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A review by mjsam
The Duchess and the Dreamer by Jenny Frame
4.0
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
If you’ve read a Jenny Frame book before, then you know going in what you’ll find. This is no different in that the MCs are butch/femme, and as with two of her past series, this features British aristocracy.
The mains here are Evan Fox, who runs a large toy manufacturing business and also has multiple side businesses, one of which is to take over an English village and make it eco friendly and a safe haven for minorities (the dreamer). The other MC is Clementine, a duchess whose family fortune was lost thanks to the larger than life dreams of her grandmother, leaving her living in the gardeners cottage on the edge of what was once her family estate and her village. Clem is also responsible for caring for her mother who has dementia, and is bitter and closed off from her many losses/struggles.
Evan has long admired Clem’s grandmother, Isadora, and is ecstatic to find out that the family estate and I guess the village are up for sale, she buys them and moves in to enact her utopian plan. The village doesn’t have much in the way of locals, and Clem and some of the farmers want nothing to do with Evan’s plans. Evan, however, is a big ball of positivity and soon starts to win everyone over. It doesn’t hurt that Clem also finds her attractive. For Evan’s part, it’s pretty much love at first sight after meeting Clem, so she’s even more determined to win her over.
Evan’s dream seems like a pipe dream to be honest, but it was fun reading about all the different things they were going to do and watching the villagers slowly get on board. And the ideology behind it sets up a setting where LGBTQIA people will feature, which removes one of the biggest obstacles to a series set in such a setting.
I could have lived without the endless repetition about Clem being a duchess, Evan being a ‘dapper dandy’, and the word ‘collywobbles’ has probably never featured so much in a book as it does here. The romance itself is pretty sweet though and the characters are fairly engaging. Some of the secondary characters were interesting, and I assume will be fleshed out further in the coming books, it’s not hard to work out who will feature in those.
Overall, it’s a nice, sweet romance. Frame fans will enjoy this. 4 stars.
If you’ve read a Jenny Frame book before, then you know going in what you’ll find. This is no different in that the MCs are butch/femme, and as with two of her past series, this features British aristocracy.
The mains here are Evan Fox, who runs a large toy manufacturing business and also has multiple side businesses, one of which is to take over an English village and make it eco friendly and a safe haven for minorities (the dreamer). The other MC is Clementine, a duchess whose family fortune was lost thanks to the larger than life dreams of her grandmother, leaving her living in the gardeners cottage on the edge of what was once her family estate and her village. Clem is also responsible for caring for her mother who has dementia, and is bitter and closed off from her many losses/struggles.
Evan has long admired Clem’s grandmother, Isadora, and is ecstatic to find out that the family estate and I guess the village are up for sale, she buys them and moves in to enact her utopian plan. The village doesn’t have much in the way of locals, and Clem and some of the farmers want nothing to do with Evan’s plans. Evan, however, is a big ball of positivity and soon starts to win everyone over. It doesn’t hurt that Clem also finds her attractive. For Evan’s part, it’s pretty much love at first sight after meeting Clem, so she’s even more determined to win her over.
Evan’s dream seems like a pipe dream to be honest, but it was fun reading about all the different things they were going to do and watching the villagers slowly get on board. And the ideology behind it sets up a setting where LGBTQIA people will feature, which removes one of the biggest obstacles to a series set in such a setting.
I could have lived without the endless repetition about Clem being a duchess, Evan being a ‘dapper dandy’, and the word ‘collywobbles’ has probably never featured so much in a book as it does here. The romance itself is pretty sweet though and the characters are fairly engaging. Some of the secondary characters were interesting, and I assume will be fleshed out further in the coming books, it’s not hard to work out who will feature in those.
Overall, it’s a nice, sweet romance. Frame fans will enjoy this. 4 stars.