Eloisa James is one of my favorite authors, and by favorite I mean I squeed so hard at her at RT that she may have taken out a restraining order. Redheadedgirl can attest to this. I may have peed a little. So when she releases a new book, I’m always excited and a little nervous because I’m filled with so much expectation. I am happy to report that My American Duchess was amazing and worked for me perfectly.
Now, the structure of My American Duchess is a little unusual, which means if you want to go into this book totally spoiler free, only read the first half of this review. I’ll make sure you know when the spoilers are coming.
When the book opens the heroine, Merry Pelford, an American heiress from Boston, has just accepted a marriage proposal–but not from the hero. Merry is in London looking for a husband because she has a bit of a reputation back in Boston. She was engaged twice before and broke off both engagements when she realized that she’d made a mistake. Now she’s just accepted the proposal of Lord Cedric, the handsome, fashionable brother of a duke.
Merry is getting a breath of fresh air on the balcony when she meets a stranger, who is definitely handsome but not fashionable, and the two engage in some mild flirtation. That stranger is the Duke of Trent, and he’s so smitten with Merry that he decides to pursue her. When he gets back to the ballroom he discovers that she’s already engaged–to his brother.
Trent is a total Darcy. He’s a little bit wooden and aloof. He vacillates between not caring much about the social conventions surrounding his station to being flummoxed when they aren’t observed. He’s delighted that Merry doesn’t seem to give him the deference he’s used to. She challenges him. He totally has a boner.
Merry for her part is a fish out of water. She’s not the perfect English lady. She speaks her mind and she’s far from a shrinking violet. She’s also unaware of all the social customs in England. At first Cedric says and does all the right things, but Merry quickly becomes aware that he wants to “fix” her and that he’s embarrassed by her lack of social grace (#PINEAPPLEGATE). She also starts to suspect that he’s marrying her for her money (he is).
Meanwhile Trent loves Merry’s lack of social graces, although he’s too busy being a Darcy to let her know that. He and his brother have always been in competition with each other–largely because Cedric is a spoiled shit–which, if possible, makes the whole falling-in-love-with-my-brother’s-fiancée more complicated.
I wouldn’t call this an homage to Sabrina but it definitely had elements that reminded me of the movie. I love that movie. Also, I seriously questioned how on earth James would get a happy ending out of this complicated tangle of family, financial and social arrangements. Obviously, we all know that romance novels come with happy endings, so I love it so hard when an author gives me a setup that legitimately stymies me as to how the hell the couple will get there.
AND THAT’S JUST THE FIRST HALF Y’ALL.
So…a BIG THING happens halfway through the book. I can’t continue the review without spoiling said BIG THING. If you want to remain unspoiled stop here.
Darcy and I are going to make sure you don’t read more than you want to.
Okay, ready for the spoilery bits?
You’re sure?
Super sure?
MOAR SPOILERS FROM HERE TO THE END!
I love it when James does this. LOVE IT. One of things that I wanted so badly from Pride and Prejudice ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au )was the Darcy’s first year of marriage. I wanted to see how they navigated being together as a couple, get all the lurid sex scenes, etc (if you are like me read Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll). When the couple in question isn’t living together or, as in this case, sleeping together, before marriage, I don’t want the HEA to stop at the church steps. Also, I think it’s realistic to show those first bumps along the way to wedded bliss.
James is really great at writing married couples who think they are in love when they get married, realize it’s more infatuation, and fall into a deeper, more permanent sort of love as a married couple. She writes couples who need to figure their shit out as a married couple, dealing with crap like miscommunication or no communication, misguided expectations, and not-so-amazing first attempts at intimacy together. It’s realistic and also so well done. If you want more married-couple historical romance then try Once Upon a Tower ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ) or An Affair Before Christmas by James.
Trent is still aloof once he and Merry wed. He’s sexually infatuated with his wife, but he holds back a part of himself that prevents them from being really intimate. He’s also suspicious of Merry’s professions of love because she’s been in love so many times before and fallen out of it so quickly. Basically, he needs to pull his head out of his ass. They both need to learn to talk to each other and have an actual adult relationship.
This is the reason I love James’ books so much–there’s a depth to her writing that takes the characters beyond external conflict and black moments to “can we really make this work for the next fifty years or so? Yeah, we love each other but can we operate a team?” Her couples learn to talk to each other in a way that’s meaningful.
