The Duchess War

I didn't know why I had wanted to read this book until the first sex scene; then, I remembered that someone on Twitter had recommended this book as a great example of awkward sex. That scene was definitely unusual and not something I've encountered often in published novels, although I always like it in fanfic. It's very romantic to me to have characters fumbling awkwardly in bed and to have that clumsiness be a part of the intimacy they share.

I don't know if I'd recommend the book as a whole because of that scene, but I did mostly enjoy the story. Glancing at the prominent reviews here, it seems a lot of people disliked the betrayals. I didn't really mind that, although I did wish they would've just talked to each other (but I often think that).

I'm having trouble defining what did bother me about the book. Some of the elements of the main characters' backgrounds seemed overly melodramatic to me, especially the plot with Robert and his mother. At first I was emotionally involved with all of it, but as more sad pieces of Robert's childhood, along with other tragic details, like Lydia's past, were revealed, it just felt like too much to me. Also, I would have liked to see more of Minnie showing off her strategic mind.

I may read this author again, even though this book didn't totally sweep me away, because I do like the style of the writing. It's also a really feminist book, and I always appreciate that.

Eh. I really tried. I got about 10 chapters in before I decided to give up on this.

It isn't so much that there's a serious plot going on besides all your regular insta-lust and romancey things - in fact, I like it when a romance novel has a bit more substance than just “I see you, I want you, I love you”. I stuck with this book for even 10 chapters because I was actually interested in seeing where it was going to go with the plot.

What eventually made me give up on it, however, is that I just don't really quite enjoy it when the writing takes itself too seriously. I'm not asking for irreverent humour all the time, but there were way too many cringey one-liners that I kept getting distracted by.

Example:
- Damn his eyes. Damn his letter. Damn that smile, the one that made her want to kiss him back, just so she could know that she'd put that light inside him. [...]It struck her, that want, like a sharp first to her solar plexus--painful and paralyzing. She didn't just want. She hoped. She needed. She dreamed that this time, when she was revealed to the crowd for what she really was, they wouldn't mob around her and throw stones. This time, they couldn't call her a beast or the spawn of the devil. This time, instead of stripping her of everything, someone would love her for who she was.A yearning like that was too big for the person she had to be.

Tl;dr the story was fine and fairly interesting, but the delivery was too cringey and distracting that I had to DNF at Ch 10.