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A review by mephala
Put Up Your Duke by Megan Frampton
2.0
The second (full length) installment in the Dukes Behaving Badly series had an interesting premise, but unfortunately suffered from unlikable characters, somewhat hollow plot, and very little actual romance.
I really wanted to like this book, but instead Put Up Your Duke felt like a chore to finish.
From the start I just couldn’t connect with the heroine; Isabella’s character arc of “being beautiful and perfect is such a burden and all I want is to break free” maybe wanted to be this empowering story, but just felt awkward. I couldn’t force myself to root for her as on many occasions she just acted really childish. Like wheninstead of wearing a dress she wanted, she decided to put on one in color she loathed to somehow punish her husband. Husband who, may I add, didn’t care what she was wearing through the whole book as she was beautiful in anything, AND didn’t understand or was even aware that this color held any significance. And my grumpy self kept thinking, who are you really punishing here? I understand that for her the color pink was symbol of “perfection” she hated about herself, and by wearing it she was showing Nicholas he wasn’t worth (?) her true, “imperfect” self, but it was such an immature behavior.
I felt much more sympathy towards Isabella’s sister, Margaret. So much so, that I was really disappointed when the (obvious) plot twist about her was basically swept under the rug and none of the characters seemed that shocked upon this rather big revelation.
Our male lead, Nicholas, was an ok character; I liked he was kind of goofy and sweet sometimes, especially when he was telling Isabella bedtime stories. Sadly, through most of the book he was just really really… horny.
That’s another thing, I felt there wasn’t much of a romance between the main couple. They just wanted to bang each other and when they finally did, they suddenly decided they are in love.
Clearly I wasn’t in the mood for Put Up Your Duke, as I usually don’t mind historical romances that are on the lighter side. Maybe if I liked the characters more this wouldn’t be such a dud for me.
2/5 stars
I really wanted to like this book, but instead Put Up Your Duke felt like a chore to finish.
From the start I just couldn’t connect with the heroine; Isabella’s character arc of “being beautiful and perfect is such a burden and all I want is to break free” maybe wanted to be this empowering story, but just felt awkward. I couldn’t force myself to root for her as on many occasions she just acted really childish. Like when
I felt much more sympathy towards Isabella’s sister, Margaret. So much so, that I was really disappointed when the (obvious) plot twist about her was basically swept under the rug and none of the characters seemed that shocked upon this rather big revelation.
Our male lead, Nicholas, was an ok character; I liked he was kind of goofy and sweet sometimes, especially when he was telling Isabella bedtime stories. Sadly, through most of the book he was just really really… horny.
That’s another thing, I felt there wasn’t much of a romance between the main couple. They just wanted to bang each other and when they finally did, they suddenly decided they are in love.
Clearly I wasn’t in the mood for Put Up Your Duke, as I usually don’t mind historical romances that are on the lighter side. Maybe if I liked the characters more this wouldn’t be such a dud for me.
2/5 stars