My Darling Duke (Sinful Wallflowers)

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I started this one in audio, and while the narrator seemed okay, she was a bit quiet and I found her cadence distracting for some reason, so I switched to the ebook. He decides to supply her with gifts while figuring out what could have possibly made her say they were engaged.

First, we have Kitty, who is a wallflower desperate for marriage so that she can support her family and her sister can have a good match. I enjoyed the unconventional way Alexander and Kitty met, the threads of Beauty and the Beast woven throughout, and the heartwarming cast of secondary characters. Okay, a heroine brazenly declaring her betrothal to a total stranger and household staff mustering to promote their employer’s happiness are two of my favorite tropes, so I think I NEED to read this.

A ruse of an engagement has brought them together, but Alexander is so convinced he cannot marry it will never work. Since the duke is never around, she reasons, surely it will never get back to him that a woman he’s never met is faking an engagement to him (hoo boy). Alexander agrees to keep Kitty’s secret but only if she spends a fortnight at his castle without a chaperone, a proposition so outrageously improper that she almost declines it. The H is running hot and cold, I’m trying to figure out his thinking process, a little character mystery I like it.

The main characters were refreshingly unique and fun to watch spar with each other, and (of course), they were given a very satisfying HEA. I also wish we got to read about H's sister meeting h's sisters as I feel like that would've been a joy to read about. There's a lot of "if he just tries hard enough, he'll get past it", which, to be fair, is how it works within the narrative. Kitty pretends to be engaged to a reclusive Duke to give her family a little more credibility to get her sisters married off to respectable men. So she sends a betrothal announcement to the paper about her and a reclusive duke who hasn't been seen in ten years getting married.As much as I love seeing a hero fight for the heroine, my true catnip is actually the heroine fighting for the hero and the heroine in this book was so badass in that she was willing to fight for the Duke’s heart and hand. This didn’t feel realistic to me, and I wish the author had taken the opportunity to show that happily ever after looks different for many people.

Disclaimer: Laura ❀, Ren ♡ (and everyone else who loved the book) please close your eyes and act like you haven't seen this. This book shattered my heart into a million pieces and I’m not sure how to carry on so maybe I’ll go cry some more. A couple of examples of the infuriating pronunciation: act is pronounced like oct and back is pronounced more like the composer Bach. Would you rather venture into the creepy woods alone after dark or go inside the creepy abandoned house on the corner alone after dark? I spend a copious amount of time drooling over Rick Grimes from Walking Dead, watching Japanese anime and playing video games with my love, Dusean.He also collects things from all over the world - one he used to travel often, but since his impairment has had to be satisfied with continuing to acquire items to add to his treasure room, which is where he spends much of his time. Stacy Reid was really able to bring something new to the table and offer a different depiction of the 'Beast'. I can’t wait to listen to more of this narrators work because I felt like she did such a wonderful job in her narrating abilities. The Duke keeps bemoaning secretly that he has nothing to offer her because of his impotence, even though Kitty asks him all the time if he's going to marry her.

Ultimately, Kitty was often the one pushing things along, but it was constantly clear how much Alexander truly desired her in his life. Alexander, sometimes too hard on himself yet sensitive at times I absolutely loved him, as I was reading I was hoping he got a happy ending, but I have to say he annoyed me at times.

Encouraged by her supportive group of friends she decides to make the life-changing decision of lying about her engagement to an influential Duke to allow her sisters to enter society. But she has a plan for that: tell London’s gossip columnists that she is engaged to Alexander Masters, duke of Thornton, so that fashionable hostesses will invite the Danverses to parties and connections-seeking swains will vie for her sisters’ hands.