When the Duke Returns by Eloisa James

The Chick: Isidore, Duchess of Cosway. Married to her husband since she was 12, but she has never met him and now at the age of 23 she is getting frustrated that he hasn’t returned to even consummate the marriage. She has always pictured herself as a duchess and a mother, so she must force him to return and seduce him.

The Dude: Simeon, Duke of Cosway. Marriage by proxy had been of great convenience to him. He believed he had a placid, yarn spinning wife at home where he could hapily settle after the adventures of the world. He comes back to find his home in poor repair and wife, he was not expecting.

The plot in 10 (ish):

Isidore: I'm sick of all this waiting for my husband, I will cause a scandal and make him return!

Simeon: I'm back! I know we are married, but I think she should have a real wedding ceremony unless you want to annul the marriage.... oh and by the way, I'm a virgin

Isidore: you want to do what now? And your a virgin! And to top it all off you don’t look or act like a duke, you really were worth waiting for!

Simeon: Iv returned to a house that smells like a latrine and I need to repair the house to its former glory, I don’t think you'll be able to help.

Isidore: you cretin! I have been running my fathers estates for years, let me help and at the same time, I will seduce you

Simeon: I will use the Middle way to ignore that comment and keep hold of my lust. It will not overwhelm me.

Isidore: Great, I appear to have married a monk, I bet your bits probably don’t even work!

Simeon: I think you'll find they are in perfect working order, here I will show you

*bow chicka wow wow*

Isidore: ok, so maybe they do work

Huzzah!

The End

The Book:

Isidore married her husband by proxy when she was very young and has never met him. She was happy to wait while he look for adventure in India and Africa, but she had expected him to arrive home and collect her when she was 16 or 18 or even 21, but at the age of 23 she is now frustrated and sick of waiting and so has taken on drastic measures by attending the most scandalous house in England.

Upon the hysterical missive from his mother, Simeon finally returns to England to collect his wife from ruin. And finds her not how his mother had described to him over the years as a plain, timid girl who loves to weave. He must use his knowledge of the Middle Way to control his lust and anger, he had not stayed a virgin for all these years without it, but she tests him to his limits. Through his travels he has seen many marriages and has decided the best are when the woman is placid and so is not sure if this marriage will work. He offers her the option of an annulment, after all she has never met him and may not like the idea of marriage. And if they are to be married, they will have to have a real wedding ceremony this time with both present.

Isidore is shocked that he has suggested a annulment just after they have first met and that they must have a ceremony... they are already married! And then he drops the bomb that he is still a virgin! Does all his parts work? Does he know what to do? To wait so long and then to have it all change is just unbelievable, will she ever be a duchess?

Simeon returns to his home to find it in poor repair. Stacks of bills unpaid, his younger brother not at school, furniture falling apart, staff overworked and underpaid, food rationed, gardens overgrown and a very smelly toilet system. He cannot understand how this has happened because they are not short of money, was his father ill at the end of his life? He must control his anger set about bringing everything back to normal.

I enjoyed this different take on a romance story where the characters are already married.

Simeon is an ok character. Through his travels he has learnt the 'middle way' and learnt to control his desires and impulses and Isidore with her fiery Mediterranean temper lets him realise that it is ok to loose control sometimes. He also learns that his ideas on a perfect wife are not what necessarily make a good marriage. It is a nice development of characters through influences from both sides.

I found it refershing that the hero was a virgin and I liked that their first time did not fireworks, it seamed a bit more real. Although he does suddenly know what to do the next time round while they learn about each others bodies.

I wasn’t too sure about Isidore in the previous book, but I came to like her, I could understand her frustration about having to wait for her husband to return until she could feel she could call herself a duchess and complete her life in they way that she always imagined with a husband and children. She was just stuck in a limbo for so long years not knowing what to do. To not have control over her life frustrated her because if she wanted something she would go out and get it and came to like her.

At one point she does fall in the trap of I love him, but he doesn’t love me even though every thing he does shows it. But luckily she pulls her self out of the whole quickly and I didn’t get too irate with her.

I felt the stories of the secondary characters got in way of the flow of the story sometimes. I presume she is setting up for the next book in the series but I almost wanted to skip points and move back to the focus of Isidore and Simeon.

I am finding myself getting annoyed with Villers, who I presume will have his own book at one point, but I find it a little bit creepy that the husband of the woman he is trying to seduce, who is also his best friend is encouraging it.

After reading and reviewing Duchess by Night, I looked at some reviews to compare my opinion and I was shocked to find so many loving Villers, so I am hoping that I will be proven wrong, fingers crossed.

A-

Others in series: Duchess by Night

Find it on Amazon - When the Duke Returns

Duchess by Night by Eloisa James

The Chick: Harriet, the Duchess of Benbow, her husband committed suicide over a game of chess and agrees to go to the famous house of disrepute to finally seek excitement, but to keep her true identity hidden she decides to disguise herself as a young man aka Harry Cope.

The Dude: Jem, Lord Strange, has allowed his house to become an eclectic gathering of intellectuals, politicians and actresses. After the death of his wife he has made sure that his daughter is kept safe away in the west wing and he has never partaken in the delights his house offers although he does find himself attracted to a young man.

