A review by maggies
A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

emotional hopeful slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Oh dear. I really really wanted to like this book. It ticks so many boxes for me and all other Alexis Hall books I've read have been real winners. But it was just so slow and long. Easily could have been 25% shorter. I honestly thought, at the part where
Viola's "secret" was revealed to Gracewood
, that was the primary conflict, and I was shocked to find that was only about 30% through the book. Everything prior had felt much much longer, likely because nothing happened. Viola and Gracewood's internal monologues became tiresome after repeating the same thoughts and feelings over and over again. And finally, by some combination of the written dialogue and the audiobook narration, most of the women ended up sounding whiny and pathetic to me, and it was very off-putting. Perhaps my experience would have been different if I'd read instead of listened, but I don't believe substantially. Ultimately I pushed through because, like I said, Hall has been reliable for me in the past, but this one didn't work for me.
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