Title: Desperate Duchesses
Author: Eloisa James
Ideal Age Range: Adult
Mass Market Paperback: 384 Pages
Copyright Date:
Blurb: "Welcome to a world of reckless sensuality and glittering sophistication...of dangerously handsome gentlemen and young ladies longing to gain a title...of games played for high stakes, including-on occasion-a lady's virtue.
A marquess's sheltered only daughter, Lady Roberta St. Giles falls in love with a man she glimpses across a crowded ballroom: a duke, a game player of consummate skill, a notorious rakehell who shows no interest in marriage-until he lays eyes on Roberta.
Yet the Earl of Gryffyn knows too well that the price required to gain a coronet is often too high. Damon Reeve, the earl, is determined to protect the exquisite Roberta from chasing after the wrong destiny.
Can Damon entice her into a high-stakes game of his own, even if his heart is likely to be lost in the venture?"
My Rating: (
☆«·´`·.¸★☆★¸.·´`·»☆
That was the short form of my review, I apologize if the last few reviews have been inconsistent with their layout. I'm still trying to find the exact right way to really get my points across. This I think might be the best yet, because I can get the short form out of the way and you can get the idea of if I liked it or not by using the star rating system and the guide in the sidebar without having to read the blundering that is my prose.
If you are still reading, Thank You! You are the best reader a blogger could ask for. Now, to get down to business, the business of actually talking about the book (writing really, but you know what I mean, I am sure).
To put the matter lightly, and within a single sentence structure, I will endorse Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James as such: I found the novel to be sweepingly romantic and full of witty repartee, not to mention the steamy scenes between the sensual Damon and beautiful Roberta to be fulfilling love scenes put to paper.
In other words, I loved the character of Damon, and the relationship that forms between him and Roberta. Although, I must say that I was kind of off put by the fact that most of the beginning of the book is spent focusing on Roberta's chaperone, Jemma and her intricate designs between the Duke Villiers and her husband, the Duke of Beaumont. There was one thing that I don't feel was tied up at the end, and that was the issue of Harriet. I don't write spoilers, so I won't delve too deep into this point, but I have a feeling that some of these other story points might be visited upon in the other books in this quaint series.
And, I am a little late to the game for the Desperate Duchesses series, being that I started off with Ms. James' A Kiss At Midnight, followed by her rendition of Beauty and the Beast, When Beauty Tamed the Beast. Considering the fact that I stayed up past midnight the last two nights to finish Desperate Duchesses when I love my sleep so much, now that I have a small infant, you should know that I really enjoyed reading it! I borrowed Desperate Duchesses from my mother, whom collects many romance novels and other books, I'll have to pick up her other books in the series to see what happens!
© demureconnoisseur