TEST
Syrie James’ Duke Darcy’s Castle combines some interesting ideas with some poor or clichéd ones. Ultimately the book scores just below the level of recommendation because of them.
Kathryn Atherton, a college-educated architectural student and assistant, who is also an heiress, has experienced a long trail of misogyny. Being a single American woman working in England, born of a social climbing mother whose marital ambitions she has rejected, she’s had many a door slammed in her face even as she tries to climb her way toward her goal – becoming Britain’s first female architect. That is, until her boss, George Patterson, selects her for an important job. Thrown from his horse and unable to tend to the restoration of St. Gabriel’s Mount, George has sent Kathryn and her credentials in his stead to take measurements and make initial drawings based upon the owner’s specifications. After three weeks, Kathryn will return to George, who will complete the final drawings and return to oversee its remodeling.
Lance Granville, the tenth Duke of Darcy, has recently come into the title through tragic means. At the passing of his brother Hayward, Lance was forced to resign his commission in the Royal Navy and return from Barcelona to assume the ducal mantle and responsibilities. He soon realizes that Hayward arranged for these redesigns in order to prepare for the sale of the estate; the house has been mortgaged to the hilt, and Lance needs to amass around sixty-eight thousand pounds in the next three months if he’s to get the castle and its holdings out of hock. If he can’t, he’ll lose possession of both it and the surrounding town. He plans to get the necessary cash injection by marrying a comely heiress a project he is loath to accomplish, as he loved his independent life as a captain. But loyalty – to his beloved grandmother, to the people of the village – keeps him on this reluctant course.
He’s astonished that the architect is a woman, and though he has no money to pay her, protests that he cannot accept her services because she’s female. She proves her worth with a quick, inventive sketch, and Lance changes his mind about reneging.
Soon she’s bonding with Lance’s grandmother and making out with Lance on his billiards table. But business almost instantly mixes with pleasure; by the time Lance discovers Kathryn comes from money, the idea of marrying a rich woman for both pleasure and profit seems palatable. Can Kathryn keep her job and be a Duchess? Or will Lance’s little loan-based secret come out into the open and spoil things?
Duke Darcy’s Castle does have a few things going for it. I loved Lance’s arch and spirited grandmother, and I liked Kathryn, stubborn though she was, and her driven determination to succeed in her field. I also liked that she wasn’t a virgin, that she had happily explored her sexual curiosity before and that Lance is the one to further pique it.
Lance is a decent hero, though a bit whiny about having to give up sailing and grow up to live out his estate’s best interests.
They have a good, solid sexual chemistry, but the book’s biggest problem is that the sexual and romantic relationship between the hero and heroine develops far too rapidly. Within hours of their first meeting – when they’re barely more than strangers and have shared little about themselves – they end up drunkenly tussling on a billiards table, to the point where her bloomers are coming off before he realizes she’s passed out. That is instalust agogo 101, never mind the consent issues inherent in drunken sex. Kathryn says, after the fact, that she was 100 percent consenting, and once Lance realizes she’s out cold he does put her clothing back into place, but they were nonetheless both intensely inebriated during the encounter.
The conflict between them is too pat and easy to predict from the outset. Lance needs to convince her he didn’t try to seduce her for her money; Kathryn has to put aside her pride to accomplish love and work goals. There are few surprises along the way, no matter how appealing these two are as a couple. At least Lance gives good grovel, and the world in which Kathryn must operate is well-established.
In the end Duke Darcy’s Castle works decently and is an okay way to pass the time but lacks the true spark necessary to land on a reader’s keeper shelf.
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Grade: C+
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 22/03/20
Publication Date: 02/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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Another question: Is the castle the family seat? If yes, wouldn’t it be entailed as part of the ducal estate?
Castle is indeed the family seat, the grandmother was raised there. It would be but brother mortgaged it to bits and to get out from under hock was going to sell it, entitled or not.
But the point is that if it’s entailed he can’t sell because he doesn’t actually own it. It’s complicated, but best I understand it is that entailed properties passed from generation to generation are sort of “held in trust” by the current title holder, and thus not theirs to dispose of.
an entail is a form of trust established by deed or settlement which restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate
That said, not all such properties were entailed – usually somewhere along the line one of the property holders would have had one drawn up for reasons of their own; some entails would last for ever, some for a set period after which it could be renewed or not. I believe it was possible to break an entail, but it was a lengthy and expensive process.
