Rating: ★★★ + .5| 9 hours | Historical Romance | Castles Ever After #1 | Avon | 1/28/2014
When her father dies unexpectedly, 26-year-old Izzie Goodnight is left with only the legacy of
his popular syndicated stories and…a castle–given to her by one of her father’s fans. Izzie can work with a castle but unfortunately for her, there is a surly, recently blinded duke angsting it up inside and claiming true ownership. Izzie Goodnight and Ransome Vane, Duke of Rothbury are an unlikely pair and as they try to discover how they both ended up with ownership of the same castle they find the kind of love and acceptance they’d both given up on ever deserving.
I read this book for book club but I’ve been hearing about it for years because of the fandom aspect. Dare creates this enthusiastic fandom for Izzie’s father’s stories and it was so much fun. There is cosplay, LARPing, fan theories and fanfiction. While I enjoyed this book, it was not my fave Dare story. It felt like a bottle episode because we literally never leave the castle except for one page. Also, the grumpy broken, angsty duke is kind of my least favorite trope. Although his grovel is a good grovel.
This works great on audio, Carmen Rose delivers a charming narration and continues to be my go-to narrator for historical romance.
Speaking of this book taking place in one location….I kept thinking this book would work really well as a play. How are no romance novels turned into plays?