My American Duchess worked for me in all the ways. It was the perfect example of a book by an author I love so much in a style she pulls off magnificently. I’ll be buying this one for my friends and giving it permanent space on my shelf.
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!
Ahh I’ve been excited for this book since forever. (Okay, like December.) Aloof heroes and class differences totally float my boat.
Also, I’ve been enjoying this recent trend of showing the first year of marriage where the hero and heroine hash out what being together actually means. Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner and Dukes Prefer Blondes by Loretta Chase also being recent examples.
I’ve been telling everyone who will listen, but there’s a fight between the hero and heroine in the Chase book where the heroine is in the right and stands her ground because she knows that if she gives in now at the beginning of their marriage it will be harder and harder for them to deal as equals even though she is also simultaneously filled with love for him and just wants him to hold her. It’s amazing and I am filled with delight again when I remember it. I also especially like the Chase novel because it wasn’t a marriage of convenience/switcheroo/oopswefucked for the couple since they actually fought to get married, so there isn’t any of that “what is this thing I’m feeling that’s outside my pants?” angst, but they do both question if getting married was the right decision for themselves personally in terms of how they both want to live their lives. It’s fantastic.
My husband and I will be married for five years (!!) this year. Like any relationship, we’ve had our ups and downs, but now that we’re really “building” a life together – thinking about kids, buying a house, etc. – I have a whole new appreciation for the “making the marriage work” trope. Marriage is HARD and it is magical and sometimes it’s really great and sometimes it’s really not. It makes me realize that sometimes the falling in love bit is the easy part. It’s the staying in love that can be difficult. Writing about the staying in love can be difficult, too, but it’s really become my catnip lately when I’m deciding what to read – so MY AMERICAN DUCHESS sounds like it’d be right up my alley. Maybe because I find things like communication and honesty so much sexier these days than flowers or chocolates! Adding this one to my TBR for sure.
So happy to see the wonderful review! This and Because of Miss Bridgerton are the two books I can’t wait to read,serious case of grabby hands over here.
Eeeeeeee! I’m so excited. Why do I have to be good and work on work things when I could be reading this? Glad to know by your grade and non-spoilery review section (thanks, Darcy!), that it’s good to go.
I have been excited for this book for so long (basically December but it seems long when you’re book waiting) I almost can’t believe it’s actually on my kindle this morning. Now, if only I could have convinced the school that the roads were safe enough for the kids to go to school and my boss that the roads weren’t safe enough for me to leave the house so I could just read all day instead of chasing kids and telecommuting. Alas, that is what lunch is for. Then, Ms. James me and your hero have a date over salad.
You know, I have never read an Eloisa James book that I’ve truly loved.
They are either pretty Meh to me or I actively dislike it (Potent Pleasures, gahhhh).
But I do love Sabrina. That’s the thing that always gets me, I love the idea of her books but I haven’t fallen madly in love with any of them, though I recognize they are smart and well written. I just need one to hit me in the feels.
I read this as an ARC, and I LOVED it. Merry is now ranked up there with my favorite heroines of all time. I love characters that are apologetically themselves.
Slightly off-topic, but: is Mr Darcy Takes a Wife good?? Because on the one hand, I LOVE books where you get to see the couple sort their married shit out, but on the other, I am terrified it will somehow sully P&P. Reassurances that the book’s a go??
I’ve looked at James’ books with longing for a while. I am currently devouring every word Courtney Milan has ever written. I look forward to my next obsession
As to Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet’s young marriage, I cannot recommend “Death Comes to Pemberly” enough. P.D.James does a really fine job of detailing their issues, mixed with wicked Willoughby and witless Lydia, who actually become more deep as things go on.
@Chipmunk, I really enjoyed Mr Darcy takes a wife. I thought Berdoll did a good job of staying true to character
Exceedingly difficult to leave an Elyse review in the middle…but I did it.
With enormous self-restraint I managed not to read past the Darcys. (Darcies?) But I did linger a little over them. Now I have one-clicked and will read the rest of the review in due course.
I’m another who has been fairly indifferent to James in the past. Maybe this is the book that will turn things around for me.
