Review: Seducing the Duchess - Ashley March

Genre: Historical romance

Pages: 320

Published: 2010
Publisher: Signet
Source: Gift from the author

Love and marriage don't have to be strangers...

Gambling. Carousing. Flirting. Charlotte, Duchess of Rutherford, will do anything to escape her painful marriage and force her husband to divorce her. But when Phillip, Duke of Rutherford, promises a divorce if Charlotte will help him become a better husband for another woman, she wonders if she really wants to lose him...

My Thoughts:

I liked this one because it was different from the usual HR books that I read. And that first chapter where she is kidnapped by her husband was just great. But their love story is a messy one, and a sad one.

Why is then their story such a mess? Well Phillip whispered words of love and got her to marry him. Everything was perfect, their wedding night was perfect, until next morning when he told her he had only used her for revenge and he packed up and left her to go to his mistress. Poor Charlotte was left with a broken heart and during the years that followed she has tried everything to get the cold Duke to divorce her.

What saves Phillip for me is how he is presented from now on. We meet a man who knows what he did was wrong, he knows that he ruined her life, and during these horrible years he has started to fall for her. They used to be friends when they were smaller, and that is what he remembers. If we would have met the coldhearted bastard that took her innocence and spit upon it, then yes I would not have forgiven him. Because I am not usually a forgiving reader, but sometimes it does happen.

Charlotte is the talk of London, she is rumored to have bed half the ton (and more), and she is quite the scandal. She just wants out, she is hurting and her family is not talking to her since she married him. Since I knew how much it must have hurt I did approve of her petty remarks, because she is changing too. That is what this whole book is about. Does she dare to trust him again? Because she does love him, and hate him.

Phillip tries to win her back, and he has a long way to go. And there will be misunderstandings, but come one, this is a HR, you know it will end with happy tears instead of sad ones. I am just saying that the road there is long. And sometimes you do forgive and forget.

Conclusion:

After having finished this book I did want to read more of her books. The writing was good and I liked the story of these two broken souls.

Rating:

Good

Cover:

Good