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-
Find it on Amazon - When the Duke Returns
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