This Duchess of Mine

I think perhaps James painted herself into a corner with this couple in the series. Rather than just teasing their potential like she has done pretty successfully with Villiers (we've seen him grow through the series, but his final relationship hasn't begun yet), most of their story had already unfolded before this book even began. They started out in the first book having a decent hurdle to overcome before their happily ever after, but progressing that storyline through each book- by the end of the 4th one it was pretty much wrapped up! (Their history has already been explained, the other man/other woman has already been dealt with, their interest in the other has already evolved since their separation... there's not much left to show more engage readers for several more hours of story). So James was left trying to conjure up some drama for them, but it just feels so transparent and contrived! The characters act like hen-wits so they can sufficiently be in their own way long enough for a few hundred pages of a book... The meat of the book (the page by page descriptions, conversations, etc.) are decently written, but without the bones of story arch, and character development, and a struggle beyond simply overcoming your own inept plans and poor communication, etc. it just sort of lies there in a sad heap. I had liked these two in the previous books, but my interest drained away the further I got in this one. (When someone gets into a mess entirely due to their own daftness, it's hard to even care how they'll fix the problem they caused for no good reason (except to fill pages). =/ ) I feel like an actor who can't muster any effort is asking flatly 'Oh no... ! What-ev-er will they do...?' (things A-F), 'How could it poss-ib-ly go wrong...? *exaggerated shrug*' (things G-M). None of it felt clever, or unique, or the least bit surprising, and that tediousness made the remaining pages seem to go on forever. (And in all those pages they never even addressed why the hero had told his wife he loved his old mistress. They've been hammering on it since like the 2nd chapter of the first book, but then it was suddenly conveniently forgotten here, (and to hear him tell it, in this book, he didn't give a fig for her. So... wth?)). If it weren't part of a series I might not have finished it. James can do much better than this! show less

Let me start this review with telling you not to do what I did. Don't read this series out of order. I started with the book one, Desperate Duchesses (Desperate Duchesses, #1) , then I skipped to Duchess By Night (Desperate Duchesses, #3) , followed by A Duke of Her Own (Desperate Duchesses, #6) and finally this one, This Duchess of Mine (Desperate Duchesses, #5) . I still have to read An Affair Before Christmas (Desperate Duchesses #2) and When the Duke Returns (Desperate Duchesses #4). Which I'll probably do next week.

It's very important that this particular series be read in order, especially because of this couple. We've met the hero and heroine in book one and all through the series they come in and out so that by the time we get show more their own story, we already have preconceived notions of who they are and what their personalities are like.

We already know that their marriage was prearranged when they were very young and that they really didn't know each other much when the marriage took place. Jemma, our heroine, began to fall in love with her husband, that is until one faithful afternoon she drops by his office in Parliament, and finds him having sex with another woman. And that was that for these two.

Jemma decides to bail and high tails it to France, proceeding to flaunt her many affairs, just to embarrass her husband. For NINE years she's been living in France and evading the responsibility she, as well as Elijah, had toward the title, producing an heir. The only reason she comes back to England is to produce an heir because apparently Elijah may not have much time to live. The man has some heart defect.

Right there was my first problem with these two. Infidelity in romance, at least for me, is off-putting and it needs to have a significant plot in order for me to change my mind about it, like there really wasn't any real "cheating", or the heroine was still a virgin, while the hero is assuming otherwise. Stuff like that will redeem the story for me. No such luck in this story.

My second problem was the start of this book. I truly couldn't recognize the two as the people I've met in the first four books. Slowly, I finally begun to recognize them and it took me a long time to at least understand them, but I never bought into the love they finally professed to each other.

What I loved about this book is the secondary plot of the Duke of Villars's character development and his search for his illegitimate children. I recommend this book on this alone.

Melanie for b2b show less

Absolutely charming historical. I loved Elijah and Gemma and liked the few side characters as well. The no sex part of it and the contrivances to keep our couple apart were silly and weak, but it did not wildly diminish my enjoyment. The info about the discovery of digitalis at the end was really interesting, and I am so glad James included that. It was also fun seeing the start of Tobias' journey since I already read his book. I have had a stressful week, this audiobook was my escape for a few days, and it did its job very well.

