DNF
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Novella, Romance
This RITA® Reader Challenge 2015 review was written by Noelia R. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Short Contemporary Romance category.
The summary:
Undercover agent Dominic St. Sebastian never expected to be dubbed a duke. The resulting media frenzy puts his name in the headlines and his undercover career on hold. And it’s all the fault of his cousin’s dowdy research assistant Natalie Clark, who dug up the information…then showed up on Dom’s doorstep with a case of amnesia!
So why is Dom suddenly finding her so unforgettable? Could it be that Natalie isn’t what she seems? One thing’s certain: their undeniable magnetism is about to take them on a royally wild ride!
Here is Noelia R.'s review:
I chose Her Unforgettable Royal Lover by Merline Lovelace based only by the title, because I imagined there would be a prince involved. I was soooo excited because this could be so Kate-and-William!
This book is about Natalie, an archivist with secrets, and Dom, an Interpol undercover agent who suddenly discovers he is duke to some long lost duchy in Hungary. Naturally the press is absolutely raving mad about this new duke so when Dom’s cover is blown, he’s moved to a desk job. He is not amused by this, and to make matters worse, his neighbours are “my grace-ing” him like they came straight from a Regency romance (which I found ridiculous).
And then Natalie appears floating in the Danube with amnesia.
Yeah, it sounds really fun, but it wasn’t. My biggest problem with this book is how boring it was. It’s set in Hungary, which was a novelty to me, but a Hungary that’s as wallpapery as you can get. It could be France or Scotland or Chile for all that mattered because you never get the feeling of being there. It all felt like reading Hungary’s Wikipedia to me.
Seriously, the thing that irked me the most was that I couldn’t care less about these characters. There was no sense of depth to them, they were very cookie-cutter (Here! Take the prudish librarian with a wild streak paired with the handsome rake cliché!), and their relationship felt forced. One moment they hated each other, then she had amnesia, a day passed by and she was spewing things like “You are my lifeline.” WTF?
Even the sex were unexciting. I couldn’t understand why Natalie was so awed by Dom’s love skills; his moves were not impressing at all. He even stooped as low as playing the “I can’t wait because I want you so much” card. Which is ironic, because at the beginning of the book he was comparing his quest for seduction with the taming of a pony. A fierce pony, by the way, but a pony nonetheless.
I know in the deepest part of my soul that the explanation to all the secrets and mysteries of this book are resolved in the last quarter of it, but I really couldn’t digest this boring book (so much that I stopped reading at 70% through).
This was my first RITA Challenge, next time I’m definitely going to read a summary or two before signing up.
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well.
Thanks!
This wasn’t my favorite Lovelace either, but I enjoyed it for the locations, though parts did come off as info-dumping. I thought the mystery wrapped up too neatly. I liked parts, but it was an uneven read. I will say though that I loved the hero’s dog, a Magyar Agár.
Of the books in her Duchess Diaries series I liked the first one the best.
“Come for me, my little one!”
“Neigh!” she whinnied, tossing her chestnut mane. “I will never succumb to you broniness…”
Noelia, with a few changes this could be the review I wrote for one of my RITA books. Boring sex and incomprehensible relationship. I actually finished mine. I salute your ability to say enough is enough and dump it. I am constitutionally incapable of DNF’g due to Swiss Family Robinson Syndrome.
DonnaMarie: What is Swiss Family Robinson Syndrome? I googled it and got quite a few different uses, but none of them seem relevant to your remark:
1. The principle that “Children generally would rather live in a tree than a house.”
2. A novice writer’s mistake, where they give an adventurer a backpackful of coincidentally-useful items because they “want… to equip the character for any situation that comes along. At a particular point you have to let them run off without even a pocket handkerchief, and have adventures in the wild.”
3. “You worry that you’re a little weird? Consider me. I am the person – – come late to gardening — who thinks she has to grow everything. Call it a “Swiss Family Robinson” syndrome, but I have this idea that, because it’s possible in Northern California, I should be able to grow all my own food. ”
4. A blogger’s explanation why she and her friends look awesome in some photos from an archaeology dig: “I realize that it’s a stretch to think we were some kinda wild women (wink), but look at the facts people: we lived the man’s world. We rocked the construction sites. It was like being inside a commando game and we were the mistresses of corporal punishment. Total Swiss Family Robinson syndrome.”
Vasha what I understand DonnaMarie ment was that obligation of not wasting resources. Like when you bought a new shampoo that makes horrible things with your hair but you keep using it because it was $30. I hope she ment that.
DonnaMarie, it was a very sad thing to abandon this book. I was keeping a rhythm of a book every two/three days and this book messed me up. I spent a month trying to finish it and I just have to give up. And I bought it at full price, so that hurt too.
Oh yeah, that makes sense. Psychologists call it the “Sunk Cost Fallacy.” Ironically, Swiss Family Robinson is a book I could not finish, but I do believe “Don’t waste” would have been one of the morals preached in it. (And why have parents traditionally urged their kids to finish all the food on their plate by saying “Think of the starving children in Africa”? To begin with, getting in the habit of keeping on eating after you’re full isn’t necessarily a good thing, and secondly, although thinking of people going hungry might well make you glad you have enough, eating food you’ve no appetite for seems like a perverse way to honor it. Far more appropriate if it inspired you to read up on economic policies that have an impact on global inequality. And now I’m rambling. Sorry.)
How fierce do ponies get, exactly?
‘Cause “My desire for you is like a pony. A FIERCE pony,” is maybe the most macho thing I’ve heard since “His inner hedgehog urged him to take her.”
I’ve mentioned the Swiss Family Robinson syndrome before, and while I’d like to say it’s all of the above, it is not. Vasha, since you are at least familiar with the book, you know that the entire beginning of the book is all about salvaging everything they possible can from the ship for their survival on the island. If you had stuck it out, suddenly it’s living in a tree house, capturing wild animals, a cabin boy that’s really a young woman, therefore, romance and PIRATES! Swiss Family Robinson Syndrome is the belief that if you just stick with a book long enough, PIRATES!! Or something equally awesome. Hence, the inability to DNF, because, PIRATES!!
Sorry, forgot the part where the first part of Swiss Family Robinson is sooooooo boring. Which is why the whole pirates thing is so awesome.
Yeah, I didn’t stick around long enough for the pirates! Who knew.
LOVE your review! And I applaud your good sense to DNF this.
The ability to think like that shows you’re an expert
You mean I don’t have to pay for expert advice like this anymore?!
As a Hungarian I found this utterly ridiculous but I must admit I totally enjoyed it because it was so bad. It was oddly entertaining to read a story set in Hungary by someone who clearly hasn’t been there before. It’s not dreamy or anything, it’s an Eastern-European country with rich history but it’s no fairy tale, especially in this post-communism state we’ve been in for the last 25 years. Oh and for the record: Hungarians don’t really care about titles or aristocracy anymore because haven’t had a king since 1918 and then there was communism in the second half of the 1900s. Of course we have offsprings of old houses who would be barons today, we even have offsprings of long-dead dukes and kings but no one cares and it doesn’t change anything, they are just ordinary people like everyone. So yeah. It was so unrealistic I couldn’t help myself but laugh and enjoy.