What I Read This Week
This week I read Secrets of An Accidental Duchess by Jennifer Haymore. It is book #2 in the Donovan Sisters series. Jeanne Felfe randomly chose this book (number 42:3) as part of my TBR Roulette. Click the cover image to visit the book page and see the gorgeous step-back image.
Rating
Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥
Loveability: 💗💗💗💗
Heartbreakability: 💔💔
About the book
Maxwell Buchanan is smitten. He doesn’t doesn’t know who she is, but the lovely lady he meets eyes with is definitely one he won’t forget. Unfortunately, he is caught out by his long-time rival the Marquis of Fenwicke. Fenwicke, the self-styled ladies man, goads Max by saying he doesn’t have the skill to seduce. Unable to resist the opportunity to beat his rival, Max places a wager that he will seduce her by year’s end.
Olivia Donovan knows she’ll never marry. A childhood bout with malaria has left her susceptible to relapse. Anytime someone finds out about her affliction, they cease contact with her. Resigned to be the spinster aunt, she is nonetheless taken with Max when he accepts an invitation to her brother-in-law’s country estate for a house party.
As Max and Olivia grow closer, he comes to realise how stupid the wager was. Determined to forfeit, he pursues Olivia for himself, not to one-up his rival. They become lovers, convinced it’s a temporary liaison since both are determined not to marry.
When his uncle dies, Max finds himself the new duke and called back to London. Smitten, Olivia soon follows under the guise of being a companion to her brother-in-law’s mother.
Meanwhile, unsble to accept the fact that Max won the wager, regardless of his intention to forfeit, Fenwicke has him abducted off the street. Using Max to his advantage, he makes a deal with Olivia: she sleeps with him in order to free Max. In order to sway her decision, Fenwicke produces the wager Max had previously signed.
Olivia, heartbroken, agrees. Using her wits and some quick thinking, she manages to escape, rescuing Max along the way. He thinks this means she forgives him for the wager, but Olivia now doubts all their past time together. Needing time, she goes to her sister, Jessica, only to find her gone–the victim of kidnapping by Fenwicke. Max, not taking no for an answer, follows. Together they manage to find where her sister is, and stage a rescue.
What I thought about it
This is not your typical Regency. Yes there are lords and ladies, balls, and house parties, but there’s a bit of a darker element to it, too. I like that. It doesn’t gloss over some of the less savory aspects of life.
Olivia, the Heroine, suffers from malaria. While normally dormant, it is a chronic condition that flares up on occasion. Thinking it is brought on by physical activity, her sisters shelter her, preventing get from anything more than going for walks in the woods. One thing her sisters don’t prevent her from doing is having an affair with Max. I thought this was pretty radical thinking compared to other books I’ve read, but it was done in a way that it wasn’t comical or cheeky. It was a conversation between sisters, one I could imagine having with my own sister.
Max is a take on the way to reform. While he does make the bet with Fenwicke, and his ultimate goal is to seduce Olivia into his bed, part of him is growing into his role as a future duke. He knows what he doesn’t want to become and is trying to live up to the expectations of his title.
There is a lot going on in this book. Besides the courtship of Max and Olivia, and all the wagers, illnesses and kidnappings surrounding them, there is the plot revolving around Olivia’s younger sister Jessica and their neighbor, Beatrice, who just happens to be Fenwicke’s wife.
I’m not a fan of multiple characters’ POV and sub-plots intruding on my romance. When I’m invested in a romance between the couple, I want it to be about them alone. But the storyline with Jessica and Beatrice is important–it plays a large part in the last third of the book, and parallels Max’s growth throughout the story. It gives Olivia a chance to use her wits and prove to herself that she is more than just her illness.
It’s also where the darker elements come to play. Fenwicke is an adulterer and abusive husband. Whenever anyone makes him upset, he takes it out on his wife. She is s prisoner in her own home, all of the servants loyal to Fenwivke alone, despite his actions towards her, and report all her movements to him. The climax of the book is directly related to the storyline about Beatrice, and would never have happened without it.
If a book has to have a sub-plot not be about the Hero & Heroine, this is the way it should be done. I actually found myself reading it, rather than skipping it like I do in other books.
Is this an author I’ve read before?
This is actually the first book I’ve read by Jennifer Haymore. I had heard her speak at an event a few years ago, and bought several of her books right after that. But, like most of the books in my TBR list, I hadn’t read them.
I wish I had!
Will I read this author again?
Abdolutely! I can’t wait to read the rest of the Donovan Sisters series. I’d like to know why Serena goes by Meg, and what happens to vivacious and outgoing Jessica. I don’t actually have them on my library, so I’ll have to make sure to buy them.
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