A review by balletbookworm
A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby by Vanessa Riley

3.0

3.5 stars. I liked the story - it had a good mystery plot (although I'm still a little hazy about how the whole

Spoiler

embezzling the gambling hell

plot worked but that's pretty minor) and I liked the historical detail Riley put into Patience's backstory both as a woman color and also her plight as a widow who does not have guardianship of her own child and how she has very, very little (extremely little) legal recourse to baby Lionel. Busick is also a character we rarely see in romantic fiction - a hero who has lost a limb in wartime that affects how he's treated by others despite his rank as a duke. This is a pretty low steam romance - but not chaste because there's definitely kissing and a number of boob jokes.

But there's definitely a structural thing that bugs me - Patience's perspective is in 1st person while Busick's perspective is in close 3rd. Drives me batty and definitely pulls me out of the story.