webbsusa 's review for:

The Duke's Secret Cinderella by Eva Devon

3.0

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I was excited to read the book (I read the previous ones in the series) and am so disappointed I didn’t enjoy it more. I really loved our male and female MCs; I also appreciated the book’s attention to issues of class and social equity. But what made this book just ho him for me was the pacing. We meet the villain early on, and his threats loom over nearly the entire book. For all but 2-3 chapters, we knew the villain was going to do something horrible to not only the FMC, but also possibly to other characters in the book. This made it impossible for me to enjoy the book. I couldn’t relax and get into the romance, because I was constantly wondering, is the FMC going to be harmed now? What about the other characters? To have the threat hanging over almost the entire cook was too much. It meant we didn’t get to the betrothal ball until the epilogue, and we never saw the wedding at all. If the pacing has been quicker, with the threat contained earlier, we could have seen more of their relationship and gotten more of the happy ending.