TEST
Lady Alexandra Lane is a woman of secrets. Not only did she survive a horrific rape when she was a teenager, but she’s now being blackmailed by a mysterious stranger who claims to know about the assault. Obviously, Alexandra doesn’t want society as a whole to know what happened, so she has been paying the blackmailer. Now though, with her family on the verge of bankruptcy, she knows she needs another way to keep her secrets hidden.
Marriage has never been high on Alexandra’s list of things to accomplish, but it might be the only way she can save herself. After all, if she marries an influential gentleman, her blackmailer’s leverage over her will be substantially weakened. But who should she marry, and how will she manage to endure the physical side of marriage?
Piers Atherton, Duke of Atherton, is a man bent on revenge on those who wronged his family. He has reason to believe that finding a bride will aid him in his plan, and from the moment he lays eyes on the beautiful Alexandra, he knows she’s the woman for him. Unfortunately, obstacles aplenty are placed in the path of their HEA, causing Piers and Alexandra to fight hard for the love that has bloomed between them.
AAR reviewers Shannon and Alexandra got together to discuss this first installment in Kerrigan Byrne’s new Devil You Know series, and are here to share their thoughts.
Alex: I picked up How to Love a Duke in Ten Days because I’ve heard good things about Kerrigan Byrne and thought a new series would be a great place to start. What made you want to review this?
Shannon: I read and really enjoyed the first book in Ms. Byrne’s Victorian Rebels series, and the rest of them are sitting on my iPad waiting to be devoured. I was drawn to the darker style of storytelling, so different from the frothiness that saturates today’s market. Granted, light and fluffy historicals definitely have their place in my reading life, but I sometimes need something darker and more substantial to balance things out.
Alex: This book definitely is darker than the average historical romance, since one of the key plot points in this book is Alexandra’s assault by a schoolteacher. We see clearly how it alters the course of her life, leading to her forging strong friendships with the girls who helped her through it, but also making her more cautious and disinterested in marriage.
Shannon: That opening scene was harrowing for sure, but I’m glad the author chose to tackle sexual assault. It’s so pervasive in the real world, and I found her handling of it to be sensitive and on point. I also think you make a great point about the way the assault affected her views on sex and marriage. What did you think of the romance? Did the pairing work for you?
Alex: Taken as a whole, it worked for me. Ms. Byrne managed to address the trauma in Alexandra’s past, while still developing a strong romance in a way that felt natural. The only moment that bothered me was when Alexandra proposed marriage to Piers after knowing him for only a few days. Given her history, it came as a bit of a surprise that she could jump in so fast. How did that scene feel to you?
Shannon: It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. Fortunately, the author made it easy for me to believe in Alexandra’s reasons for wanting to get married, so it wasn’t quite as jarring to me as it otherwise might have been. Alexandra and Piers aren’t what I’d call a conventional couple, but I found myself pretty invested in their relationship before too long.
Alex: The mystery plot running through the story was a bit different, as it’s not clear if the violence is directed at Alexandra or Piers. What did you think of the way it was resolved in the end?
Shannon: The mystery portion of the plot was probably my least favorite thing about the entire novel. Parts of it felt quite contrived, and I found it difficult to take the danger seriously. The resolution wasn’t terrible, but neither did I find it compelling.
Alex: Exactly. It felt like more of a distraction and occasional plot device than a gripping mystery, and I was somewhat dissatisfied by the resolution. The villain was too one-dimensional, particularly in comparison to other characters.
Shannon: It struck me as kind of odd that the villain was so flat. I mean, Byrne has written some fantastic villains and antiheroes in her previous books so I was expecting more here.
Now that we’ve talked about a part of the book that didn’t work all that well for us, I’d like to touch on a plot element that really shone: the relationship between Alexandra and her friends. I love books featuring strong female friendships, and Ms. Byrne did a fantastic job bringing the friendships in this book to life.
