A review by tessisreading2
The Accidental Duchess by Madeline Hunter

3.0

I've really been enjoying this series, which I read mostly out of order. While there is a near-constant presence of previous heroes and heroines, they each retain their own personalities, quirks, and behaviors; the glimpses we have of their relationships, post-marriage, are satisfyingly pleasant but not obnoxiously and unbelievably saccharine. This particular book isn't one of my favorite entries in the series but it was a nice read, as usual. The plot device to propel matters forward - the reason for Lydia's being blackmailed - was just silly, which really colored my opinion of the whole blackmail plot. I really liked the reason for Lydia's behavior earlier in the series, though;
Spoilershe was childishly infatuated with Lakewood, who had been killed. Lydia was just practical enough to realize that perhaps he had not reciprocated, while being romantic enough that she still cared about him.
That said,
Spoilerspying for the French? Really? Again, I thought the revelation that the reason for the duel was Lakewood's selling of commissions was great, but the addition of spying was just over the top. I really liked that throughout the series Hunter avoided tarring Lakewood with too black a brush: it's always annoying when you're given a hero who is intelligent, powerful, noble, etc., and he's then given a best friend who is an irredeemable louse, and we're supposed to swallow that this amazingly intelligent and perceptive hero never noticed a thing. Lakewood did some terrible things, but at the same time, he was not a horrible human being altogether - he compromised Cassandra but he believed himself to be in love with her and he didn't physically abuse her. (I know, faint praise, but this is the early nineteenth century we're discussing, and a romance novel - a lot of authors take the easy out.) He was romantic with Lydia but he didn't compromise her in any real way. Then, towards the end, it's as though Hunter decided that this was leaving things too ambiguous for us to understand that the hero was totally in the right, so she added in Lakewood's Deep Dark REALLY Terrible Secret.