Book three in The Rakes of St. James Trilogy
2 stars
The Duke of Rathburne and his friends have a dark past and find themselves the targets of the scandal sheet of Miss Honora Truth. Years ago, he and his two friends made a bet and twelve young ladies of the Season were sent letters from secret admirers. The dukes got away without much reprimand, but the ladies felt some burn. Rathburne has recently acquired a ward to watch over for the upcoming Season, Miss Marlena Fast. Miss Fast isn’t all what she seems. In fact, she’s Miss Honora Truth and all those sheets she has written are starting to catch up to her now that she is the company of the Duke of Rathburne. The premise for this is fun. It’s your typical story of a rake with high societal standards falling in love with a younger woman who doesn’t have any sway in London society (which if I must confess, is one of my favorite historical romance tropes). I’m a sucker for a good tension-filled romance of the “we mustn’t, but I can’t help myself” variety. However, this was lackluster. I didn’t really buy the romance between Rath and Marlena. I wasn’t even held in suspense by what would happen when Rath found out who Marlena truly was. It was just a plotline thrown in to add some suspense to this rather dry romantic narrative that had all the passion of a raisin. Also, Grey does an excellent job at writing the most cringe inducing lines.
“He was a feast of handsome, desirous male for her eyes.”
There are so many things wrong with this sentence. For starters, “feast for her eyes” is a great example of objectification from the female point of view. It is also just a weird phrase that needs to die. But thrown in handsome and desirous and we have this weird double adjective phrase that doesn’t flow well at all and just proves that these two words are not sexy when put together. I wasn’t aware that I was reading an ACOTAR novel because there’s the illustrious word male gazing up at me awkwardly. Our heroine refers to Rath later as “his male glory”. I think you get the point, Grey’s writing ability can be a little cliché and pairing that up with an uninteresting romance creates a lackluster romance in the historical genre.
Whimsical Writing Scale: 2
Marlena isn’t a bad heroine. She is kind of interesting. She’s lived this double life as a regular young lady and a scandal sheet writer. That’s an interesting combination, but of course, she has to be different from all the other girls of the town. She has to have dirt on her nose, prefer to be in the garden, and read botany books. I don’t mind her being represented as different from all the other girls of the ton, but let’s be real, this type of portrayal sets up the narrative that being like other girls in the ton and to enjoy balls, gossip, tea parties, or anything else means that you are a bubble head (see further down for example). Outside of her attributes of uniqueness, she was your run of the mill heroine.
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 2
Rath has his moments. He definitely was much more interesting at the beginning of this novel, but as the story went out the tension between him and Marlena fizzled out and I lost interest in his narrative. I can’t really tell you anything about who Rath is because all he is described as is a rake. No interests and hobbies outside of that.
Swoon Worthy Scale: 2
Justine is Marlena’s cousin and companion. She is the prime example of women who enjoy the Season being portrayed as bubble heads. She constantly going on about being the “diamond of the Season” and creates a lot of false narratives in her head. She fits into this trope of being a typical woman obsessed with the Season and I was kind of getting annoyed with her character and lack of depth. Then there’s, Veronica and Eugenia, who are the reason that Marlena started the scandal sheet and are her best friends. I really like Eugenia and her storyline was interesting. Veronica and her husband’s storyline was weird, but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve read or even a real hinderance to this novel.
Character Scale: 2
Overall, It’s All About the Duke isn’t a horrible historical romance novel, but it’s definitely not the best one out there. I’m sure this one will be a favorite for a lot of people. I just wasn’t one of them. I will also not be reading the previous novels in this trilogy because I have no interest in the characters.
Plotastic Scale: 2
Cover Thoughts: I want that green dress.
Thank you, Netgalley and St.Martin’s Paperbacks, for providing me with a novel in exchange for an honest review.
Have you read It's All About the Duke or any books by Amelia Grey? What books do you recommend in the historical romance genre? Let me know down below in the comments!
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