• Home
  • ABOUT
  • Contact
  • Reviews By Genre
    • Black Romance
    • Contemporary
    • Cowboys & Westerns
    • Erotic
    • Historical
    • New Adult
    • Paranormal
    • Romantic Elements
    • Science Fiction/Fantasy
    • Suspense
  • Reviews by Theme
    • Celebrities
    • Harlequin Category
    • Holiday
    • LGBTQIA
    • Low Heat
    • Millionaires & Billionaires
    • Motorcycle Club
    • Multicultural
      • Black
      • East Asian
      • South Asian
      • Latinx
      • Interracial
    • Novellas & Anthologies
    • Royalty
    • Small Town
    • Sports
  • Reviews By Trope

Romance and Sensibility

From First Page To HEA

3 stars, Historical, Review

When A Duke Loves A Woman by Lorraine Heath

November 12, 2018 Leave a Comment


Rating: ★★★ | Sins For All Seasons #2 |320 pages | Avon | Historical Romance | 8/21/2018


The Sins For All Seasons series follows a family of illegitimate siblings trying to rise above their station in society as outcast. I was excited to read  When A Duke Loves A Woman because it features Gillie Trewlove, an 29-year-old Victorian woman who is doing just fine running her bar and doing her best to make her impoverished Victorian neighboorhood a better place.

Gillie’s daily routine is shaken up when she rescues the Duke of Thornley from a violent mugging on her front steps and (reluctantly) nurses him back to health and agrees to help him find the runaway bride that has led him to the seedy underbelly of London. Gillie and Thorne from two different worlds but the more time they spend trying to find the missing bride, the deeper their feelings become.

This book was middle of the road for me, and I think it’s because this book kept setting up and then quickly resolving the conflict/tension. First,  Gillie nurses Thorne back to health who, due to his injuries can’t leave her flat. That plot abruptly ends and then they start looking for his missing bride–then the bride shows up and breaks things off with Thornely dismantling the tension with half the book left. The characters spend the rest of the book pursuing each other and there is an obligatory ball, but I wanted more conflict.

With that said it had an enjoyable ending that had some of the emotional impact that was blurbed on the cover. Lorraine Heath never lets you forget the lacks of rights for women in Victorian England. I was also surprised (slight spoiler) that we never find out who Gillie’s parents are or why she was abandoned. Maybe it will come up in other books?

I am all for books with non-traditional historical heroines and want to see more in Romancelandia.  As for this series, I’m curious enough to see how the background characters in this book come together in book 3.

I like how the silver lettering on the print cover is holographic.  Also–and yes,  I know photography can be limited– I think Avon missed out on a chance to do something different with this cover. Gillie is described as having a pixie cut (but she does wear a wig at one point) and Thorne wears glasses and has a cane for part of the book. Those additions would have made a more interesting cover.

Currently Reading

Jess
Kat

Follow Us on Bloglovin’

Follow

Subscribe !

Reviews By Rating

  • 1 Star
  • 2 Star
  • 3 Star
  • 4 Star
  • 5 Star
  • Unrated

Search

Blog Archive

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Fiction Book Reviews

Social Slider

  • Just like it
  • I looked though my collection to find a book for #stepbacksaturdays and this is the only one I could find!
  • I’m not sure if I believe in astrology but after finishing Written in The Stars I was intrigued enough to
  • In 2018 we had a chance to meet Beverly Jenkins and Brenda Jackson at RVA
  • I’m excited to be cohosting the Black romance giveaway hop next week! We still have spots open for bloggers/ Instagrammers
  • During a socially distanced visit to Northern Virginia, Jess and I stopped by McKay Used books. We only had 45
  • I don
  • I purchased some delicious macarons so I could practice some bookstagraming !The pink and purple hues matched perfectly with Nita
Design by SkyandStars.co

Copyright © 2021