A review by ela_35
Disciplining the Duchess by Annabel Joseph

tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I liked the idea of this book, but it felt like Court and Harmony didn’t suit each other at all.

The beginning was fine, but the book started to drag a bit as nothing really happens. Court and Harmony get married and for most of the book it shows how everyone disapproves of Harmony, and Court and Harmony sleeping together. 

The thing that made me dislike this book was how Court was apparently attracted to Harmony and how different she was, but when they got married, after he got over them sleeping together, he wanted to change her. He called it ‘improving her’, which I didn’t understand as the things he found interesting about her, were also the things he wanted to get rid of now. For a part of the book, he forgets about the fact that his wife is a person and listens to the ton and his mother when they say that she is a disgrace. 

Also, I didn’t like how one of the scenes show a family dinner where Court’s mother scolds him for how he was treating Harmony. She was the one who told him that it was humiliating to have Harmony as a daughter in law and that he has embarrassed her in front of the ton by marrying a nobody like Harmony. I really didn’t like Court’s mother, and the fact that she takes no responsibility for her actions annoyed me.

I thought that this book would be interesting, but I didn’t like the characters and I thought that Court and Harmony’s relationship shouldn’t have happened. They wanted different things and Court wanted Harmony to still be interesting but also change so that she would fit into society.