Unlikeable characters – unlikeable romance
1 star
In order to escape the pain of a disastrous marriage, Charlotte, Duchess of Rutherford, scandalises the ton with her wild ways. All she wants is for her husband to take note and give her the divorce she craves.
Philip, Duke of Rutherford, isn’t unaware of Charlotte’s debauched behaviour so he promises her a divorce in return for a favour of his own – she must teach him to be a better husband for another woman. Will they both begin to realise that they might not want to give each other up after all?
I love a good 'second chance at romance' story and the premise of this story really seemed to tick all the boxes for me. Unfortunately I was probably about 5 pages in before I began to have serious reservations about the story. Or, more accurately, the characters.
Philip has decided that he loves his wife despite marrying her for reasons other than love and not having spent much time in her company over the last few years. He wants her back and wants to atone for his sins so he is, in some ways, sympathetic. Charlotte on the other hand was just terrible. She was a shrew and instead of being strong she came across as a hard, unlikeable harridan who acted childishly and pathetically to get back at her husband. Her behaviour was atrocious and didn’t endear me to her one bit.
Because of my dislike of the characters it was very hard to care about them or the things that they did. There were very few tender moments and the love scenes didn’t interest me – possibly due to my lack of emotional involvement with the story overall.
To be honest, I found it really difficult to find the enthusiasm to finish this book. I even thought that the conclusion left it open to the couple falling out once again – but perhaps that’s just me being cynical. I don’t like giving books low ratings but I’m sorry to say I just can’t recommend this book to you. 1 star and I’ll be giving this author a miss from now on.
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