Review: Desperately seeking an editor
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 12 28, 2012
For a first novel, The Reluctant Duke shows some promise but would have been improved considerably with the help of a demanding editor.  The plot line, such as it was, was confusing and not very realistic.  Why wait until nearly the end for the source of the danger facing the heroine to be brought to the fore and  dealt with?  And the threatening character seemed to drop from out of nowhere (the explanation of his relationship to the heroine was unbelievable.....surely a man as astute as her father would never have used such a lawyer).  What really distracted me were the mistakes in grammar, usage, and in general knowledge of the period.  One real howler.....Mr. Darcy is the hero of Pride and Prejudice, not Sense and Sensibility.  The heroine also mentioned that she wanted to be a self- sufficient author like Jane Austen.  Unfortunately, Jane was not self sufficient, did not support herself on the earnings of her novels, and her identify as the author of her masterpieces was not revealed until after her death.  What can only be a lack of understanding of the time needed for ships to cross the Atlantic also was an eyebrow raiser.  The heroine receives a letter from the duke about her the death of her father and his appointment as her guardian, she replies to this letter, and then receives another one.....all in the space of what seems to be a very few weeks. Surely it would have taken at least four or five months for the three crossings involved.  I hope that the author will continue her efforts in writing but will work harder at developing a solid plot line and fleshing out the characters, not to mention using an editor to check for awkward transitions, inconsistencies, and errors in grammar and facts.