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chiaroscuro 's review for:
The Way to a Duke's Heart
by Caroline Linden
I don't really know how to write this review without descending into gushing incoherence. Caroline Linden is at her usual incomparable standard of emotional realism, well-balanced plot/romance and sheer passion between the two leads. In particular this is an excellent ending to the series, tying up the dangling thread that's been pulled through the previous two books with sufficient aplomb and emotional payoff.
... Aplomb and emotional payoff are all very well, but obviously romance is the tower in the village of things we want and boy does Caroline Linden deliver. Charlie is hopelessly devoted to Tessa and adores her beyond measure:
I might regret saying this if I become a public figure or something, but Charlie is basically the dream man. He respects Tessa's competence, intelligence and authority with an unfussy naturalness that is probably anachronistic, but I don't care. Also his proposal is a thing of beauty; I always think the mark of a good HR proposal is if you gasp like it's happening to you, and that's what I bloody did.
Several ill-chosen metaphors later, I think I should end it here. I haven't gone the full five stars because I think the romance develops a bit erratically (a lot happens at once and then it stagnates) and the canal business drags; though I'm very close to doing so because the ending is lovely: particularly the epilogue, which is quite relevant to the series as a whole. I also feel quite passionately that Tessa Neville deserves to have the handsomest man she's ever seen in love with her, because Caroline Linden always seems to inspire in me a real liking for her female leads and a stake in their future happiness. Speaking of, the Goodreads description is so unnecessarily dramatic ('enemy in disguise', really) and barely covers the plot. The actual plot is so much better. So screw you, marketing.
... Aplomb and emotional payoff are all very well, but obviously romance is the tower in the village of things we want and boy does Caroline Linden deliver. Charlie is hopelessly devoted to Tessa and adores her beyond measure:
Charlie found himself thinking furiously about canal bills, and wondered what had come over him; he was Charles de Lacey, devil-may-care, good-for-nothing, indolent rake and scoundrel… wishing madly he already had his writ to sit in Parliament just so he could tell Tessa Neville with certainty what bills were being promoted this session.Tessa's not as pathetic as Charlie, but clearly she's affected to a dangerous degree too:
She stared at him, open-mouthed, then jerked around in her seat to face forward. "I hate it when you do that," she muttered.And not to sound like a gushing reader of romance novels, but the air between Charlie and Tessa is honestly, at times, electric. Especially during their first kiss, oh my God.
"What?"
"When you make me want to laugh in the middle of an argument."
He couldn't see her face, but the nape of her neck was pink. "I like to hear you laugh."
"I'm very…" She hesitated, as if loath to speak the word. "I'm a very dull person, too serious for my own good. My sister says I was born without enough good humour."
"My father said I was born with too much."
"Enough for two people at least," she replied.
I might regret saying this if I become a public figure or something, but Charlie is basically the dream man. He respects Tessa's competence, intelligence and authority with an unfussy naturalness that is probably anachronistic, but I don't care. Also his proposal is a thing of beauty; I always think the mark of a good HR proposal is if you gasp like it's happening to you, and that's what I bloody did.
Several ill-chosen metaphors later, I think I should end it here. I haven't gone the full five stars because I think the romance develops a bit erratically (a lot happens at once and then it stagnates) and the canal business drags; though I'm very close to doing so because the ending is lovely: particularly the epilogue, which is quite relevant to the series as a whole. I also feel quite passionately that Tessa Neville deserves to have the handsomest man she's ever seen in love with her, because Caroline Linden always seems to inspire in me a real liking for her female leads and a stake in their future happiness. Speaking of, the Goodreads description is so unnecessarily dramatic ('enemy in disguise', really) and barely covers the plot. The actual plot is so much better. So screw you, marketing.