Alex: I definitely agree that that was a high point for this book. I liked the juxtaposition of two of Alexandra’s strongest relationships coming from one of the worst moments of her life. It’s clear that they have continued to support each other in the years since that moment, and I think those friendships are one of the main reasons Alexandra was able to move on.
Shannon: I totally agree. Life would have been a lot harder for our heroine had she not been gifted with such supportive friends.
This turned out to be a difficult book for me to grade. Parts of it were spectacular, but the mystery was pretty distracting at times. Still, I enjoyed the romance, and I’m eager to get my hands on future installments in the series, so I think I’m going to have to go with a B. How about you?
Alex: It’s a B from me, too, edging toward a B+. While I didn’t like the distracting mystery plot and momentary off-note in Alexandra and Piers’ relationship, there were a lot of other things to enjoy, and I would certainly recommend it.
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Grade: B
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 14/09/19
Publication Date: 08/2019
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.
College student by day. Book enthusiast around the clock. With any luck I'll eventually be able to afford food AND books. But I've got my priorities straight.
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I’d rank this a B-; not my favorite Byrne by a long shot, but still entertaining.
Well, you guys are certainly in the majority with your positive review, but for me, I DNF’d after about 90 pages. (I did scan briefly through the rest of the book, in case there was something to hook me back in, but no.)
Something is wrong when the prose is so off-putting that one is laughing (or rolling one’s eyes) at every other page.
Now, there are things about the story itself that I found problematic, in the 90+ pages that I read–for example, it seemed that EVERYTHING the heroine sees and hears triggers anxiety related to the trauma of her earlier assault. The author makes sure to impress this on us in what seems to be every other paragraph. As another poster on the Facebook page mentioned, I read to escape, so this did not work for me.
But again, the writing itself was the showstopper for me. As I wrote on the AAR Facebook page, I feel like the author never met a simile/metaphor/adverb/adjective she didn’t like. (For example, Alexandra doesn’t just take a sip of whiskey, she takes a “brooding sip”.) It totally bogged down the story for me.
Also, here are some other nuggets that made me laugh:
1. There is a brief homage to the animal kingdom all within a few consecutive paragraphs: “Her eyes were the color of dark honey and shy as a fawn’s…The rest of her… well, her limbs were wound tight as a hare’s, ready to spring into the safety of the closest hedge should the need arise. …How had such a helpless lamb survived the perils of Cairo or Alexandria?”
2. The drama! “She had surpassed anxious and was leaving frightened behind her in the race toward true terror.”
3. Is this eye color possible if you’re not a paranormal creature? “And when she’d noticed his approach, something hot and guilty in her garnet eyes stole a full beat from his heart.”
4. Anachronistic word alert! (Book takes place in late 19th century.) “She’d not been all right for longer than a decade. She’d been recovered. Repurposed.”
5. Odd word usage; like, who says ‘startling white’ in conversation this way? “[The snakes] matched the startling white of the sand, so it was almost impossible for us to see them….”
6. Things that made me go “Huh?”: “Her spectacles hid maybe the most brilliant blue eyes he’d ever come across.” Maybe “hid” is the wrong word choice here, since apparently those eyes were perfectly (startlingly!) visible?
The majority of readers enjoyed this book, but I just couldn’t go on. :-)
I’ve given the story a similar grade in my review of the audio version, although I readily admit that excellent narration can always elevate a story, and I may well have given a lower rating had I read the print version. The overblown writing and melodrama are kind of Byrne’s trademark by now, I suppose. (Plus, #6 is sometihng I’d definitely have pulled the author up on had I been editing!)
JMO, KB just does that really gothic, soapy, OTT prose right, which is why I give her a pass on that.
Excellent, stl reader! This sort of OTT prose is the ultimate put-off for me. And it appears that the author may be obsessed by animals as your extracts seem to indicate though I think the “garnet eyes” would have me coming to an instant and irrevocable halt.