Reviews with content warning for Death - The Duke Gets Desperate

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Duke Gets Desperate by Diana Quincy

7 reviews

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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jennireadsmaybe's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Anthony Bridgerton who? There's a new Anthony in town and you'd better step aside.

In all seriousness, I thoroughly enjoyed The Duke Gets Desperate. Raya and Strick are the epitome of "I hate that I'm attracted to you" and it's freaking delightful. Raya completely flips Strick on his head by masterminding several ways for the failing castle to make money. She's gorgeous, business savvy, and the exact match to Strick's attitude. Chef's kiss.

I love an inheritance plot, throw in the shenanigans around saving the castle, and the forced proximity of it all and I was ready to devour this book. I wasn't Strick's biggest fan, but he won me over by the end with just how much he believed in Raya. Their chemistry had me giggling and kicking my feet.

The mystery/suspense plot felt ridiculous but in the best way. It definitely added a bit of tension that I felt was missing in the last third of the book. Can't wait to keep reading in the series.

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kbairbooks's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It was nice. I have no particularly strong feelings about this book. Although I did love that she was Palestinian and her cultures food was involved in this book. I found this book to be very tropey? And surmise that I would’ve enjoyed it more in the physical form rather than the audio. I found myself cringing every time the narrators read the spicy scenes which is not usually what one is looking for at those times. Overall it was fine but I think there are others who would enjoy it more than I.

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yourbookishbff's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This is my least favorite of Quincy's romances I've read so far, but I think it's primarily because I struggled to feel true emotional connection (beyond physical infatuation) between the main characters. The rapid transitions between arguing with each other and fantasizing about each other felt forced, and I felt like we didn't have enough banter or even just conversation in the first half to support the eventual relationship.

My favorite element in any Quincy romance is the female main character's profession - she always writes interesting and unique backgrounds and career interests for the women in her stories - and Raya is no exception. I wanted more insight into Raya's family dynamics, though, and more development for her as she establishes her own path.

The murder mystery felt like it intruded unexpectedly at times and affected the pacing for me a bit as well.

I read this via audio and would note it is dual narration. I loved the narrator for Raya's POV, Venah Assadourian, but didn't enjoy the narrator for Strick, Timothy Campbell. The two narrations also felt like they were produced differently? It was a bit jarring each time we transitioned, as the sound quality was noticeably different.

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lizzie_b99's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Cute, but has way too much repetition and limited romantic development. It felt like one moment they hated each other and the next they were in love, which didn't feel super realistic. The twist was pretty good, though.

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Thanks to Avon Book for the free copy of this book.

- THE DUKE GETS DESPERATE was my first Diana Quincy and it won’t be my last! I loved this enemies to lovers, competence is hot, are we fated mates story.
- I am not usually a big enemies to lovers fan, but this book does it right. It’s not “oh we had a misunderstanding and therefore hate each other forever,” it’s they legitimately have reasons to be pitted against each other and also legitimately keep pissing each other off but also they love how smart and stubborn and capable the other is and simply can’t keep away from each other.
- I also love that Raya is a Palestinian American heroine who is proud of her heritage. She belongs in this time period and in this book, an era and genre that often ignore women like her.

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themeadowlibrary's review against another edition

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tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

“Castle Tremayne had made a woman out of her.”

When this book opened, I loved the first sentence and thought it was going to be a super fun read. I was very wrong.

It’s not that anything was awful, it just was meh. For example, I am a fan of archeologist heroes normally, but there was just something about Strick that annoyed me. He was completely against monetizing anything, so how does he plan to save his home? It started to veer into him being really unintelligent. I liked Raya a little more, but she still wasn’t a character I was excited to read about. In fact, there weren’t any characters in this book that I really loved.

The writing was very clunky in parts. At times the plot did not make sense to me, and the pacing felt off. Also some details did not ring historically true. One major thing that stood out to me was, no matter what’s going on behind the scenes, I don’t think servants at this time period would speak so harshly and correct their employer in the way they did from the very beginning of the book.

The mystery plot was really predictable; all it served to do was make me anxious and annoyed. Most of all I just never felt hooked- into the story or the characters.

It may be just that it didn’t resonate with me, because there were some good scenes (I love when Raya gets into the cider). Overall though, not my favorite.

Star Rating: 2/5

Tropes: Enemies to lovers, inheritance, class differences

CW: Death, murder, violence, racism, classism

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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