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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A fun, quick read. Not groundbreaking quality, but not bad either. I liked that it was squeaky clean, and that it was almost a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
fast-paced
this book made me realize my love for the beauty and the beast trope
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 stars
Even the name of the book was oddly fitting, at the end, though I wish it would've been something more to do with the whole theme and not an understanding at the end. I guess it was an understanding he worked up to the whole book that sort of showed the changed Adam, though.
Adam, Duke of Kielder, is a rather violent, short-tempered, cold duke. He cares about nothing and no one. The whole entire world is scared of him and the violent threats he constantly makes (quite understandabely, actually). He threatens with any weapon imaginable, and he's apparently quite skilled with them. (Though he's never actually followed through on those threats, from the sound of it.) He has quite a name for himself.
In his own words: Emotions had no place in his life. No place whatsoever.
The one person who isn't afraid of him is his friend, Harry. Adam is constantly trying to scare him off and Harry keeps on coming back.
"Every other guest left the castle, Harry. Why haven't you?"
"I am here to be your conscience, Adam. To save you from yourself."
He is both Adam's conscience and provides a bit of humor with his reactions to Adam's threats and abrupt manners.
"Rumor has it you've run through a few men in your time."
"Rumor has it I've done quite a few things." Adam rolled his eyes.
"Fought a duel on the floor of the House of Lords, for example," Harry said.
"Ridiculous."
"Shot the pistol out of a man's hands in a duel without so much as winging him," Harry continued.
Adam nodded. "Twice."
"Bested Gentleman Jackson."
Adam smiled at the memory. That has been extremely gratifying.
"Bloodied Poisenby's nose at a ball." Harry was smiling. He'd been there for that now-famous occurence.
"Broke his nose." Adam amended.
"Walked out of Lords in the middle of a speech by Addington."
"The man was being obtuse," Adam said.
"He was the prime minister," Harry pointed out.
Adam just shrugged.
And, yes, said could've been used a lot more, instead of other decorators like amended and pointed out. It didn't interupt the flow of the book, but it would've been better.
He [Adam] hadn't meant to hurt her [Persephone]. The realization shocked him. Not so much the hurting without meaning as the idea that he hadn't set out to cause her pain. When, he silently asked himself, was the last time he'd met someone whom he hadn't felt the need to lash out at?
At what point had he grown so weak and vulnerable?
Persephone tries to understand this man she's suddenly living with, and she is very often confused.
Harry tries to help.
"He ... is remarkably intelligant. And he is authoritative, the kind of man few people question. Even at seven he was very much that way. And he is unafraid."
She is determinded to win his heart. Or at least, his friendship.
Never had a man so intimidated her, but she was determined not to let him see that.
She starts to see a softer side of him.
He may not have been the husband of her dreams, but she cared what happened to him. And, despite his gruff demeanor, she knew he was kind and gentle, at least in moments. He'd brought her a coat, bought her a riding habit, asked after her well-being.
Adam on his part isn't sure what to think.
"No one has ever worried about me, Persephone." It was a simple statement - no self-pity, no bitterness or sense of having been wronged.
"Someone does now," Persephone said.
His brows furrowed, his eyes betraying his confusion. "Don't."
Persephone smiled a little at that. "I'm afraid I can't help it."
She brings changes to his house that he's not sure what to make of. It happens so slowly he barely realizes it's happening.
"What is that infernal noise?" Adam grumbled, standing on the first floor landing.
"I believe that would be described as lively conversation, Your Grace," Barton answered straight-faced.
Persephone had the uncanny ability, he was discovering, to leave him thinking and doing things he would overwise never think or do. And his thoughts had begun to dwell on her more than could possibly be healthy.
Adam shook his head. There was no point denying the obvious. If Persephone left, Adam would miss her. He who never missed anyone, would miss her.
Anything he did was considered permissible by society. No one dared contradict him.
She starts to let herself become a little bit vulnerable, but every time she feels he draws back. She hears noises of wolves that scare her, and she comes into his bed at night, sure he's asleep. Only we see the scene from his eyes, as he stays still and feels her settle on the other side of the bed.
Nothing happens. Even the night of the wedding, we see her waiting in bed for him, but he doesn't even come in to say good night. (I'm not sure how he sees the whole logic of marrying to have kids, at that rate, though, honestly.)
"You tell me to trust you, but I don't know that I can. I don't know anything about you, Adam. I have no idea what kind of man you are that... frightens me." [said Persephone]
"I frighten you?" His voice was low, a troubled look in his eyes.
