Whitley’s review of Romancing the Duke (Castles Ever After #1) by Tessa Dare
As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.
And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one.
Ugly duckling turned swan?
Abducted by handsome highwayman?
Rescued from drudgery by charming prince?
No, no, and… Heh.
Now Izzy’s given up yearning for romance. She’ll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who’s never even been kissed?
This one.
Basically my only complaint about this book is why did it have such an awful summary?
I’ve had this book on my list for a while because of my friends raving about it, but I put it off because of the hideously dull summary. All it gives me is a list of things not in the book. Um, yay?
Izzy Goodnight is the daughter of a fairy tale author, a very popular one at that, and is featured in her father’s writings as part of the framing device. Every issue of his story is presenting as being a goodnight story to her. So even though she’s in her mid-20s, most of the people she meets fawn over her like she’s still a little girl. Puts a serious damper on her social life, but at the same time she doesn’t want to crush the enjoyment of those devoted fans.
Since her late father forgot to include her in his will, her cousin took everything and left her destitute. At least, until her godfather unexpectedly left her a castle. An old, run-down, rather moldering one, but still a castle. Unfortunately, the castle has a duke in residence, and that duke insists he never sold his estate. Since he’s been recuperating from grievous injuries and in general hiding from life, it’s now a battle of wills between Ransom and Izzy as they try to puzzle out what happened and who really owns the castle. With, naturally, a lot of simmering lust along the way.
And I don’t know how else to say it, but this book is just so cute. But, like, a sexy cute. It’s adorably lusty. It’s provocatively sweet. It’s endearingly sultry. I can’t even put my finger on why. Maybe it’s all the fairy tale cosplayers that show up, maybe it’s the chemistry between the characters, maybe it’s the airy writing style, maybe it’s how much I love the side characters. But it’s just a damn loveable novel, okay?
There’s really not much else to be said about it. Besides being so much fun to read, it really follows its genre conventions pretty closely. The duke is gruff and heart-hardened by life, the heroine is quirky and wins him over. There’s lots of making out along the way. But it doesn’t really need to break any new roads to be thoroughly enjoyable. This book knows what it needs to do and then does it with aplomb. And god bless it for that.
The sequel has a much better summary and sounds every bit as endearing. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Reading Order:
This title is available from Avon. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this, too! Did you read the other Castles Ever After book, Say Yes to the Marquess? That was so, so good, too!