Ames’ review of Secrets of an Accidental Duchess by Jennifer Haymore.
With her pale hair and slim figure, Olivia Donovan looks as fragile as fine china, and has been treated as such by her sisters ever since a childhood bout with malaria. But beneath her delicate facade, Olivia guards a bold, independent spirit and the kind of passionate desires proper young ladies must never confess…
It was a reckless wager, and one Max couldn’t resist: seduce the alluring Olivia or forfeit part of his fortune. Yet the wild, soon-to-be Duke never imagined he’d fall in love with this innocent beauty. Nor could he have guessed that a dangerously unpredictable rival would set out to destroy them both. Now, Max must beat a madman at his own twisted game-or forever lose the only woman to have ever won his heart.
I’m coming right out and saying it, I wanted to like this book more than I did. I’ve never read this author before and although I didn’t care for this book overall, I found the romance-y aspects of it enjoyable and I will be reading her again.
Secrets of An Accidental Duchess is the second book in the Donovan sisters series. The first book deals with Olivia’s elder sister, Meg (actually named Serena but she had to change her name, which isn’t explained in this book). Olivia and her sister, based on what was mentioned, grew up in Antigua. Olivia had malaria as a child and now as an adult, she is plagued by fevers. Her family believes physical exertion brings the fevers on but Olivia knows it’s not that. The result however is that her family is overprotective of her.
From the minute Max sees Olivia across a crowded ballroom, everything inside him said ‘mine.’ Without even being introduced to her, he immediately became jealous over the men talking to her and he became possessive. Max’s acquaintance, a horrible man, sees where Max’ interest lies and since he had propositioned Olivia himself and she had said no, he bets Max that he can’t seduce her. Max can’t stand the man he made a bet with but some inner-demon of his can’t resist a challenge from him. In an effort to get close to Olivia, Max accepts an invitation from her brother-in-law to visit him on his country estate.
Max gets to know Olivia over the next few weeks and the bet is the last thing on his mind. He is attracted to Olivia and she to him. Both of them are clear though on the fact that neither want to marry. Olivia will be the cherished spinster aunt and Max refuses to ever hurt a woman the way his father did. However, Olivia wants to know passion before she resigns herself to her fate and her and Max start an affair.
It’s no surprise that Olivia and Max fall in love. I really enjoyed this aspect of SoaAD. They became friends before they became lovers. They could be real with each other. Max saw a side of Olivia that she didn’t and couldn’t show her overprotective family. Max opened up to her in a way that he couldn’t with anyone else. I thought their romance was very sweet.
But a few things niggled me. Max, when he first sees Olivia, feels possessive and jealous without ever having met her. You know who else felt possessive and jealous? The villain. Their reactions were a bit too similar for my taste. Like what makes it ok for the hero to feel that before even meeting the heroine? It made me uncomfortable. I also felt like Max and Olivia’s reasons for not getting married were a bit…silly. Especially with Max. I mean how many times have we come across a hero who refuses to marry? It’s predictable and the only that saved me here was that he actually explained to Olivia why he didn’t want to get married and then later on in the book he realizes how silly he’s being, that he could never treat Olivia the way his father treated his mother and he made up his mind to marry her.
Despite these few issues, I thought it was refreshing that Olivia decided to embark on a physical relationship with Max without wanting to marry him. She wasn’t too worried about what society would think of her.
2.75 out of 5
This book is available from Grand Central Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Nice review Ames. I tried reading the first book, but just couldn’t get into it. I’m surprised also that Olivia has malaria because I don’t think it was mentioned.
The romance sounds good… but if the style is different than the last book, I don’t think it’s for me.