My first Regency romance! Well, maybe my second, because I read The Governess Affair first.

I enjoyed it, although I liked The Governess Affair better.

For some reason, Robert's initial attraction to Minnie didn't seem plausible. And I had a hard time believing that he would have been so successful at not being like his father. Also, the dialog seemed too modern - especially the not-so-subtle sexual innuendo. But this is my first experience with Regency romance, and I'm not sure what's standard for the genre.

That said, I liked the characters and the story. Minnie was delightful, and Sebastian was a hoot!  I certainly hope to see more of him and Violet in future stories. And I do plan to read the rest of the books and novellas in the series.

Well, irritatingly, I left my kindle at my in-law's house when I came home, which sucks because I had a whole bunch of highlighted passages that I am now unable to access. Therefore, I must do this review without the quotes that I intended to use as references.

The buddy read experience, over all, has been a good one for me. I enjoyed seeing other people's thoughts on this book, and have agreed with many of their points. As an aside, if you are interested in more from the Duchess War readers - click on the tag: "Duchess War Read 2013" for the rest of the reviews/status updates.

One reason I've read so many books by Milan (and I only just went through my ereader and noticed this) is that she seems to make an effort to try something a bit different - example: using characters of different classes (not all aristocrats), educational backgrounds, etc. You don't have to have just one character be The Intellect - you can have multiple clever people with various histories. I like that variety - and that I don't feel like I'm reading the same story over and over (I can sometimes enjoy plot repetition, depending on how well the story's told). That doesn't mean I love everything she's produced. Often the traumatic backgrounds she gives her characters are a bit much for me - sometimes I'm not in the mood for loss, betrayal and/or suffering, for instance.

The year is 1863. Miss Wilhelmina Pursling is a nobody. She lives with her two great-aunts in relative obscurity in the English town of Leicester, where she keeps herself busy by trying to improve the lives of the local factory workers. It's a challenge for the shy girl, but she's stubborn enough to do her best to help in any way that she can - but above all, she does what she can quietly, always seeking to divert attention from herself. Enter Robert Blaisdell, Duke of Clermont. He's fascinated by the wallflower, but he also has his own secret agenda that he guards vigilantly, and Minnie is determined to expose it, because if she doesn't, it could lead to her ruin. The likelihood of anything occurring between these two is extremely slim... but hey, it's a romance novel - you know something interesting's bound to happen!

Just started this last night and got very excited when they started mentioning places in Leicester. Since I lived there for three years, it's weird when London Road, Stoneygate, Melton-Mowbray etc were all named.

"It's your tits." - The Duke cracked me up with this one!