"That isn't what I said."
"It really isn't." Harry confirmed.
"Shut up, Harry," Persephone and Adam snapped in unisoon.
He smiled as if entirely amused by the situation. "I am happy to see that I am a unifying force."
And then he starts to really really care about her and what she wants and how to make her happy and how to make her want to stay.
She was percisely the sort of person who would accept less than what she wanted in order to please another, in order to have peace and harmony. He didn't want her settling. He didn't want her merely contented. Adam wanted her to be happy. He wanted Falstone to be her home. He wanted her to have everything she wished for.
We discover that he had hard past that made him like that. But honestly, no, it doesn't excuse the abusive behaviors of the old Adam.
Sending her [his mother] away felt like letting Father down, which made no sense. Father was no longer there. Neither was that tiny boy, yet Adam could clearly see the pain in his face as his mother had slipped away again.
But he starts changing out of these behaviors and having different thoughts, recovering from his traumatic childhood.
He had more than once regretted it. But as he'd told Persephone, he was a man of his world. There was no question of calling it off.
...
What happened to "Dukes do not depend on people" or "We are better off without her?"
Then, Persephone nearly gets eaten by wolves. He rescues her, and she comes home (carried in his arms), covered in blood and badly injured. And he really cares and does everything he can to care for her until a doctor can arrive.
"You do realize that's the third time you've asked me to do something in the past few minutes." Harry crossed the room to Persephone's washstand.
"Forgive me, Harry." Sarcasm dripped from his words as he pulled a washcloth from the table. "Seeing as there is no one else to help, I assumed-"
"I wasn't complaining about the worldload... You just don't usually ask. You command."
"You would rather I commanded?" Adam dipped the cloth in the ice-cold water.
"No, actually."
"It is not seemly for a duke to be acting as a lady's maid or physician, Your Grace."
"Perhaps not." Adam didn't take his eyes from the task. "But a husband is charged with keeping his wife in sickness, is he not?"
"You know, you're not much like people think you are."
"How is that?" Adam asked.
"You're supposed to be fearsome and unkind, but I ain't never seen a man care for his wife the way you did for Her Grace. And you apologize to someone who really ought to be beneath your notice. It's not what people expect from the Duke of Kielder."
"Then perhaps you would be so kind as to keep that a secret from the masses."
Then, they discover it was on purpose. Done as an act of revenge. Adam looks for a fitting punishment for the man. Uses his authority for good. With all his servents backing him up.
"You'll hang for that!"
"I have a better idea... Put him in the gibbet."
...
"Ye can't do that!" Smith shouted, panic-stricken. "Ye have to consult the law!"
Adam grasped him by the throat once more and, his face an inch from Smith's, growled out, "I am the Duke of Kielder. I am the law."
Persephone notices the change in Adam too and isn't sure what to make of it.
Far too much had happened recently. The wolves, the pain of her injuries, the shock and joy of seeing Linus [her brother] again. But far and above all of that was the immense change in Adam. He'd been attentive and kind and tender in a way she could not possibly have dreamed possible. He had become in his own way very much the sort of gentleman she had always dreamed of falling in love with. She could no longer deny that he touched a vulnerable place in her heart.
And, we wrap it all up with a story of Persephone's namesake. "Heathen gods and goddesses" from Greek mythology as John, the stablemaster, put it. (He wished for a name with so much meaning like hers, and she assures him that there are plenty of Johns in the Bible with stories, and they're real, unlike her namesake. This was the only mention of the Bible. Other than the wedding in a chapel and the vicar and his wife being characters in the story) With a story that sounds eerily familiar to Adam, when Linus tells him. We hear the whole, long detailed story of it.
"Persephone was abducted by Hades, who wished for a wife to rule the underworld at his side, but because of the general fear connected with him, he could not obtain a bride by any means other than trickery."
Then, since Linus won't tell him the ending, he asks Persephone. Her whole family is well-versed in mythology and all of her siblings are named after greek gods and goddesses.
"Hades never allowed anyone to leave his realm,"
"Hades loved Persephone," she [Persephone] said.
"He let her go because he loved her?"
Persephone nodded. "And she returned because she loved him."
So, Adam does the one hardest thing for him and lets her go to her family.
Harry and his mother offer him words of wisdom. Go after her. So he does. And they live happily ever after. Or, as well as they can considering everything.
Until the next book, of course.
