Reviews for The Duchess

The average rating for The Duchess based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-04-22 00:00:00 Russell Beerling The Duchess is one of my favorite of Jude D's old books. In it, we have a unique hero- and a heroine that at once touches your heart and makes you laugh at her frankness. Claire Willoughby is in love- with a Scottish Duke no less. And good thing, because her mother desperately wants her to marry a Duke. Considering she's a wealthy American Heiress and he's house and title rich but money poor, she's about to catch him too. But she's an odd sort. She loves books and learning… and all things Scottish. You would think her Scottish Duke would be just as interested in all the facts about his land and ancestors as she? But she's realizing that isn't the case. Harry the Duke is going to marry his American Heiress despite her dreadful, uncomfortable straight forward American ways - he needs the money that comes along with her, however he will be content to never have to spend time with her after the nuptials. Immediately upon their arrival at Bramley Castle, Claire realizes something is amiss with her future husband and with his family. But a peculiar man and the relationship they begin after she discovers him wandering around the grounds one morning, helps to distract her. The man is helpless and feeble, poor dear, but he knows just as much about her other obsession as she- that being world explorer Captain Frank Baker. Soon Claire finds herself caught up in the mystery of the man and the goings on at the castle. She's also about to discover he is not who she first thought him to be... and on her way to truly falling in love with a man rather than myth. I love Claire, I love her love for learning and enthusiasm for the explorer Captain Frank Baker. I love that she doesn't sit back and wait for things to happen, I love that she drinks whiskey and loves yogurt and curried eggs, isn't too missish to read about the sexual habits of indigenous peoples-in latin- , is kind to an old Scottish curmudgeon and the crofters on the estate, and that she doesn't blink when she discovers a man secretly living in a castle with an Indian man servant. I think I love her best because to me she is Sara Crewe from A Little Princess all grown up. And I love the man she falls in love with in the end and the life they eventually have together. I LOVE THIS BOOK.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-06-04 00:00:00 Keith Love Ugh. This is one of the worst books I've ever read. Ridiculous drivel that made no sense. I mean, the guy gets shot and then acts like nothing is wrong. Also, on top of getting shot, he has MALARIA, okay, MALARIA, and he is fine--not uncomfortable or anything. Also, the heroine spends 90% of the book thinking she's in love with the wrong man and telling the right man how awful he is and how much she hates him and wants him dead. Pleasant. Claire is THE most stupid character I think I've ever had the misfortune to read about. This whole thing was absurd. Someone telling Claire that Harry would DIE for Trevelyan. Um, are you kidding? He found out his brother wasn't really dead after years of thinking he was, and what is his reaction: "Oh, is that you? I thought you were dead. What's that, you have malaria? Oh, cool. Can I go back to sleep now? You're bothering me." I'm sorry, but if that's "love" I'm an idiot. I hate it when the heroine spends nearly the entire book hating and thinking these horrible things about the hero, how he's cold and evil and cruel and the worst, more uncaring man--no, as Claire put it "machine" on earth. Yes. She throws all this in his face? Why? Because he says over and over how much he loves her and needs her and that she's the only woman he's ever loved and that she's amazing. And her reaction is to laugh in his face and call him a selfish self-pitying monster. Okay. If this is romance, then I fear for the world. How this book has a 3.77 average, I have no idea, because I'm ashamed that such utter nonsense can be published.