing up too pretty, and so blackmails an old schoolfriend into inviting her as a guest to the ducal house. Because Miranda arrives late in the evening, without a maid, her reputation is compromised. The duke feels constrained to marry her, but leaves the next day to investigate her claims to gentility. Miranda is left in a dusty old mansion with the duke's scapegrace brother St.John.
This like a less gothic, Regency-era take on [b:Rebecca|12873|Rebecca|Daphne du Maurier|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327871977s/12873.jpg|46663]. The duke's last wife was breath-catchingly beautiful, and Miranda keeps catching the duke and his brother staring up at her portrait in the gallery.What Miranda doesn't realize at first is that the duke married his last wife under family pressure, and that she was flighty, cold, and controlling. He hasn't married since her death many years ago because their marriage was such a disaster, not out of grief. The characters respond refreshingly sensibly to various romance tropes: for instance, when Miranda is threatened with blackmail unless she meets a man in the library for a tryst, she goes to the library with a weapon, knowing that she needs to nip blackmail in the bud. I also really liked that Miranda's main character trait is her work ethic. Her beauty is mentioned a few times, but what everyone talks about and responds to is how hard she works. Merrill doesn't just tell the reader Miranda is a hard worker, she shows us: her hands are calloused and scarred, she has personal formulas for cleaning wallpaper, she has no musical or artistic accomplishments because she spends her free time doing extra chores.
This book was free on amazon, so my expectations were low. But in fact, I was surprised by how much I liked this. I'm going to search out more books by Merrill in hopes they're as enjoyable as this one. It's so rare but wonderful to find someone who can write Regency romance novels with plots, heroines who are sensible, and heroes who aren't rape-y.
This like a less gothic, Regency-era take on [b:Rebecca|12873|Rebecca|Daphne du Maurier|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327871977s/12873.jpg|46663]. The duke's last wife was breath-catchingly beautiful, and Miranda keeps catching the duke and his brother staring up at her portrait in the gallery.
This book was free on amazon, so my expectations were low. But in fact, I was surprised by how much I liked this. I'm going to search out more books by Merrill in hopes they're as enjoyable as this one. It's so rare but wonderful to find someone who can write Regency romance novels with plots, heroines who are sensible, and heroes who aren't rape-y.