A review by cakt1991
Catch a Falling Duke by Eve Pendle

emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

4.0

 

I received an ARC from the author and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own. 

Catch a Falling Duke is the third in Eve Pendle’s Fallen series. I’ve only read the prior book, and that was a while ago so I don’t remember much, but I’m pretty confident you can read this as a stand-alone. 

I follow Pendle on Twitter, and she’s been hyping this book up, including noting the theme of anti-racism, particularly as relates to the Duke hero, Hugo. He’s recently inherited the title, and early on in the book, finds records that his grandfather owned slaves. I love the interrogation that he does of the issue, as he is instinctually repulsed by it, and is even more so when he finds out the true extent of how his family thrived while the enslaved people were persecuted. There are debates with another family member which feel like they are drawn from real life, with the family member saying things like “it was a different time” and “it wasn’t considered wrong back then,” to which he replies that it was always wrong in a moral sense, and people knew that, even if it was legal. 

I also appreciate that Pendle is aware of her own limitations, noting at the end that this was her way of reflecting on her own position as a white author of historical romance, and the way select pockets of the subgenre (like Regency and Victorian) erase all evidence of slavery and racism to present a facade of escapism. Other readers might interpret this book differently, but I appreciated the care she took with this issue. 

I also really liked Beatrice as a heroine. She is a great match for Hugo, even though she doesn’t believe it at first. She also is on a parallel quest exploring her own heritage, as she finds out she’s illegitimate, and she’s seeking the man her mother wrote to years ago. But what really stood out to me was the fact that she declares early on, with certainty, that she can’t have children, clarifying that this is due to irregular menses when Hugo tries to reassure her that perhaps she just couldn’t conceive with her late husband. As someone who has also been irregular, I liked seeing someone like me in that regard represented on the page, and it being pretty clear that the goal of the book wasn’t going to be to “fix” her with the hero’s magic sperm. And the fact that Hugo has this apathy toward his heritage means there’s no conflict over the issue either. 

I did feel like the book did lean a bit more toward fleshing out his side of things than hers. I’m not complaining too much, given there are some weighty themes there. But given the elements in play on her side, I did want them to be given equal weight, and it felt like the book could have been a bit longer to flesh both out equally. And it also felt very uneven steam wise. Things get hot-and-heavy early on, but then settle into a cozier rhythm as the story progresses and each is on their respective journeys of discovery, 

All that said, this is an enjoyable read that made me really think about my own historical romance reading. All historical romance readers should pick this one up.