The whole time honestly, they're second-guessing each others feelings, taking a step closer, than seeing that the other one backed up, and assuming it's them. It's so frustrating. Why can't they just speak and avoid those misunderstandings that are so common in regency romances?
My main complaints?
The cover. I didn't like it. Agree or disagree as you'd like. I almost put down the book because of it. Once I got started it was good. The opening proved hard because of the picture of Persephone (I'd guess) on the cover. Get a new picture that's put more nicely on the background, please.
Also, the usage of the phrase shut up is quite common between Harry and Adam. Honestly, if felt jolting. Did that really use that phrase so often, dukes no less, in 1805?
Even the name of the book was oddly fitting, at the end, though I wish it would've been something more to do with the whole theme and not an understanding at the end. I guess it was an understanding he worked up to the whole book that sort of showed the changed Adam, though.
Adam, Duke of Kielder, is a rather violent, short-tempered, cold duke. He cares about nothing and no one. The whole entire world is scared of him and the violent threats he constantly makes (quite understandabely, actually). He threatens with any weapon imaginable, and he's apparently quite skilled with them. (Though he's never actually followed through on those threats, from the sound of it.) He has quite a name for himself.
In his own words: Emotions had no place in his life. No place whatsoever.
The one person who isn't afraid of him is his friend, Harry. Adam is constantly trying to scare him off and Harry keeps on coming back.
"Every other guest left the castle, Harry. Why haven't you?"
"I am here to be your conscience, Adam. To save you from yourself."
He is both Adam's conscience and provides a bit of humor with his reactions to Adam's threats and abrupt manners.
"Rumor has it you've run through a few men in your time."
"Rumor has it I've done quite a few things." Adam rolled his eyes.
"Fought a duel on the floor of the House of Lords, for example," Harry said.
"Ridiculous."
"Shot the pistol out of a man's hands in a duel without so much as winging him," Harry continued.
Adam nodded. "Twice."
"Bested Gentleman Jackson."
Adam smiled at the memory. That has been extremely gratifying.
"Bloodied Poisenby's nose at a ball." Harry was smiling. He'd been there for that now-famous occurence.
"Broke his nose." Adam amended.
"Walked out of Lords in the middle of a speech by Addington."
"The man was being obtuse," Adam said.
"He was the prime minister," Harry pointed out.
Adam just shrugged.
And, yes, said could've been used a lot more, instead of other decorators like amended and pointed out. It didn't interupt the flow of the book, but it would've been better.
He [Adam] hadn't meant to hurt her [Persephone]. The realization shocked him. Not so much the hurting without meaning as the idea that he hadn't set out to cause her pain. When, he silently asked himself, was the last time he'd met someone whom he hadn't felt the need to lash out at?
At what point had he grown so weak and vulnerable?
Persephone tries to understand this man she's suddenly living with, and she is very often confused.
Harry tries to help.
"He ... is remarkably intelligant. And he is authoritative, the kind of man few people question. Even at seven he was very much that way. And he is unafraid."
She is determinded to win his heart. Or at least, his friendship.
Never had a man so intimidated her, but she was determined not to let him see that.
She starts to see a softer side of him.
He may not have been the husband of her dreams, but she cared what happened to him. And, despite his gruff demeanor, she knew he was kind and gentle, at least in moments. He'd brought her a coat, bought her a riding habit, asked after her well-being.
Adam on his part isn't sure what to think.
"No one has ever worried about me, Persephone." It was a simple statement - no self-pity, no bitterness or sense of having been wronged.
"Someone does now," Persephone said.
His brows furrowed, his eyes betraying his confusion. "Don't."
Persephone smiled a little at that. "I'm afraid I can't help it."
She brings changes to his house that he's not sure what to make of. It happens so slowly he barely realizes it's happening.
"What is that infernal noise?" Adam grumbled, standing on the first floor landing.
"I believe that would be described as lively conversation, Your Grace," Barton answered straight-faced.
Persephone had the uncanny ability, he was discovering, to leave him thinking and doing things he would overwise never think or do. And his thoughts had begun to dwell on her more than could possibly be healthy.
Adam shook his head. There was no point denying the obvious. If Persephone left, Adam would miss her. He who never missed anyone, would miss her.
Anything he did was considered permissible by society. No one dared contradict him.
She starts to let herself become a little bit vulnerable, but every time she feels he draws back. She hears noises of wolves that scare her, and she comes into his bed at night, sure he's asleep. Only we see the scene from his eyes, as he stays still and feels her settle on the other side of the bed.
