Forever My Duke: Unlikely Duchesses

This is the first I've read by Olivia Drake. I felt it started a bit bumpy with speech between the duke and his valet a bit too familiar, even for a long time retainer. Fortunately, things smoothed out and I was interested in following where the story would lead to reach the mandatory HEA. Natalie's ward, young Leo, steals a scene or two. I read a free advance copy; the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Forever My Duke by Olivia Drake Unlikely Duchesses #2 Mixed feelings on this one...it is well written and characters are developed so I could see and know them but I didn’t feel there was anything new and thus it was rather predictable. The gorgeous duke is off to meet the woman he is supposed to (maybe) marry and meets a beautiful woman on the way. She is taking a young boy to meet his grandfather and the handsome duke provides a ride. There is the romance, the dastardly bad guy, a young boy that reminded me of the one in O’Henry’s Ransom of Red Chief, a rather dysfunctional family, mention what war was maybe like and a bit more. What I liked: * Natlie: good friend to Audrey and unwilling to bow to anyone – she was American to the core and all for equality * Hadrian: a man I grew to like – he was able to take charge and get things done and was also likable * Leo: a boy with a lot of heart...but one who liked to disappear a lot * There was a HEA What I did not like: * The uncaring family that were related to Leo * The predictability Thank you to NetGalley an dSt. Martin’s Paperbacks for the ARC – This is my honest review. 3-4 Stars

Forever My Duke ended up being just okay for me. Granted, I don't read a lot of Regency romances these days, but based on my experience with the genre, this one didn't bring anything new to the table. I expected it to be unrealistic, and it is. So much so, that it kind of felt like a bunch of people pretending to be from that era. It has a rather slow start, and once the story gets going, it's terribly clichéd. Despite all that, I did rather like Hadrian and Natalie and had this been set in a more current time period, I would've loved this couple. Natalie is a bit too progressive for the time, which is one of the many issues I have with the setting. In the end, the story was somewhere in the fair to middlin' range for me. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. I suppose I just wanted more than the typical.