The Duchess War

I bought this one after I heard about it in the #CopyPasteCris scandal in Romancelandia — apparently some woman tried to publish a book with entire paragraphs plagiarized from big-name romance authors! I had a few other Milan books on my TBR, but she mentioned on Twitter this was her first novel and that big chunks of this book that had meant a lot to her, as she was writing through depression, had been lifted and made cheap by stealing her words and changing the context, and I was curious. Glad I found it!

Most of this book was just delightful — Minnie and Robert at war with each other, bickering and trying to outsmart each other because someone else was trying to blame her for writing seditious flyers that Robert actually wrote, and her trying to prove it, and the sweetness of their marriage, and how ridiculously drama-filled their entire lives were. Like, all the weird stuff with his parents, and him never feeling like he fit in because he didn't feel like he was worthy of love, it all seems pretty standard stuff for romance, but I could imagine Robert's past and how devastating it would be to be a pawn between your parents. It kind of takes your breath away how often characters felt they had to betray each other. Anyway, I really enjoyed this, it was a pretty fast read and I liked Minnie a lot.

CW: mentions of past rape, mentions of (unrelated) past miscarriage