Yeah, I think James skipped delving into the logic behind the fact that he couldn’t possibly do it. The only things really holding Lance back is his loyalty to his grandmother in the book. That tech aspect isn’t delved into.
I just could not read a book with a hero called the Duke of Darcy AND keep a straight face.
You’ve got to love some of these wacky traditionally published romance titles, don’t you? The author generally has no say in them, which I suppose can be a blessing. Whereas a self-publisher has no one to blame but herself for coming up with silly, cringe-worthy titles.
Seeing as most aristocratic titles are linked to places, I wonder where in Cornwall Darcy is supposed to be….
According to James it’s located at the “very tip” of Cornwall.
I know Cornwall well. Judging by the cover it’s based on a “castle” on St Michael’s Mount, a tiny tidal island you can walk to at low tide. I’ve visited it. It’s just outside Penzance.
Sorry, what I meant was that it doesn’t sound like a real place, because peerages generally accompany land and the peers take that name. And for an author writing a story set in England less than 100 years after the publication of P&P, she had to know using the name Darcy was a daft idea.
“she had to know using the name Darcy was a daft idea.” Yeah, I definitely agree with you there. It makes me wonder if the author chose that name or someone at Avon said, “Hey, Pride and Prejudice is a perennial favorite. Change the hero’s name to Darcy and the contract’s yours.” Obviously, this is just speculation. But I think it’s a possibility.
Oh yeah, it definitely doesn’t.
Gotcha. Duke of “Darcy” is so ridiculous that it doesn’t bear thinking about and as far as i know there is no place called Darcy anywhere in the UK. Makes me want to make up ludicrous titles like: Marquess of Michigan, Earl of Evansville, Baron Buena Park or Viscount Visalia or how about the Duke of Atlanta? Prince Kevin anyone?? A new parlour game!!
Sadly, I think too many (mostly American) authors are playing that one already. I just listened to (and reviewed) the new audiobook of Laura Lee Guhrke’s And Then He Kissed Her – in which the hero’s name is Harrison. In VIctorian England. And then there are all the peers called Ethan, Caleb, Trevor, Jason… there’s probably a Jayden somewhere I’ve managed to avoid. There’s a page on the website of the late, great Jo Beverley which specifically talks about title and period appropriate names, but I imagine the reaction to that by many of the current crop of HR writers would be “Jo who?”
Sorry to say, but we Brits have known for years that the majority of American authors don’t care to try to get it right.
I definitely see the benefit of using fictional towns in contemporary stories for artistic freedom, sort of like Arlen, TX in “King of the Hill” or South Park, which is supposed to be in Colorado. But when it comes to historical fiction or HR- unless it’s clearly supposed to be a parody- I think there’s a real disservice to the reader and the culture being portrayed to just make up silly names for people and places that are totally off the mark. I think, similar to what a lot of people have said, that a lot of these Regency authors want to use the era as a backdrop like a little dollhouse or Sims lot where they can play out their vaguely historical fantasies.
This all makes me wonder if traditional publishing should officially create a category of romance entitled “Wallpaper Historicals” (WH) to separate these anachronistic fantasies from HR. Then readers who want respectfully researched historical romance don’t accidentally pick up a totally pretend version of the era and vice versa. Anyone else agree?
Caz – I read that Jo Beverly page ages ago and it was spot on. As for your Jayden, let us just hope that his peeress bride is called Brittany and that the heir they produce is called Keith – my other (non) favourite “K” name. :-)
I was kind of amused by the choice but yep, I get it.
According to James it’s located at the “very tip” of Cornwall.
Not to mention the very 20th century spelling of the heroine’s name. That put me off straight away.
I wonder if a lot of these odd names come from authors who are worried that their characters’ names might sound too boring or overused. So they try to get creative with spellings and whatnot, which actually hurts their credibility. It’s almost like they can’t stand the thought of their hero and heroine sharing the same name as some other author’s hero and heroine. Here’s a radical notion: it’s okay for an HR hero to have a traditional name like John, Charles, or Henry and for a heroine to be named Elizabeth, Jane, or Mary. Make the characters interesting rather than trying to make their names stand out, huh? Save Jayden, Chase, Harrison, Amberlynn, and whoever else for your CR or SF.