Nothing happens. Even the night of the wedding, we see her waiting in bed for him, but he doesn't even come in to say good night. (I'm not sure how he sees the whole logic of marrying to have kids, at that rate, though, honestly.)
"You tell me to trust you, but I don't know that I can. I don't know anything about you, Adam. I have no idea what kind of man you are that... frightens me." [said Persephone]
"I frighten you?" His voice was low, a troubled look in his eyes.
"That isn't what I said."
"It really isn't." Harry confirmed.
"Shut up, Harry," Persephone and Adam snapped in unisoon.
He smiled as if entirely amused by the situation. "I am happy to see that I am a unifying force."
And then he starts to really really care about her and what she wants and how to make her happy and how to make her want to stay.
She was percisely the sort of person who would accept less than what she wanted in order to please another, in order to have peace and harmony. He didn't want her settling. He didn't want her merely contented. Adam wanted her to be happy. He wanted Falstone to be her home. He wanted her to have everything she wished for.
We discover that he had hard past that made him like that. But honestly, no, it doesn't excuse the abusive behaviors of the old Adam.
Sending her [his mother] away felt like letting Father down, which made no sense. Father was no longer there. Neither was that tiny boy, yet Adam could clearly see the pain in his face as his mother had slipped away again.
But he starts changing out of these behaviors and having different thoughts, recovering from his traumatic childhood.
He had more than once regretted it. But as he'd told Persephone, he was a man of his world. There was no question of calling it off.
...
What happened to "Dukes do not depend on people" or "We are better off without her?"
Then, Persephone nearly gets eaten by wolves. He rescues her, and she comes home (carried in his arms), covered in blood and badly injured. And he really cares and does everything he can to care for her until a doctor can arrive.
"You do realize that's the third time you've asked me to do something in the past few minutes." Harry crossed the room to Persephone's washstand.
"Forgive me, Harry." Sarcasm dripped from his words as he pulled a washcloth from the table. "Seeing as there is no one else to help, I assumed-"
"I wasn't complaining about the worldload... You just don't usually ask. You command."
"You would rather I commanded?" Adam dipped the cloth in the ice-cold water.
"No, actually."
"It is not seemly for a duke to be acting as a lady's maid or physician, Your Grace."
"Perhaps not." Adam didn't take his eyes from the task. "But a husband is charged with keeping his wife in sickness, is he not?"
"You know, you're not much like people think you are."
"How is that?" Adam asked.
"You're supposed to be fearsome and unkind, but I ain't never seen a man care for his wife the way you did for Her Grace. And you apologize to someone who really ought to be beneath your notice. It's not what people expect from the Duke of Kielder."
"Then perhaps you would be so kind as to keep that a secret from the masses."
Then, they discover it was on purpose. Done as an act of revenge. Adam looks for a fitting punishment for the man. Uses his authority for good. With all his servents backing him up.
"You'll hang for that!"
"I have a better idea... Put him in the gibbet."
...
"Ye can't do that!" Smith shouted, panic-stricken. "Ye have to consult the law!"
Adam grasped him by the throat once more and, his face an inch from Smith's, growled out, "I am the Duke of Kielder. I am the law."
Persephone notices the change in Adam too and isn't sure what to make of it.
Far too much had happened recently. The wolves, the pain of her injuries, the shock and joy of seeing Linus [her brother] again. But far and above all of that was the immense change in Adam. He'd been attentive and kind and tender in a way she could not possibly have dreamed possible. He had become in his own way very much the sort of gentleman she had always dreamed of falling in love with. She could no longer deny that he touched a vulnerable place in her heart.
And, we wrap it all up with a story of Persephone's namesake. "Heathen gods and goddesses" from Greek mythology as John, the stablemaster, put it. (He wished for a name with so much meaning like hers, and she assures him that there are plenty of Johns in the Bible with stories, and they're real, unlike her namesake. This was the only mention of the Bible. Other than the wedding in a chapel and the vicar and his wife being characters in the story) With a story that sounds eerily familiar to Adam, when Linus tells him. We hear the whole, long detailed story of it.
"Persephone was abducted by Hades, who wished for a wife to rule the underworld at his side, but because of the general fear connected with him, he could not obtain a bride by any means other than trickery."
Then, since Linus won't tell him the ending, he asks Persephone. Her whole family is well-versed in mythology and all of her siblings are named after greek gods and goddesses.