The Plot in 10 (ish):

Isiodore: I'm tired of waiting for my husband to return so I can finally meet him. I shall go to the most distributable house in England and force him home!

Harriet: I shall come too, but I must save my reputation, I know! I shall dress as a man!

Jem: Harry you look too feminine, we must butch you up with riding and fencing and rare meat!

Harriet: All this exercise is rather fun and I do like my body in these breeches!

Jem: I do too, although I'm not one for men, but I can't take my eyes off you. Hang on, something is starting to look suspicious.

Harriet: I think I should be going, lots of women to wench and … hey don’t rip my shirt off!

*bow chicka wow wow*

Jem: Maybe you can do your wenching here with me, no point you going back you you little farm in the country.

Harriet: I'm actually a Duchess, not a country squires wife like you think, come live with me in a castle!

Jem: Well, I wasn't expecting that, but I do love you... I will come and live with you

Huzzah!

The End

The Book:

They are at a costume party and Isodore is fed up waiting for her husband to return from Africa to consummate their marriage and so decided to lure him back by going dallying with the man in the ton with the worst reputation, Lord Strange. However, she will need a companion with her at the house. Harriet , who is dressed as dowdy mother goose realises that she has an opportunity to experience something different and says she will go, however to avoid scandal on her reputation they decide that Harriet will dress as a young cousin of Villers, who has an invitation to the house. And so the three musketeers set on their journey.

Once they arrive at the house there is intrigue but no one suspects and Harriet stars to feel the freedom she has been desiring without the petticoats and elaborate hairstyles, she is free in breeches, even if her bottom does look rather shockingly round in them. Villers asks Jem to look out for the young boy because he is still recovering from a duel wound, which keeps him in bed.

Jem decides that young Harry needs to build up some muscle so that he wont look so feminine and takes him riding, makes him drink ale and eat very rare beef and teaches him how to use a rapier. Harriet is exhausted from all the exercise but she is enjoying it a lot, even if her rear cannot stand much more riding. Her groom guesses that she is not a man from the start and offers to give her some lessons in secret on how to ride astride a horse.

Jem decides it is his mission to make Harry masculine. It is his eyes with those long lashes and full red lips and of course his round bottom. But he is no molly! And he may have to give into his desires man or woman as he cannot stop thinking of Harry. Harry goes off on a mysterious appointment and Jem follows him to ensure that he is not being taken advantage of by the other men in the house, but is shocked to see Harry give the groom a kiss on the cheek! And harry appears offended when Jem calls him up on it! Harry realises that it is perhaps time to go and so goes with Jem to say goodbye to Villers who is still in bed, but when they are there Jem says something in Latin. Harriet panics because every man is taught Latin at school, if she was a man, she would know! But luckily Villers answers and takes away the tension.

Harriet has just one last fencing tuition with Jem and then she will be on her way. Except he slices her shirt with his sword so it turns to sheds and exposes her bandages around her chest. He clearly knows what he is doing and he is not planning on her leaving quite so soon.

I enjoyed this book, seeing who was considered the seedier people in life. With all the euphemisms included.

Now it is quite strange to think that a woman dressing as a man could be that difficult to spot, but the eye will always see what it wants to see. But I would have thought that she would have been found out a lot earlier especially when she spends all that time with Jem. The reasons that she is so feminine are fine on face value, but I'm not sure if they could live up to scrutiny 24 hours a day. Especially because the groom instantly new and the daughter guessed early on and even the butler apparently new from the start.

I'm not sure if I liked Jem and I feel confused at the end like Harriet as to why he is so happy to have people such as actresses at his house, but they should not socialise with his daughter and because she does not have the correct feminine guidance, she will grow up expecting that to be the norm.

Jem did seem to contradict himself. Jems father says a brothel is a man's paradise and Jem does not want to be like lhis father and so he makes his house practically into a brothel? Eh? He is careful of the protection of his daughter due to something that happened to his sister when she was young (which I think should have been looked into a lot more) yet he will let men into the house who possibly could harm his daughter...eh? He does not feel bound by class and so is happy to talk to actress, etc who would be considered a lot lower but he does not like Dukes and Duchesses...eh?

One thing I did find annoying as the Minnie Einstein that is his daughter. I don’t think she had to know Shakespeare off by heart or talk in rhyming couplets to be intelligent for her age. Children can be surprisingly accurate with their questioning and she became slightly unbelievable to me after a while, especially when I compare her to children in know at that age and what I remember myself like.

Harriet goes on a deep self discovery and realises that she is actually pretty as a man ( I enjoyed the scene where she is admiring her legs in breeches) and she is intelligent too and during the Game men listen to her!

I did really enjoy her descriptions of the fashions and hair styles that made you appreciate Harriet's freedom from all that and silly things such as walking into a room first.

This is part of a series about duchesses and I didn’t feel like I was missing any information from the previous books, so I will be looking forward to the next few.

 

A- 

Others in Series: When the Duke Returns

Find it on Amazon - Duchess By Night