The Ugly Duchess

A regency romance retelling of The Ugly Duckling.
I made it through this one, but only barely. I’m generally willing to look the other way at a bit of misogyny here and there in the genre, but I draw the line at writing toxic possessive behavior as romantic. The heroine is put forth as one who rises from trauma to make herself into a strong and independent woman, but all that character growth is abandoned when she gives in to the hero’s (who, of course, caused the trauma in the first place) gaslighting and sexist behavior. Gross.

Loved this romance, a story of a young woman who is regarded as not being very pretty, in fact is often considered the Ugly Duchess, who marries the man she fancies, James Ryburn, heir to the Duchy of Ashbrook, and finds, the day after, that her husband isn't after her, but her dowry. They argue and he storms off to the sea and she settles to resurrect the fortunes of the Duchy.

Seven years later, as he is about to be declared dead, he returns, having adventured as a Privateer on the seas and with a tattoo on his face. He has to woo her, but can he break the shell her disappointment has created.

Yes it's pretty predictable but the characters were fun and the story worked for me.

There was also a Short Story at the end of the book, Ever show more After, that was about two people separated for a while who find that their attraction is still strong. show less

Technically, I should have hated this book. It has two of my most hated pet peeves in it. A lengthy separation between the main characters and adultery. Plus, I found the hero to be a bit pathetic at times, especially in the beginning and the heroine became a bit rigid and cold.

So, having said all that... I actually liked this book. Color me shocked! I think it must be a testament to Eloisa James's writing that I was able to enjoy a book with so many things I normally would hate.

This book is separated into two sections: Before and After. Before is how James and Theo come to be married. I enjoyed this portion quite a bit. It was refreshing to see a hero come into a marriage with extremely limited sexual experience. He and Theo were on show more pretty even ground. I also really enjoyed the banter between them.

The After portion starts after the moment that Theo realizes James's father pushed him in to marrying her. She sends him away and tells him never to return. And he actually leaves. (Hence why I wasn't a big fan of him.) James ends up becoming a pirate and Theo takes over running his estate... (not very plausible, but I went with it.) What follows is a rather angsty seven years. I honestly didn't see how they would ever work things out and so perhaps that is what made it so nice when they finally did.

In the end it was two extremely imperfect people that made MANY mistakes and somehow found out they were perfect for each other. So despite the fact that I wasn't a wholehearted fan of either of them, I still couldn't help relishing the fact that they found their way back to one another. show less

THE UGLY DUCHESS is a book I was looking forward to. Not as much as THE DUKE IS MINE, but still I thought it would be interesting to see how James re-imagined the Ugly Duckling as a romance. Unfortunately the execution wasn't what I had hoped for. Almost immediately I began to question James, not because it was obvious he was manipulating Theo and honestly I wasn't really sure if I wanted Theo to forgive him. Its not as if this trope is anything new to the romance genre, but something about it this time left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe because this was based on a story about an 'ugly' duckling, who clearly stood out amongst his peers in every way, but Theo's gets the moniker mostly for reasons out of her control.

But you know that's show more okay. I would have forgiven that. Not all fairy tale re-imaginings are to my taste (GRIMM for instance needs to just...go away), but I by in large enjoy Eloisa's writing and I did like Theo. Maybe not so much James, but he was young and struggling in his own ways so I could have come to like him if his choices had been...different.

I think my main problem lay in the fact that Theo and James marry--for a variety of reasons, some real and some not--but it was utterly useless except as a means to drive them apart. Eloisa could have easily had them get engaged, anticipate their wedding night if she REALLY needed them to give in to their carnal desires and passions, then have Theo overhear the discussion between Father and Son, have Theo cry off, James run off to be a pirate and THEN had a reunion. Seriously, if they had been engaged instead of married, a lot of James' choices and Theo's tstl moments would have been more palatable.

Instead Eloisa has them married and separated within a week, pops back in 7 years later after Theo has turned herself around, and James has become a swashbuckling womanizer. I don't know how Theo forgave him--I wouldn't have. Never mind leaving her behind, he also sleeps with every Mary, Sue and Jane that flounces their skirts at him. And yet (and I can't really remmeber if this came up at any point because my rage at James blinded me somewhat at times) he seems to think that because there was no communication between them (hard to communicate when your husband leaves you without a word or forwarding address) all can be honky-dory cause he's back now.