"Hades never allowed anyone to leave his realm,"
"Hades loved Persephone," she [Persephone] said.
"He let her go because he loved her?"
Persephone nodded. "And she returned because she loved him."
So, Adam does the one hardest thing for him and lets her go to her family.
Harry and his mother offer him words of wisdom. Go after her. So he does. And they live happily ever after. Or, as well as they can considering everything.
Until the next book, of course.
The whole time honestly, they're second-guessing each others feelings, taking a step closer, than seeing that the other one backed up, and assuming it's them. It's so frustrating. Why can't they just speak and avoid those misunderstandings that are so common in regency romances?
My main complaints?
The cover. I didn't like it. Agree or disagree as you'd like. I almost put down the book because of it. Once I got started it was good. The opening proved hard because of the picture of Persephone (I'd guess) on the cover. Get a new picture that's put more nicely on the background, please.
Also, the usage of the phrase shut up is quite common between Harry and Adam. Honestly, if felt jolting. Did that really use that phrase so often, dukes no less, in 1805?
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After reading Courting Miss Lancaster and finding out it wasn’t the first book in the series, I decided I needed to read Seeking Persephone.
It was kind of strange reading Seeking Persephone second because I already knew the outcome and I already knew why Adam, the Duke of Kielder, was the way he was because Harry had explained it to Athena in Courting Miss Lancaster. However, what I didn’t count on were the circumstances of their marriage and that both Adam and Persephone would be so annoying as they got to know each other.
Adam and Persephone both assumed that the other didn’t want to have anything to do with the other. While I can understand that because of their past and the actions/reactions of the other person, it annoyed me to no end. I just wanted them to ask each other why or what they could do. I know there wouldn’t be a story without it and I know they probably wouldn’t have answered honestly or the other wouldn’t have believed them, but it would’ve sat better with me had they been more open with each other.
There were times in the story that I swooned. I especially loved the scene after Persephone was attacked by wolves. It really endeared Adam to me, which nothing else in the story had up to that point. I also loved seeing Harry from a different point-of-view, especially Adam’s. I wanted to know what he really thought and I got it. And, it was nice to understand Adam a little better.
All in all, I enjoyed Courting Miss Lancaster better, but I still enjoyed Seeking Persephone despite my grievances. It gave a lot of insight into the characters, the time period, and Falstone Castle.
It was kind of strange reading Seeking Persephone second because I already knew the outcome and I already knew why Adam, the Duke of Kielder, was the way he was because Harry had explained it to Athena in Courting Miss Lancaster. However, what I didn’t count on were the circumstances of their marriage and that both Adam and Persephone would be so annoying as they got to know each other.
Adam and Persephone both assumed that the other didn’t want to have anything to do with the other. While I can understand that because of their past and the actions/reactions of the other person, it annoyed me to no end. I just wanted them to ask each other why or what they could do. I know there wouldn’t be a story without it and I know they probably wouldn’t have answered honestly or the other wouldn’t have believed them, but it would’ve sat better with me had they been more open with each other.
There were times in the story that I swooned. I especially loved the scene after Persephone was attacked by wolves. It really endeared Adam to me, which nothing else in the story had up to that point. I also loved seeing Harry from a different point-of-view, especially Adam’s. I wanted to know what he really thought and I got it. And, it was nice to understand Adam a little better.
All in all, I enjoyed Courting Miss Lancaster better, but I still enjoyed Seeking Persephone despite my grievances. It gave a lot of insight into the characters, the time period, and Falstone Castle.
In this beauty-and-the-beast-esque story the Duke of Kielder makes an offer of marriage to the young Persephone, offering an enormous amount of money, which would save her family. She agrees, reluctantly at first, but with an optimistic outlook. She patiently endeavours to get to know him, but his cantankerous personality is like a brick wall, un-penetrable. But when faced with danger, he begins to realize how much she has come to mean to him.
I think most of us give up on crabby people, it's hard when our best efforts at cordiality are rejected. It reminds me of how important patience really is, and by the grace of God how we can continue to persevere when relationships are hard, because whether we acknowledge it or not, people are important and valuable and we can't develop trust and relationship overnight.
I think most of us give up on crabby people, it's hard when our best efforts at cordiality are rejected. It reminds me of how important patience really is, and by the grace of God how we can continue to persevere when relationships are hard, because whether we acknowledge it or not, people are important and valuable and we can't develop trust and relationship overnight.