Niki (mustreadalltheromance)'s Reviews > The Duke's Accidental Bride

Lady Jacqueline Peabody intended to devote herself to her beloved piano and never marry but that’s no longer an option for her since her family’s dire financial straits require her and her siblings to marry fortunes. Unfortunately, her sister has found the man she wants to marry, and his means are nowhere near sufficient for the family’s needs. Jacqueline blames the Duke of Stone for making the match and demands he make things right for her.

James Haven, the Duke of Stone, has lived his life with the goal of avoiding emotion and attachment, vowing not to marry himself, though he enjoys matching others. Jacqueline needs a wealthy husband, and it should be no problem for him to find her one, yet somehow James struggles to find anyone to match her spirit. It couldn’t possibly be because he’s falling for her himself and can’t bear to think of her with someone else.

This story was a little formulaic and I’ll admit it didn’t always hold my attention. We have a hero who’s determined to never marry for reasons to do with his father and a heroine who he clearly loves but refuses to acknowledge his feelings for. I also found Jack to be very dramatic about her need to marry and her placement of blame on James for ruining her life just made her seem a bit petulant, even if it did get his attention. I think James’ willful blindness to his love for Jack went on a bit too long and Jack forgave him a little easily when he finally did open himself up. Their compromise situation came about very abruptly and their fall into bed together felt just as abrupt to me after all his long-winded diatribes about how he and Jack could never be together. Besides that, it also wasn’t all that satisfying and for me did not convey the longing that I would’ve thought had built up between these two after so much denial. James definitely had understandable reasons for being reluctant to marry, but he kept it up a bit long for me and then threw it all aside so quickly that his character and motivations no longer made sense. Even after his best friend thankfully talked some sense into him, it still took him a while to make things right and I wasn’t the biggest fan of that. The villain here also confused me a bit. He was definitely menacing, but he just popped up randomly and then went away and I never understood his motives and he was never dealt with satisfactorily to me. Overall, this was a cute enough story, but nothing especially memorable for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Blog link: https://mustreadalltheromance.blogspo...