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A review by whendevreads
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
3.0
*Actual rating is 3.5 stars*
Man, I have such mixed reviews about this book. I have heard so many good reviews + the netflix series was SO good. I just… don’t see it. I have heard that the second book is better so I am gonna read that one next.
I think the romance was good, the fake relationship trope in the regency era is such a good plot. I don’t think Simon and Daphne really had that much chemistry though… they had some banter but other than that Simon just saw a pretty woman that he wanted to have sex with and suddenly it was ~feelings.~ I did like the idea that Daphne didn’t have any suitors because they all saw her as a friend, I feel like that seems realistic for the time period.
For the romance being worth the hype, I don’t think the spice was. I have heard sooo many reviews about how “spicy” these books are & like… it’s so vanilla LMAO. Like, I get the idea of wanting to combine historical romance and spice but this book’s spice wasn’t anything to write home about. They were short scenes & were about as sexy as a PG 13 movie…
Also, I did not like THAT scene near the end of the book with the betrayal. I get Daphne was extremely sheltered and maybe didn’t understand the full scope of her actions but DAMN. That’s not really something you come back from, and I feel like at no point did she actually feel bad. That caused me to go from liking her as a character to “yikes…”
I think it could’ve been better, especially for the hype it got. It honestly should be rated lower based on the betrayal scene because once again, YIKES, but I enjoyed the rest of the book.
spice level:
Man, I have such mixed reviews about this book. I have heard so many good reviews + the netflix series was SO good. I just… don’t see it. I have heard that the second book is better so I am gonna read that one next.
I think the romance was good, the fake relationship trope in the regency era is such a good plot. I don’t think Simon and Daphne really had that much chemistry though… they had some banter but other than that Simon just saw a pretty woman that he wanted to have sex with and suddenly it was ~feelings.~ I did like the idea that Daphne didn’t have any suitors because they all saw her as a friend, I feel like that seems realistic for the time period.
For the romance being worth the hype, I don’t think the spice was. I have heard sooo many reviews about how “spicy” these books are & like… it’s so vanilla LMAO. Like, I get the idea of wanting to combine historical romance and spice but this book’s spice wasn’t anything to write home about. They were short scenes & were about as sexy as a PG 13 movie…
Also, I did not like THAT scene near the end of the book with the betrayal. I get Daphne was extremely sheltered and maybe didn’t understand the full scope of her actions but DAMN. That’s not really something you come back from, and I feel like at no point did she actually feel bad. That caused me to go from liking her as a character to “yikes…”
I think it could’ve been better, especially for the hype it got. It honestly should be rated lower based on the betrayal scene because once again, YIKES, but I enjoyed the rest of the book.
spice level: