TEST
The Duchess Hunt is the second in Lorraine Heath’s Once Upon a Dukedom series, and it features Hugh Brinsley-Norton, the Duke of Kingsland, and Penelope Pettypeace, his secretary. Penelope has worked for King for eight years and has been in love with him for most of it. He, however, is just beginning to realize his attraction and love for Penny. The plot centers almost completely on King and Penny dancing around each other, and the introduction of a blackmail plot in the second half isn’t enough to save this slog of a read.
This is the second of the series and while some elements leading up to this story happen in the first, they are summed up nicely at the beginning so it can be read as a stand-alone. We are told, rather than shown, that Penny has loved King for almost the entire she has worked for him. He has tasked her with finding him a bride, but it is after he is rejected by her first choice that he begins to notice Penny. He takes her to his gentlemen’s club with the excuse that she needs to take notes during a meeting. While there, one of King’s friends makes a move on Penny, much to King’s anger. This causes him to further wonder about his attraction to her.
While enjoying a late night conversation in the library, Penny and King are interrupted by men claiming King’s brother owes them money. They threaten to take Penny hostage if King doesn’t pay the debt. King does, and then follows a sub-plot in which, at Penny’s urging, he insists his brother curb his gambling habit.  Penny visits a secret club meant for sexual liaisons where she fears someone has recognized her from her mysterious past. It turns out that Penny is not who she seems and spends a large part of the novel thinking about the possibility someone will realize who she is and ruin her life. This takes up most of Penny’s thoughts when she isn’t thinking of King until the blackmail plot is introduced. King also has a secret but it really isn’t hinted at until the later part of the book.
This was a very boring read to get through. Since the story starts eight years after King and Penny met, we completely miss their meet cute and an entire eight years of their relationship, and instead, we are told over and over about it. I was hoping for a romance where the heroine was already in love with the hero and he slowly realizes he’s in love with her too. That is not what happens here, though. King is mostly in love with Penny from the very beginning, although he refuses to admit it as he’s yet another ‘incapable of love’ hero.
If not for their big secrets, these characters would have no personality. After reading, I cannot tell you a single thing about either character except that one is a Duke with a life changing secret and the other is a woman with a life changing secret. Neither is particularly witty, fun, or interesting in their own right.
The introduction of the blackmail plot leads to the big reveals about their pasts. King’s seems like it is a much bigger deal than Penny’s but is not treated as such. Rather, his secret just goes away, as though it is an afterthought. Penny’s is also magically taken care of without any real consequences for either of them. This part of the story moves along swiftly, but not enough to save the rest of it.
The Duchess Hunt has a solid premise but the execution falls far short of what Heath is capable of. This could easily be a novella rather than a novel as nothing happens through most of it and the characters themselves aren’t all that engaging.
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Grade: D
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 19/10/21
Publication Date: 09/2021
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.
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A long time ago Heath wrote some good American historicals but when she turned to European historicals it was as if she had to write in another language. The few of them I tried before abandoning her forever were full of anachronisms, dumb characters and painfully wooden dialogue.
No clinch covers for me! I always prefer time correct clothing, perhaps a bit landscape too. For me it’s sufficient when the protagonists shed their clothes on the bokpages.
Wow, this the second D we’ve given Heath in a row.
I’m no longer a big HR reader, but even if I were, a female secretary in the 1800s would have stopped me in my tracks. I don’t need my HRs to be 100% historically accurate, but let’s at least try for plausibility.
There was a whole discussion between them about how unconventional he was for hiring her. As if the reader is too stupid to figure that out on their own.
This romance plot line seems to have borrowed from Ironman. Penelope Pettypeace = Pepper Potts. Tony = King.
Yes! Only without Iron Man to make it interesting.
I just… What has happened to Lorraine Heath? (Rhetorical question – I know it’s whatever has happened to many of the other HR authors out there.) A few years ago I was giving her DIKs, and now it sounds like I’d be hard pressed to get through this one :(
A cr@p cover straight out of the 1980s. Is Fabio alive and lifted, injected, dyed, pumped up and undressed in the 2020s or have I missed something??
These covers are coming back. I kinda like them in that they’re unapologetic unlike the endless cartoon covers whose purpose I think is to distract from the romance of it all!
That’s an interesting point. The Clinch hasn’t really gone away in HR – it’s persisting there more than in other sub-genres, although some are using cartoon covers now. I suspect a cartoon is maybe a little bit harder to pull off in HR because all the bright colours and blocky designs look very modern regardless of what is actually on the front. Some of the very best cartoon covers I’ve seen are on KJ Charles’ Will Darling Adventures books – the 1920s setting is perfectly reflected in the design and there are some very clever details that relate to the main characters (like Will’s trusty Messer knife!) It seems most cartoon covers don’t attempt to do that sort of thing and are becoming as generic and bland as the “older” photograph/clinch style covers ever were.
I begin to yearn for plain brown paper covers for all fiction!!!
This is why I love my Kindle. What covers look like is a thing of the past! Sometimes these days, the first time I see the cover of a book I’m reading is on Amazon when I go to grab a copy of the cover to go with the review!
I like those covers too, but I have some doubts about Kim’s sideburns.
I agree, I’m very pro clinch covers.