Take a photo of a barcode or cover
justinkhchen 's review for:
My American Duchess
by Eloisa James
4 stars
The witticism is on fire in this one, My American Duchess digs deep into its cultural clash setup, and repeatedly finding inspiring jabs at British stuffiness (such as the running gag of the court's unanimous love for quoting Shakespeare), as well as American's forwardness and lack of tact.
The 'falling for the brother's betrothed' trope also unfolds in a slightly different cadence than I expected, which keeps me engaged without ever feeling like the plot is reverting to an expected historical romance template. Still, there remains some minor narrative hiccups, preventing My American Duchess from becoming a new favorite historical romance:
**Minor spoiler ahead**
- The sudden (and convenient) removal of the character Lord Cedric from the narrative, especially when he was about to become the 'villain' of the story. His departure felt at odd with his character arc up to that point (even though it did pave path for a nice surprise reveal in the following chapter).
- The third act conflict centering on Trent's insistence of not willing to 'fall in love' with Merry was a bit of a whiplash, and too narrowly focused on technicality — then why was he actively pursuing her for the first 2/3 of the novel?
- The plot went off on a tangent between the 70-80% mark, where nothing crucial happened and read like obvious padding to fatten the book.
**Minor spoiler ends**
The observational humor really bumps My American Duchess to the next level; even with the plot shortcomings (supposedly it was meant to be a novella, according to the author's website, which might explains the inconsistency), I still find it to be a thoroughly delightful read with ample memorable moments (the pineapple, lol!), a definite upgrade to my previous experience with this author's work (The Taming of the Duke).
***The Rake Appreciation Society Book Club | December 2021 Selection***
The witticism is on fire in this one, My American Duchess digs deep into its cultural clash setup, and repeatedly finding inspiring jabs at British stuffiness (such as the running gag of the court's unanimous love for quoting Shakespeare), as well as American's forwardness and lack of tact.
The 'falling for the brother's betrothed' trope also unfolds in a slightly different cadence than I expected, which keeps me engaged without ever feeling like the plot is reverting to an expected historical romance template. Still, there remains some minor narrative hiccups, preventing My American Duchess from becoming a new favorite historical romance:
**Minor spoiler ahead**
- The sudden (and convenient) removal of the character Lord Cedric from the narrative, especially when he was about to become the 'villain' of the story. His departure felt at odd with his character arc up to that point (even though it did pave path for a nice surprise reveal in the following chapter).
- The third act conflict centering on Trent's insistence of not willing to 'fall in love' with Merry was a bit of a whiplash, and too narrowly focused on technicality — then why was he actively pursuing her for the first 2/3 of the novel?
- The plot went off on a tangent between the 70-80% mark, where nothing crucial happened and read like obvious padding to fatten the book.
**Minor spoiler ends**
The observational humor really bumps My American Duchess to the next level; even with the plot shortcomings (supposedly it was meant to be a novella, according to the author's website, which might explains the inconsistency), I still find it to be a thoroughly delightful read with ample memorable moments (the pineapple, lol!), a definite upgrade to my previous experience with this author's work (The Taming of the Duke).
***The Rake Appreciation Society Book Club | December 2021 Selection***