The Secret Wife

DNF. I had high hopes for this book. It is so well reviewed and I've always been fascinated with stories of possible escaped grand duchesses. But this book didn't hit the mark for me. The romance was saccharine. The love at first sight lacked believability even more than usual. More frustrating, the timeline stories didn't really connect in my opinion. The transition between present and past was choppy. There's only one moment when present day Kitty finds a charm that probably matches up to something mentioned in the previous past timeline chapter and starts wearing it on a necklace. Of course, if it was the charm from the previous chapter then it was a fancy tag for the royal dog. How romantic.

My suggestions is that is you want a historical fiction novel featuring a grand duchess, read City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin. Skip The Secret Wife.