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A review by bookilydo
At Your Pleasure by Meredith Duran
3.0
I am so conflicted about this review.
On the one hand, Meredith Duran’s writing is stunning. Historical romances that are so rich in actual historical context, period authentic dialogue and descriptions of a period’s way of life are few and far between. Duran does an excellent job of all of this in At Your Pleasure. I highlighted so many passages of this book where the writing really stood out or really had an impact:
Gradually she was teaching herself this trick: to find beauty in small things. When she’d had a husband’s name to bear, and his honor to uphold, and the world watching and judging her, these little freedoms had been unimaginable.
I deserve better—such a dangerous, mad thought for a woman to entertain.
The tightest grip failed to hold the most important things. There was no use in giving chase.
There is some great historical insight that wouldn’t bore readers not interested in the history aspect but that thrilled me because I’m a nerd who eats that stuff up! There are the big themes of the Jacobite movement in Georgian England and the plight of Roman Catholics in 17th/18th Century England. There are also plenty of smaller contextual mentions like the death of Louis XIV, the new French king’s regent, and Alexander Pope that add a richness to the historic aspect of the story.
However, on the other hand, the characters and conflict in this story just left me with a “meh” feeling. They sometimes straight up irritated me. The opening was promising. I raced through it. The pace of the book slowed to a crawl for me, though, in the middle and end.
There seemed to be endless miscommunication and conflict rehashing – not things that I enjoy in romance novels. The utter miscommunication trope – when all of a hero’s and heroine’s problems (at least with each other) would be solved by one simple, direct conversation – is tiring for me. It very often makes me want to throw a book across the room just to hear the satisfying thud against the opposite wall. This book is heavy with that as one layer of conflict. It’s understandable – Leonora and Adrian fell in love at a young age but were forced apart by their families. Both assumed that the other had abandoned them. If you like that sort of plotline, you’ll LOVE this book.
There are also plenty of internal conflicts within the characters. The heroine is preoccupied with the fact that she was not allowed to live out her dreams. Those dreams involved bucking traditional norms in early 18th-century England. She did not want to merely be a wife, a runner of the household, and most certainly she did want to endure the danger of labor and delivery. She is a much more serious heroine than in most romances. However, she’s also prone to misguided loyalty and stubbornness. She never can quite get out of that mindset to realize that if she actively pursues the things she wants, she just might be happier.
The hero has some serious rejection issues – rejection by the heroine (perceived), rejection by his family, by members of society, etc.. Ironically, he has a glaring lack of self-conflict regarding the fact that he’s basically holding the woman he loves hostage. He’s doing it For Her Own Good (that mollifies him, I suppose), despite the fact that at every turn he seems to be a sensitive, progressive-with-feminist-tendencies kind of guy. He seemingly respects her as an equal – except for when he finds it convenient not to.
There’s also a torture scene – the hero denies the heroine sleep to the point of cruelty in order to extract information. That’s when the novel really jumped the shark for me. I was done with it. It’s completely in line with the hero’s character, but it was just the end of my ability to be able to see him as hero-status-worthy.
Another part that bothered me was the lack of a clear happy ending. Of course, there is one – this is romance! The conclusion didn’t leave me with the happy little feeling that is so much a benefit of reading romance. I didn’t believe that the couple would ever be truly happy with one another.
I will definitely give Meredith Duran’s other books a shot. Her writing is too good. I hope that I like a future novel more than this one.
On the one hand, Meredith Duran’s writing is stunning. Historical romances that are so rich in actual historical context, period authentic dialogue and descriptions of a period’s way of life are few and far between. Duran does an excellent job of all of this in At Your Pleasure. I highlighted so many passages of this book where the writing really stood out or really had an impact:
Gradually she was teaching herself this trick: to find beauty in small things. When she’d had a husband’s name to bear, and his honor to uphold, and the world watching and judging her, these little freedoms had been unimaginable.
I deserve better—such a dangerous, mad thought for a woman to entertain.
The tightest grip failed to hold the most important things. There was no use in giving chase.
There is some great historical insight that wouldn’t bore readers not interested in the history aspect but that thrilled me because I’m a nerd who eats that stuff up! There are the big themes of the Jacobite movement in Georgian England and the plight of Roman Catholics in 17th/18th Century England. There are also plenty of smaller contextual mentions like the death of Louis XIV, the new French king’s regent, and Alexander Pope that add a richness to the historic aspect of the story.
However, on the other hand, the characters and conflict in this story just left me with a “meh” feeling. They sometimes straight up irritated me. The opening was promising. I raced through it. The pace of the book slowed to a crawl for me, though, in the middle and end.
There seemed to be endless miscommunication and conflict rehashing – not things that I enjoy in romance novels. The utter miscommunication trope – when all of a hero’s and heroine’s problems (at least with each other) would be solved by one simple, direct conversation – is tiring for me. It very often makes me want to throw a book across the room just to hear the satisfying thud against the opposite wall. This book is heavy with that as one layer of conflict. It’s understandable – Leonora and Adrian fell in love at a young age but were forced apart by their families. Both assumed that the other had abandoned them. If you like that sort of plotline, you’ll LOVE this book.
There are also plenty of internal conflicts within the characters. The heroine is preoccupied with the fact that she was not allowed to live out her dreams. Those dreams involved bucking traditional norms in early 18th-century England. She did not want to merely be a wife, a runner of the household, and most certainly she did want to endure the danger of labor and delivery. She is a much more serious heroine than in most romances. However, she’s also prone to misguided loyalty and stubbornness. She never can quite get out of that mindset to realize that if she actively pursues the things she wants, she just might be happier.
The hero has some serious rejection issues – rejection by the heroine (perceived), rejection by his family, by members of society, etc.. Ironically, he has a glaring lack of self-conflict regarding the fact that he’s basically holding the woman he loves hostage. He’s doing it For Her Own Good (that mollifies him, I suppose), despite the fact that at every turn he seems to be a sensitive, progressive-with-feminist-tendencies kind of guy. He seemingly respects her as an equal – except for when he finds it convenient not to.
There’s also a torture scene – the hero denies the heroine sleep to the point of cruelty in order to extract information. That’s when the novel really jumped the shark for me. I was done with it. It’s completely in line with the hero’s character, but it was just the end of my ability to be able to see him as hero-status-worthy.
Another part that bothered me was the lack of a clear happy ending. Of course, there is one – this is romance! The conclusion didn’t leave me with the happy little feeling that is so much a benefit of reading romance. I didn’t believe that the couple would ever be truly happy with one another.
I will definitely give Meredith Duran’s other books a shot. Her writing is too good. I hope that I like a future novel more than this one.