Runaway Duke Book

This book was good in parts of it and tedious in other parts, 3 stars.

The hero, Connor, and the heroine, Rebecca, met when she was a girl and became fast friends. Connor worked as a horse groom for Rebecca's father and she would spend a lot of time in the stables with him. Connor actually listened to Rebecca and answered her questions. And she had a lot of questions and a lot to say. She was a very curious girl and had a mind that thirsted for knowledge. Rebecca would often sneak into her fathers' library and read his science books, she especially liked the book about the human body and all of it's intricacies. She had a dream of one day being a doctor, but that was not possible with her being a proper young lady. Connor was the only person who would listen to her discussions about science and healing, and she began falling in love with him then.

Connor is in disguise as the Tremaine's horse groom. He is actually the Duke of Dunbrooke, but after being injured in the war, there was some confusion of his identity and a fellow soldier who actually was killed and so it was said that the Duke of Dunbrooke died in the war. This worked out for Connor because he didn't want to be Duke anyways.

One night when Rebecca was up to her normal mischievous self, she was accidentally caught kissing Edelston, a notorious rake. And it was accidental because Edelston thought he was kissing Rebecca's sister. He had a plan to be caught in a compromising situation with her sister so that she would have to marry him and he could have the money from her dowry to pay off his debts. So now Rebecca is going to have to marry Eldelston and he is fine with that because one girl is as good as another and he planned on 'disposing' of her somehow anyway after they were married.

Rebecca was devastated and couldn't stand the thought of being married to that rakehell and so she and Connor devised an escape plan. Connor had to help her because he knew if she married Edelston it would crush her spirits and she would no longer be the happy-go-lucky, curious girl that he knew her to be.

In the meantime, Edelston actually falls in love with Rebecca, which is quite humorous. He suddenly is no longer the scheming villain, he is a besotted-poem-writing fool!

As if all of this going on isn't enough, enter a new character to throw in some more twists and turns. We meet Cordelia Blackburn the Duchess of Dunbrooke, widow of Connor's brother and AKA Marianne Bell, former mistress of Connor. Did you get that? Edelston has in his possession a locket that belongs to Cordelia and he is holding it as blackmail against her so she will have to pay some of his debts. This locket shows that Cordelia is not who she says she is, it shows that she is a former actress and mistress! Shocking, a Duchess who used to be an actress! Well, somehow Rebecca and Connor have ended up with the locket and so Cordelia has sent highway men to find them to recover the necklace.

If you think this review is long, try reading the book! It is so full of narration and packed with sub-plots it will make you dizzy and your eyes cross!

So, somewhere along the journey where Connor is taking Rebecca to escape her wedding, they fall in love. He finally realizes that Rebecca is not the little girl she used to be and that he cannot imagine anyone else being married to her, so he plans to marry her instead. All the while being chased after by the highwaymen that were hired by the "Duchess" and Edelston the jilted-poem-writing-smitten fool also joins in on the chase.

The things I did not like about this book were (1) it was so narration heavy I found myself skimming (2) it had way too many characters with different sub-plots going on (3) Connor called Rebecca "wee Becca", it got on my nerves because he called her this the entire book and in about every other spoken line from him, I found it icky (4) Connor's character was not developed fully, I felt like the author really did not go very deep with him and I had a lot of unanswered questions about him and finally (5) Rebecca's dad was weak, he finally put his foot down at the end and acted like the man of the household.

I did however like the scene where Connor and Rebecca first made love, it was quite steamy!

So, read the book if you like, but don't feel like you are missing much by skipping this one!