Let me start this review with telling you not to do what I did. Don't read this series out of order. I started with the book one, Desperate Duchesses (Desperate Duchesses, #1) , then I skipped to Duchess By Night (Desperate Duchesses, #3) , followed by A Duke of Her Own (Desperate Duchesses, #6) and finally this one, This Duchess of Mine (Desperate Duchesses, #5) . I still have to read An Affair Before Christmas (Desperate Duchesses #2) and When the Duke Returns (Desperate Duchesses #4). Which I'll probably do next week.

It's very important that this particular series be read in order, especially because of this couple. We've met the hero and heroine in book one and all through the series they come in and out so that by the time we get show more their own story, we already have preconceived notions of who they are and what their personalities are like.

We already know that their marriage was prearranged when they were very young and that they really didn't know each other much when the marriage took place. Jemma, our heroine, began to fall in love with her husband, that is until one faithful afternoon she drops by his office in Parliament, and finds him having sex with another woman. And that was that for these two.

Jemma decides to bail and high tails it to France, proceeding to flaunt her many affairs, just to embarrass her husband. For NINE years she's been living in France and evading the responsibility she, as well as Elijah, had toward the title, producing an heir. The only reason she comes back to England is to produce an heir because apparently Elijah may not have much time to live. The man has some heart defect.

Right there was my first problem with these two. Infidelity in romance, at least for me, is off-putting and it needs to have a significant plot in order for me to change my mind about it, like there really wasn't any real "cheating", or the heroine was still a virgin, while the hero is assuming otherwise. Stuff like that will redeem the story for me. No such luck in this story.

My second problem was the start of this book. I truly couldn't recognize the two as the people I've met in the first four books. Slowly, I finally begun to recognize them and it took me a long time to at least understand them, but I never bought into the love they finally professed to each other.

What I loved about this book is the secondary plot of the Duke of Villars's character development and his search for his illegitimate children. I recommend this book on this alone.

Melanie for b2b show less

Elijah and Jemma, the Duke and Duchess of Beaumont, were estranged for many years, but now they are back together and determined to make an heir before his bad heart fails him. But there are many things standing between them, including their past mistakes, his crusading spirit, the Duke of Villiers, and various chess games. Can they heal their hearts, both metaphorically and literally?

Another affecting, sexy romance from Eloisa James.

This is the fifth book in the Desperate Duchesses series and I haven't read any of the previous books. I haven't read many books by James (only 2) but I really must go find some of her backlist because I enjoyed this book. This is a troubled marriage plot which is one of my favorites. As the story begins Jemma and Elijah are reunited after a 9 year separation after she catches him in the act with his mistress. Now he wants an heir and Jemma has reluctantly returned from Paris to do her "duty". The beginning of the book felt like I had jumped into the middle of the story so I have a feeling I should have read the previous books, but I did enjoy the story anyway. There is lots of sexual tension and the plot involves chess (Jemma & Elijah show more are both chess masters) and some issues with Elijah's heart condition which was all expertly handled in both pacing and dialogue. A thoroughly enjoyable book. A secondary character, the Duke of Villiers, has an interesting storyline involving his illegitimate children and I look forward to his book, A Duke of Her Own, which was recently released. I'm also intrigued enough to checkout the previous books in this series. (Grade: B) show less

When Jemma and Elijah married things didn't stay staid for long. Jemma ran away to France to be feted by the French court and Elijah burried himself in politics. However he's approaching the age his father was when he died and Elijah needs an heir, the fainting spells and racing heart are reminders of his mortality.

Jemma returns determined to woo him.

Today we can tell that he has high blood-pressure and he needs medication but then there wasn't much medication that would work for them. They're at the cutting edge here of stuff that was little understood. Their issues and problems are interesting and it was interesting to see the two of them fall in love with each other. An enjoyable instalment in the series.