The Duke Who Didn't

I need to admit something that is possibly terrible: this is my first Courtney Milan book.

I have no excuse for this! I follow Milan on Twitter, and thus have a big crush on her brain. I also have The Brothers Sinister Series boxset, which I've been told by every Romance enthusiast is phenomenal, so my neglect of Milan's work feels particularly egregious.

(Side note: Amazon tells me that I purchased the boxset in February 2018 (!!!), along with Sarah Maclean's A Rogue by Any Other Name. Which I also haven't read. This is very embarrassing, and my only defense is that between my book-hoarding tendencies and my ADHD, it's a miracle that I finish anything before I'm crushed under the weight of my TBR pile. I beg your forgiveness, readers.)

At any rate, I've meant to get started on her books, and having read The Duke That Didn't, I understand now how much I've been depriving myself by not acting on that intention. At the risk of gushing: this is a wonderful book.

At the center of The Duke That Didn't are Chloe Fong and Jeremy Wentworth, childhood sweethearts who team up every year for a few days for the centuries-old Wedgeford Trials, a day-long game hosted by their village that attracts crowds from all over Britain. That is, until two years prior to the beginning of the story, when Jeremy just stops showing up.

That first year he had not come to the Trials, she had waited eagerly—anxiously, even. She'd put him on her list, and the item had remained stubbornly undone, unable to be completed in his absence. Rationality had set in after that first disappointment. Think about him only once today had been on her list for months before she accomplished it even once, and she found herself consistently, illogically, backsliding. At this point, he'd skipped two years of Trials; this would make year three. He wasn't coming back.

He'd told her how he felt, but somehow, whenever he looked at her, his thoughts never came out as something sober and intellectual like I respect the things that matter to you. No. Instead, everything he felt got tied up and turned around into I genuflect to the sovereignty of your list.

The Duke That Didn't

The Duke That Didn't

“I'm sorry,” she started to say, “I shouldn't have said—I didn't mean to ruin—”

He cut her off with a kiss. “You should have said,” he whispered into her mouth. “You must say; I can have it no other way. You see, I have been imagining this with you every day of my life, and you must give me the opportunity to make you desire me as much as I want you.”

He pulled back. She had a smile on her face, but her eyes glistened.

“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for trusting me to be good to you.”

The Duke That Didn't

The Duke That Didn't

Courtney Milan doesn't disappoint. I loved Chloe from the start and while Jeremy took some warming up to, by the end I was a full convert. I think I initially struggled with Jeremy because I'm personally attracted to ambition and competence so the idea of a hero who didn't really do much of anything was a hard pill to swallow. I was fully on board with Chloe's mandate that he get serious . I should have trusted more in Milan's ability to create complex, compelling characters because by the time more of Jeremy's true nature was revealed I was a little bit in love with him.

The romance between he and Chloe was sweet and cute, mostly because he loved her so unabashedly from the beginning. I will most probably be rereading this in the future.