Review: A Reluctant Duchess
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2013
It has been a while since I read a historical romance.  Thank you, Ms. Darcy, for choosing me as an author sponsored giveaway winner, of this novel.There are times where simplicity is the best avenue to attract and keep a reader.  This book in an example of that.  It treads lightly through history, romance and sexuality.This is the story of an orphaned female forced to disguise herself as a male as she and her two male servants leave India for the protection of her new guardian.  Upon arrival at her guardian's she decides to keep up the farce of being a young boy and grows up with the freedom to roam the grounds, fish and climb trees.  She learns to play chess instead of how to curtsey.  This decision of duplicity affords Leslie 5 years of a safe and secure life.Her consideration of her faithful servants assures that they both have a role in the Duke's household, where she resides.  They remain in strict adherence to fidelity to her even if they might not agree with her decision to play a role for which her body was not intended.When her chicanery is uncovered, the reluctant bridegroom insists on a quick marriage in order to salvage their individual reputations.  Pax, the Duke of Ruhaven, behaves in a behemoth manner at times.  Instead of a well cultured girl, one who was bred to marry a Duke, he instead has a twined mess of a girl.  She not only requires a wardrobe befitting a Duchess before being presented in society, she needs to be taught how to dress in those clothes.  The same Leslie that took such pride in catching a trout just a few years prior, now needed to learn to balance herself in corseted gowns, simple slippers and upswept hair.The colorful character of Aunt Nell stumbles upon the household for an unannounced, but not unwanted, visit just as events unfold and Leslie is uncovered from being a 14yo boy to actually being a 19yo young woman.  "At nineteen she had no sense of her own womanhood; she had grown up almost sexless."  Aunt Nell, with her outrageous stories of her departed husband, becomes chaperone and champion of Leslie.Fitz, a friend of Pax's, becomes her faithful friend.  He dances with her at balls, socializes with her and confines in her.Cecily, who was once the shimmering vision that held his eye, was now scorned and vindictive; one who might be labeled as unchosen.  She, who had been bred to be the lady of a grand household, was thrown over and her once suitor was now married to a scamp.  An unhappy Cecily keeps her mouth running in society as a way to salvage her own rejection.If there is a sense of predictability in the reading of the book, I found that it was okay.  The story was sweet but not sugar coated.  It was a swift flight into the lives of Leslie and Pax.  The eventual budding of their love story and the stumbles that occur along the way make for a pleasant, if not overly challenging, read.