A review by agrippinaes
Disciplined by the Duke by Alyson Chase

3.0

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It’s an engaging, easy-to-read book. The plot is interesting and moves at a good pace, and there’s some lovely turns of phrase and bits of descriptive writing that I enjoyed.

I liked both main characters. They had distinct personalities, particularly Liz; I really admired her determination to help her sister, at any cost. I liked the relationship that developed between the two of them. There were some genuinely sweet moments such as

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him feeding her, helping her with her clothes, bringing her Reggie the puppy when she was hurt, and so on.

The sex was good, for the most part, and fit well in the story. I liked the framing of it as him teaching her about her body, I thought that worked.

Also,

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I really liked that when he found out the truth he forgave her virtually immediately and helped her. It made a nice change from what I’d expected, which was more anger and angst between them.

I thought that the suspense plotline was decent, and I liked a lot of the ending to the story:

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I really liked that during her final meeting with Westmore she saved herself and did not need rescuing, and the scene where they break her sister from prison was exciting and done very well.

There were a few things that let the story down for me. Firstly, whilst the writing was good, there were a few modernisms that jolted me out of the story, and some swearing that felt out of place

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this really only applies to one scene where the hero called someone a f*ckwit, which is not a word I expect to see in a regency romance.

I just think it needed tightening up a little bit - it felt a little clumsy.

Secondly, some aspects of their romance left me a little conflicted.

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There’s mild BDSM in this book, and some parts of it are done well - others aren’t. The first time he disciplines her, for example, I felt like he ought to have explained slightly more what was about to happen - and even then I’m not sure how I felt personally about a young woman’s first sexual experience being a spanking with a ruler by her technical-employer, especially when he hadn’t fully explained anything that was about to happen.

The major scene was when he spanked her after she became stranded in the cold. The scene made me really uncomfortable - she told him she didn’t want to be disciplined and she fought him initially as the punishment began. Yes, she was turned on by the experience, but it didn’t work for me.

I would have liked a lot more sensitivity around the BDSM element of this book - Marcus, the hero, was very big on the idea of consent and understanding the power he had over her as a duke until he suddenly wasn’t, and it felt like a big switch.

Similarly - I don’t think that Liz’s concerns around the control element of BDSM in relation to her sister’s experiences were treated well, not beyond her first mention of them. Her sister was sexually abused by their father, and she initially raises a dislike of the idea of being controlled sexually as it reminds her of that part of her past; but this is never explored.

Leading on from that,

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I don’t really think her sister’s abuse was handled very well; once she’s freed from prison, that sort of seems to be it. I know she’s the main character of the next book in the series, and I assume a lot of the exploration of this storyline will be done there, but it all felt too easy regarding her experiences at the end.

Finally, the ending was a little blunt, and anticlimactic.

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Liz’s confrontation with Westmore was exciting, as was the prison break, but when Marcus and his friends caught up with Westmore, it lost a lot of impact. That scene was very flat and I was disappointed that Liz never got a true chance to confront Westmore about any of his deplorable behaviour.

I also would have liked an epilogue - it felt like they had so much more to resolve.

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I wanted to see how her friends from his home reacted to it, and again, I would have liked a lot more interaction between her and her sister.

This book had some good ideas and some good execution, but was let down by an anticlimactic ending and some dodgy consent issues in the BDSM elements.

I would recommend it if you want a historical, sort-of-boss-employee relationship with suspense and BDSM elements.

Content Warnings:

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Child sexual abuse, sexual harassment, violence, threat of torture, murder, discussions of executions, suicide, dubious consent, mild BDSM.