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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
3/5. Releases 4/25/2023.
For when you're vibing with... lighthearted historical romance, a healer heroine, a nerdy hero, and cute animals.
When Daniel Millstone, the Duke of Warwick, meets Adeline Foster, it's dislike at first sight. But Daniel needs a wife--or at least the appearance that he's seeking one. And Adeline's loathsome brother is about to force her to marry a man she doesn't want. The solution? Pretend that they're courting, of course! Who cares that they can't stand each other? It's FINE.
This is a cute, light historical romance. My problem is that those can be hard sells for me, so I'm not sure I was the right reader for this one. However, I can see this working for Bridgerton fans--except, it's much better than that.
Quick Takes:
--I tend to hate the "for fans of Bridgerton" mess historical romance marketing has become. But in this case, it's true. There's a fun frothiness to Gabrielle's writing style, an inherent romcom vibe to the setting, the quirks of the characters, the pets running around. However, Adeline's mother was from Egypt, and the author (who I understand has a similar background) actually incorporates this into Adeline's character. She has another Egyptian character; Adeline's privilege as someone who lighter-skinned than this character is acknowledged. It's not treated as like, this exotic fetishistic THING, but just a fact of who Adeline is and where her mother came from. It feels much more real and tangible.
--What I struggled with is that everything happens very quickly. These two have one mildly bad encounter, during which he's super into her physical appearance, and then the narrative is like "they hate each other". Really? After that quick, mildly bad encounter? It felt a bit forced, and while the characters were nice, I just didn't feel much... oomph. I needed more drama, and just more in general.
--Adeline is an aspiring healer, and that's something I did find interesting and compelling. The thing is that it made her much more compelling than her hero. Daniel just didn't rise to her standards, for me. He was nice. It was just too nice for me.
The Sex Stuff:
There were a few different sex scenes--and they're explicit, if not over the top (kind of standard quick, semi-flowery historical romance sex scenes). One encounter--or attempted encounter--was interrupted by a man who needed help with his wife's delivery, which... I don't know about all that.
I totally see an audience for this book, and I think it was well-done. I'm just not the audience.
Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️/5
How not to Marry a Duke is my first book by Tina Gabrielle and I am really happy that I chose to read this as an ARC.
The blurb had me immediately when it mentioned an encounter with a pig and a fake dating trope with 2 mc’s that are both into the sciences.
Add onto that a half Arabian FMC and a meddling godmother and you got me hooked.
Or rather; Warwick got me hooked!
Everyone knows I am a simp for the starchy emotionally stick up their butts MMC’s and Warwick is everything and more. The poor sod falls madly in love and everyone around him knows it, except he. Because love isn’t logical (ofcourse!) and he is logical.
I didn’t want this book to end, I kept savoring it, trying to make this last but unfortunately it did end and I can never again read it for the first time.
I think the story could’ve benefitted from another 50 extra pages and I found myself a bit disappointed with how it all wrapped up. I wanted a bit more and the conflict seemed to be settled too easy.
Overall this was a fantastic read and this won’t be my last Tina Gabrielle.
Thank you Netgalley and Entangled publishing (also Tina thank you for approaching me in the first place!) for providing an ARC.
lighthearted
medium-paced