Mr. Cavendish, I Presume

Ok, this one is really hard for me to rate. I liked it a lot, but I was frustrated by it too. It's Thomas's story and I so wanted to find out what happened between him and Amelia and how he handled dealing with the resolution of Jack's situation. But most of this story was a retelling of The Lost Duke of Wyndham from Thomas's and Amelia's POVs. I found the different perspectives interesting and we were given some details that didn't appear in Jack & Grace's book. However, I'm not the most patient person in existence so I was getting very anxious to get past what I already knew was going to happen and get on with this story. I ended up putting the book down for a day. I picked it back up today and finally at page 323 (of 370) the story show more moved forward. I guess my final conclusion of Mr. Cavendish, I Presume is that even though I liked it, I was a bit disappointed with it. show less

I don't generally read romance. It tends to fall into two categories: a puritanical guilt-trip Christian mindset or gratuitous sex, usually so closely resembling rape that it's nauseating. Neither of those categories appeal to me.

However, Julia Quinn fits neither of those categories. She writes with a fine humor, intelligence and delicacy. She actually develops the plot and characters so they stand on their own rather than simply acting as a vehicle for unnecessary and repetitive sex scenes.

The sex scenes she does include are few -- sometimes only one in the entire book -- and in almost every book of hers I've read, they come near the end of the book, after the principal characters have developed an actual relationship based on mutual show more respect and attraction. Furthermore, I've yet to read a sex scene she's written that portrays the woman as initially unwilling and disturbed by the act. I imagine if she did, the man would be justly punished, not simply left to beg for forgiveness and understanding before he's absolved by the woman.

I recommend Quinn to anyone who enjoys plot and character development in a story over erotica. show less

It was kind of odd reading basically the same story of The Lost Duke of Wyndham from a different point of view. I am surprised that I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit especially since I thought The Lost Duke of Wyndham was pretty bad. I did not expect the two books to pretty much cover the exact same story. If anything else I thought this one would start a little bit after The Lost Duke of Wyndham as we see what Thomas Cavendish do with his life. I enjoyed seeing the developing attraction between Amelia and Thomas since this wasn’t one of those books where Thomas was immediately smitten with Amelia or entranced by her looks. In fact, he does not even realize how beautiful Amelia is and in fact is pretty oblivious to her show more existence for a good while. I was very happy with the way the book ended and this restored my faith in Quinn’s writing after The Lost Duke book. show less

I was looking forward to this since I enjoy seeing stories from a different POV, but Thomas turned out to be more sympathetic in 'The Lost Duke of Wyndham'. In 'Mr Cavendish, I Presume' he's an absolute pill. Instead of obsessing over his love interest Amelia, he spends the book wallowing in grumpiness and self-pity, and romance is virtually absent from the plot. The sex scene towards the end of the book feels bizarrely tacked-on and inappropriate, and the novel as a whole seems under-written and unpleasant. This is the first time I've ever been disappointed by a Julia Quinn romance.

If you've read The Lost Duke of Wyndham, there's not much need to read Mr. Cavendish, I Presume. I had been expecting the second in the Two Dukes series to begin where the first ended. Instead, it started where the first started and told the same story over again, just from the points of view of two different main characters. So, there wasn't much to wonder about as far as the plot is concerned. Any reader who has read the first book pretty much knows what is going to happen right up until the very end. Fortunately, Ms. Quinn does such a good job with characterization that she manages to hold one's interest even though the plot is so familiar.

The beginning of "Mr. Cavendish" is fairly unique. In most regency romances, the chick is desperately looking for a man. However, the main character, Amelia, has a man. In fact, she's been engaged nearly her entire life. But the Duke is slow to commit. Yet, regardless, she loves him. Really enjoyed that not-often-used situation. Most of the time betrothed characters don't know each other and/or hate one another.

However, until the ending, the rest of the story is a huge review of what happens in "The Lost Duke of Wyndham" and a different character's point-of-view doesn't add much.

If I could, I'd rate the beginning 5 stars, the middle 2, and the ending a 3.

Eesh, I thought the first book of the series was so fun I gave it 5 stars, so even though I wasn't as interested in these secondary characters I decided to read it as well. This book takes place during the exact same time frame as the last book (with just a bit extra at the end), only from these two alternate perspectives. There were some minor gaps in the first story, events that happened off page, or that weren't fully explained, so I guess I got a few of those answers from this book. But largely the interesting events happened in the other plot-line, so we're left with either fairly inconsequential interactions with these two (that could be left out of the first book without losing the storyline), or just repetitions of those very show more same conversations and events from the last book only with some inner thoughts added from these two. Then to top it off, not only did I like the last male lead more than this one, I think I in fact like this one less now than I did before reading his personal account. It was disappointing for me. show less