Jacob Proffitt's Reviews > The Duke Is Mine
The Duke Is Mine (Fairy Tales, #3)
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This book had some problematical elements and I can see why it's the ugly duckling in the series. Both the beginning and end work to undermine the main characters in some crucial ways that left me wondering what to think.
First off, Rupert. This marred the beginning as it's hard to tell what you're supposed to think about both him and Olivia's attitude towards him. We start off with Olivia and Georgiana saying some unkind things about him, but only to one another. That's a bad first impression of both him and them. I think the tone is supposed to be one of forbearance as Olivia has a distasteful future, even if she is kind to him in public and resigned to his deficiencies. The parents involved, both his and Olivia's are pretty much monsters. So nobody comes off well in this beginning and it isn't until later that you begin to see Olivia's loyalty and resignation for the trial they are.
The ending is just farcical. (view spoiler). I think we're supposed to see how awesome Quin is during those scenes, but it was so hard to believe that I found it doing the opposite for me.
Anyway, bad bookending aside, I still liked Olivia and Quin rather a lot. Well, okay, I liked Olivia rather a lot and Quin was adequate support. His background is a ton of melodrama and he comes across as rather bewildered and weak given his history. It was hard to respect a man who let himself be walked all over by his first wife. Which also made it hard to squeeze out sympathy for his current damaged state as a follow-on result. But since that only came up every other page, he was fine the rest of the time.
So really, when it comes down to it, Olivia made this book. It really is too bad that she makes such a confusing first impression with the dissonance over Rupert. If it hadn't been for the weird stuff, this would have been a solid four stars. As it stands, it was lucky to eek out three.
A note about Steamy: Lower mid range of my personal tolerance. There were three explicit scenes, but two were almost skimpy. Indeed, the steamy scenes were as weak sauce as the rest of the novel with some good mixed with unnecessarily dissonant bits.
First off, Rupert. This marred the beginning as it's hard to tell what you're supposed to think about both him and Olivia's attitude towards him. We start off with Olivia and Georgiana saying some unkind things about him, but only to one another. That's a bad first impression of both him and them. I think the tone is supposed to be one of forbearance as Olivia has a distasteful future, even if she is kind to him in public and resigned to his deficiencies. The parents involved, both his and Olivia's are pretty much monsters. So nobody comes off well in this beginning and it isn't until later that you begin to see Olivia's loyalty and resignation for the trial they are.
The ending is just farcical. (view spoiler). I think we're supposed to see how awesome Quin is during those scenes, but it was so hard to believe that I found it doing the opposite for me.
Anyway, bad bookending aside, I still liked Olivia and Quin rather a lot. Well, okay, I liked Olivia rather a lot and Quin was adequate support. His background is a ton of melodrama and he comes across as rather bewildered and weak given his history. It was hard to respect a man who let himself be walked all over by his first wife. Which also made it hard to squeeze out sympathy for his current damaged state as a follow-on result. But since that only came up every other page, he was fine the rest of the time.
So really, when it comes down to it, Olivia made this book. It really is too bad that she makes such a confusing first impression with the dissonance over Rupert. If it hadn't been for the weird stuff, this would have been a solid four stars. As it stands, it was lucky to eek out three.
A note about Steamy: Lower mid range of my personal tolerance. There were three explicit scenes, but two were almost skimpy. Indeed, the steamy scenes were as weak sauce as the rest of the novel with some good mixed with unnecessarily dissonant bits.
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