The Duke's Reform [Kindle Edition]

The Duke's Reform started out with what I assumed would be a typically formulaic historical romance. In the prologue, Alex, the widowed and heartbroken Duke of Rochester, vows that he will not marry again for love. He will marry to secure an heir, but by God, he absolutely will not fall in love. He runs into (literally) Isobel a few pages later. She's predictably feisty and mouthy, and they immediately feel sexual attraction as they verbally spar. Here we go, I thought. They will push and pull for 75% of the book, she will break down his walls, he will awaken her sexually, they will fall madly in love, they will be separated by some misunderstanding, and they will reconcile. The end. In hindsight, this might have been a better book.

Instead, the pair quickly marry after a brief courtship. When Isobel is not instantly impregnated, Alex turns to gambling and alcohol, and Isobel feels increasingly lonely.

***** Spoilers detailing Alex's behavior*****

On two separate occasions, his low-life friends attempt to sexually assault Isobel, and she fights back. Both times, Alex viciously accuses Isobel of tainting his good family name because she physically defended herself. After the second attempted assault, Alex tells Isobel, "Tonight, madam, you brought disgrace to my name...I am master in this house and it's high time you learnt what happens when you disobey me." He calls her a common trollop and locks her alone in a freezing room. When he finally releases her, she punches him. Alex then drags his wife to their bed and prepares to rape her, but of course, Isobel quickly succumbs to his "charms". She understandably flees the next day, and like magic, Alex instantly repents and becomes a changed man.

***** End of spoilers *****

It seems like the author could not decide what to do with Isobel. Her initial spunk was replaced almost immediately by a simpering subservience and then continued to vacillate without reason. The Duke, meanwhile, is not exactly a sympathetic character.

I can appreciate the author's attempts to mix up the typical formula. But I cannot appreciate the constant misuse of commas. I had to continually pause and double back to attempt to discern the author's meaning, making an already slow read even slower. I was also put off by the awkwardness of the writing. I think the author went to great lengths to avoid anachronisms. While that's commendable, in this case, conversations just sounded silly. For instance, when Alex cuts himself on a wine glass, he tells Isobel, "I don't wish to mar the perfection of your outfit with my gore." She replies, "I should not care if you did. However, as I've no idea where your bandages are kept, I shall do as you ask."

I don't enjoy writing negative book reviews, but a distasteful lead male character and constant grammatical errors make this book impossible to recommend.

Spoiler alert: I hate to write a bad review so I will start out with the good. This was a good story. Could have been a much better story. It was poorly told, punctuation and vocabulary and missing words and words added in that did not relate to the sentence they were in combined to make this a very difficult read. When I read a story, I want to read what the author wanted to tell, I don't want to have to guess and fill in the story every other page.

There was a lot of room for emotions in this story but not much of it was developed. The Duke who was very nice at first, then became a jerk and then miraculously woke up and became a groveling good guy was actually my favorite character.

The h just wore me out with moving here and there, having clothes moved back and forth, changing her mind, she's in love, she's in lust, she's in hate. It got to the point where it was just tedious. Maybe she hurt herself jumping to conclusions about the Duke.

The Duke really was a big jerk during part of the book and the h was whiny. Okay, she was young and not very experienced but she went from being a simpering whiner to being an unhappy shrew. That transformation can happen but why? I would have liked to see her emotions and actually see her grow.

The sex scenes were very mild and pretty bland. Nothing hot here ladies.

The voices of the characters never really rang true. Some parts of the story did not go anywhere. For instance, after the baby is born, h takes her first horseback ride. Lots of anticipation and build up for this and sure enough, the high strung horse bolts. That's the end of that part of the story. Seriously, it is never mentioned again. Horse bolts and presumably she falls off. We never hear anymore about it.

One of the bad guys is just abandoned at the end of the story. We never find out if he was caught or if he lived happily ever after as a bad guy.

The story ended very abruptly. There was an implied HEA. But once again, the reader is left out.

This could have been a good read if only they had had an editor. The Kindle version has some serious formatting problems with new paragraphs beginning in the middle of sentences, some paragraphs in bold and other in italics for no apparent reason. Commas and other punctuation are just, willy nilly throughout the book. A stilted and unbelievable dialogue. I wanted to like both the H and the h. I really did.

I am left wondering why I read this book to the end except that, I really wanted to like the H and h and I wanted them to have an HEA.

But if you must, get a dictionary and keep it handy, you will need it. This is a long read and by the end I just wanted it to be over.

God's teeth! How do I begin this review? Let's see . . .this book is about the poor Duke of Rochester, our hero Alexander. He lost his first wife and two daughters due to illness, and after much urging is on the hunt for another bride so he can get that all important heir. He's let himself fall into a pit of depression while blowing money on gambling and drinking. Alexander hangs out with some unsavory characters as well. However, a chance meeting with our heroine Isobel changes his life. They meet at a ball afterward, court quickly and marry at record speed. Not much courtship is shown, and I didn't really feel a connection initially.

Begging your pardon, but in the first few chapters of the book Alexander is often shown to be cold and uncaring. He becomes distant and acts disappointed when Isobel fails to conceive within the first few months of marriage. Isobel is shown to be a mousy individual without much backbone to speak up. One night Alexander is drunk and punishes Isobel for "ruining his name" at a party. I beg your pardon, but Isobel runs away the next day. This causes Alexander to reflect on his life to make changes. God's teeth! He promises to be a different man if he can just get his love back! He doesn't even blame her for running away, and he even takes all the blame for Isobel not getting pregnant upon himself as well.

After being in hiding for a while Isobel discovers she is pregnant after leaving Alexander. God's teeth! She decides to go back to the home they shared. Alexander is gone, and this gives Isobel time to establish a small army of servants who are loyal to her as she sets up house in the east wing of the home. Alexander accidentally discovers she is back and spends the rest of the book groveling in one form or another trying to win Isobel's love once again.

This is when the book sort of changes gears and starts veering into a mystery. God's teeth! There are a few villains causing trouble for the couple; murder, mayhem and distrust abound at this point. Isobel falls in and out of love with Alexander a half dozen times due to perceived slights. Alexander's personality is completely transformed, and he sort of becomes a wimp as he bows to each and every demand Isobel makes. God's teeth! It was really starting to get irritating.

Begging your pardon, but there is the happily ever after at the end of this book because that is the typical outcome of most romances. I don't begrudge the ending at all. However, I have to say, you could really get involved in a serious drinking game with the writing in this book. The two phrases I used as my review title are repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. You get my drift right? I'm sure if I had bothered taking a shot for each time one of those phrases was used I would have been well wasted by the end. Even the author must have realized how ridiculous it was becoming because she had Isobel making fun of "I beg your pardon" once in the book.

I do beg your pardon, but God's teeth I couldn't bear to read this story again. I'm afraid it will be removed from my Kindle as it is not a keeper.