Review: Not your mother's historical romance.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 20, 2013
If you're getting tired of the same-old, same-old aspect of most historical romance releases, this is the book for you.  It turns the H-h relationship on its head and isn't afraid to go into some serious issues, while at the same time having amusing, entertaining moments along with the angsty, heart-wrenching ones.Heroine Katherine (Kit) is a pig-raising country girl, keeping her home with mother and adult brother intact through hard work and drudgery.  She's no-nonsense, no-frills.  Her beautiful younger sister Lydia has been married off to a Scottish lord (a big, blustery man madly in love with her but clueless how to deal with her) and lives in London, schmoozing with high society.  Katherine is reluctantly visiting Lydia to be introduced to society and maybe find a husband.  She doesn't take.Lydia is having an affair with the Duke of Darlington, our hero.  For the duke to have an affair is not uncommon.  It appears he'll swive anybody (male or female) that's convenient for him.  Well, Katherine wants him to leave Lydia alone.  When she meets the duke at a ton gathering, she tells him so.  The duke is struck by Kit and her forceful personality and agrees to end the affair if he can come to stay with Kit in the country.It needs to be said that our duke is beautiful, compelling, manipulative, almost mesmerizing.  He has a coterie of "dandies" to attend to his every whim and almost every woman in the ton wants to be his lover.  But, in addition to this, the duke is a very troubled man, almost broken emotionally, and he has grabbed onto strong and forceful Kit as his possible salvation.So Kit goes back home and the duke is to follow.  But he doesn't arrive at the country cottage as a man, but, rather, dressed as a woman, pretending to be Lady Rose, a female cousin of the duke's.  Well, let the adventures begin, some heart-wrenching, some romantic, some amusing.It's a compelling yet at times uncomfortable read because of all the pain the characters are carrying around.  And it's not just the duke who has problems.  Kit and her siblings and mother have their own past to contend with.  Well worth the read, this story deals sensitively with several issues: child abuse, sexual orientation, self-hatred, romantic and marital relationships, etc.  (But at the same time, it has Porkie, the pet pig, and other moments of relief from the characters' troubles.)