Romancing The Duke – Tessa Dare [#6]

[NO SPOILERS]

⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5 STARS

Book Synopsis: As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.

And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one.

Ugly duckling turned swan?
Abducted by handsome highwayman?
Rescued from drudgery by charming prince?

No, no, and… Heh.

Now Izzy’s given up yearning for romance. She’ll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who’s never even been kissed?

This one.

My Thoughts:

As you can see, I have already drifted off from my TBR pile for this month. Once I get on the Historical Romance wagon, I can’t stop! I’m not disappointed or anything though, cause there’s like 3 weeks left where I can cram (hi it’s me again in 2018. I’m editing my posts right now and I would like to say DO NOT CRAM GUYS. DON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES AS ME) 😆👍🏻!

I’ve decided to read (actually listen) this on a whim. I needed to listen to an audio book while I coloured in my new colouring book and I found this on Youtube. I then realised I’ve saved it on my iBook before so future me could read it. It was a fateful find 😉

I thought the beginning was great! Kept me interested and captivated for about 50% of the story. Then everything went a little downhill. The plot felt repetitive and the love was cliche (and I tend to like them but there’s a limit to how many times a trope can be played in a single story). The “drawn to each other” and sexual desires came a bit too quick. I would have liked to see the characters develop more before any sudden sexual desires, like getting to see their interactions together (when it’s not about how much passion they feel for each other).

I generally thought the characters were cool. I visualised Izzy Goodnight as a very gentle and full of grace type of woman from listening to her voice through the audio book. I know that if I had just read on iBook, I would have imagined a more feisty voice. The male character, which I won’t name BECAUSE 😉😉 (everything needs to be a surprise here) wasn’t unlovable. However, weirdly, I didn’t find him that attractive with the description given of him, even with the voice actress showing her take on his voice. I just couldn’t visualise his “glow” and that’s rather unfortunate.

So yes, they’re cute 🙂 but the characters could of been expanded more and the story could of cut down on repeating similar themes. I’ll also like to comment about the surprise element involved. Obviously my lips are sealed about what it is but I’ll tell you how I felt about it. It was surprising when the secret was revealed (no shit Helen). I have never read a story that has implemented that element before so I was very fascinated with how Dare was going to work it in. She did an amazing job by the way and I was glad. I wouldn’t want to be introduced to something then feel disappointed. I did have a problem with it though. I sometimes thought it got in the way and honestly wished it wasn’t there at those times because everything would have been better. It doesn’t really matter later on because the story had a nice ending.

Overall I gave the book 3 out of 5 stars because it was good at first but gradually I became bored. However you must read to judge for yourself 🙂

-Helen xx