Worst older Theo 'became a swan' by cutting out everything interesting about her. While still not the most conventional person on the planet, this older Theo lacks the character that younger Theo had. She may have no confidence in her looks at all, but younger Theo was confident in her worth. She knew she was better then to put up with James'. She knew she could make herself someone people wanted to know. She knew all this and yet older Theo pretty much just shrugs her shoulders and accepts James' excuses that because she threw him out it gave him license to sleep around.

I'm not saying it would have been better if they had merely been engaged instead of married and he slept around on her, but it certainly wouldn't have made me as quesy feeling knowing that he broke their vows so blithely. I hate adultery almost more than anything else in a romance. At least if Theo had taken a lover she could have had the excuse that her husband was missing and likely dead for all the communication they had. HE HAD NO EXCUSE. None. At all.

So really this comes down to two things: 1) lack of communication. No one had any at all in this series. 2) lack of consequences. No one seems to care about consequences as long as the other party is attractive. show less

Crítica em: http://pepitamagica.blogspot.pt/2015/04/livro-ugly-duchess-de-eloisa-james.html

Não sei se já disse isto noutra crítica, mas volto a dizê-lo: eu gosto de bad boys na literatura, e livros que fazem deles os heróis têm sempre pontos a favor.

Neste livro de Eloisa James, temos novamente o tema dos contos de fadas, sendo neste caso especificamente o Patinho Feio.
Theodora – Theo para os amigos e Daisy para o seu melhor amigo James – não era uma beldade, como se percebe pelo título. E, ainda que possa ser um spoiler, vou dizer isto porque sinto que é uma lição importante: Daisy não se transformou miraculosamente num cisne. Ela passou a aceitar-se como era, uma mulher que fisicamente podia não corresponder aos show more padrões de beleza da época, mas ainda assim uma mulher interessante, elegante e alegre. Quando Daisy se aceitou a si própria e deixou de se preocupar com o que o ton (como a alta sociedade inglesa se referia a si própria no período da Regência) dizia, ela tornou-se tão bela quanto um cisne.

James é um rapaz jovem (como Daisy – casaram com 19 e 17 anos, correspondentemente, o que era bastante cedo, pelo menos no que toca aos homens) que não é muito maturo, apesar dos problemas que tem com o seu pai e com o que já teve de lidar com ele. É um pouco infantil, e uma das coisas que gostei foi do quanto ele cresce ao longo do livro. Não gostei da distância (nem do tempo) que ele interpôs entre ele e Daisy (e mais não digo que já houve um spoiler em cima e um por crítica chega :p), mas acho que apesar disso fez-lhe bem e abriu-lhe os olhos àquilo que tinha. Não vos vou dizer como ele se tornou em algo tão diferente do que era no início do livro mas digo que gostei da sua mudança.

Uma boa escrita, como sempre, com um bom passo, mas que num certo momento acaba por ser demasiado lento devido à espera que fazemos pelas acções das personagens – mas perdoável.

Romântico, com boas lições a aprender pela história, mas acho que faltam alguns pontos essenciais como um desenvolvimento maior do amor de Daisy e James um pelo outro, desde a amizade ao amor conjugal e apaixonado. As cenas mais eróticas estão muito bem descritas, mostrando sensualidade, luxúria mas também o amor que existe entre as personagens.

Gostei da nota final da autora, que explica um pouco a sua inspiração para cada das personagens mais marcantes do livro.

Resumindo, uma leitura leve e romântica que ficou um pouco aquém dos outros livros da série. show less

I legitimately sobbed reading part of this book. It is horribly painful in a lot of ways, but the story is also achingly beautiful. Honestly, I lean closer to 4.5 stars this time.

I still do not understand the pull of Romance novels, but I keep trying! Eloisa James is a professor of English at Fordham University and the woman cannot write a boring paragraph. There are actually a couple of interesting plot lines - for example, how does emotional forgiveness work? If you want someone to forgive you, what are some practical things you can do?
I just keep thinking, though, that Ms.James could write a really good novel about those plot lines. Why write this?