As a total aside, I love the “this dance is super slammin’!” gif. 🙂 It also reminded me that I recently read a “where is he now” type article about how Crispin Bonham-Carter (Bingley) left acting to become an English teacher.
@Alex: yeah, Eloisa James is massively hit or miss for me. When Beauty Tamed the Beast is one of my all time favorites, but there are a lot of things she’s written that were inconsistent or even enraging to me (currently trying to slog my way through Four Nights With The Duke which has a great premise but the execution… not so much).
Okay, I am reading this and I really wish the heroine would stop comparing the hero to a Mohawk warrior that she met once and was infatuated with. It’s not a dealbreaker but reallllyyyy off putting.
I’m so pumped this got a good review; there hasn’t been an Eloisa book plot that has piqued my interest in a while. But I’m so about this American heiress trend, and since I know Eloisa is good, I one-clicked that “suggested for you” without a second thought. I’m always happy when my impulsive buys are successful. I just need a day to emotionally decompress from the wonder that was Forbidden and then I’m diving straight in (really, why is it that my most anticipated books always release similtaneously?!)
I usually love Eloisa James and jumped on this when I got the ARC for it, but I stopped reading when I got to the spoiler part mentioned above. I was actually considering throwing it against the wall since, for once, I actually had a hard copy and wouldn’t have to worry about damaging my ereader. That’s how much this book annoyed me. I hated the way the hero vacillated between wanting Merry and disliking her. I hated the way Merry talked. I hated how villainy the twin brother was. I really wanted to love this. But not one single element worked for me and I was happier once I stopped trying to push through it.
“He totally has a boner.” Dying! If the book is even half as good as this review, I’m hooked. Sounds like it has a lot of depth – grabbing it now, thanks 😀
I’ve never read an Eloisa James book. I know, hard to believe. But this book may break that streak. Married couple romance is one of my favorite tropes, especially when they are strangers or almost strangers. That’s why I loved “The Arrangement” best out of Mary Balogh’s Survivor series.
I’ll just be here for a while, trying to wrap my head around anyone NOT loving a book by Eloisa James. I haven’t been this baffled since my BFF decided I should learn Linux.
i adored this book, but was a bit unsatisfied with the explanation given regarding the bridegroom switcheroo issue during the wedding. Other than that tiny mishap I absolutely loved the way she dealt with the lead couple’s interactions before and after the marriage. I met my husband via a south Asian type of marriage proposal, so basically our life as an actual couple mostly started after the wedding ceremony and unlike most romance novels our journey towards HEA was entirely dependent on our appreciation compromise, understanding and a strong, steady growth from the infatuation phase to love post marriage somewhat similar to this book.
Thanks for the review. Now I’m going to go find the book and (probably) buy it, as a longtime fan of Eloisa James myself.
I generally love Eloisa James’ books (Pleasure for Pleasure, A Duke of Her Own, and When Beauty Tamed the Beast are DIKs and comfort repeat reads for me). But this was a DNF. The first half was filled with tropes that, if only one were present, I could disregard if the book was otherwise compelling. But I was already irritated with the insta-lust (the duke decides she will be his duchess after a brief conversation in which they do not even identify themselves) and the big misunderstanding, so I stopped at the part which is the spoiler. I guess I should give it another try.
It’s amazing that there are romance readers who haven’t read Eloisa James. I feel in love with her early books – Desperate Duchesses remains one of my favs as the first book of an amazing serie. The final book of that series is ends my number one historical romance – A Duke of Her Own. I have reread 5 times! I do think Eloisa’s books have been trending down in complexity. Just read Desperate Duchesses and then read an American Duchess. It’s an amazing the difference. The number of vibrant secondary characters, intellectual jokes and intellectual wit are toned down in these later books. I like the American Duchess – very sweet but if I wanted to give a book to a friend to convince them that historical romances are freaking amazing– I would probably give them A Duke of Her Own. Her books lately have a rushed feel to them. All romance publishing is putting tremendous pressure on high production – is she a victim of this? Or perhaps like all prolific writers – sometimes it just doesn’t jell. Now don’t get me wrong – I am giving this 4 stars but Trent did not fascinate me like the Duke of Villiers does. But I loved Merry – she is such a believable young woman – falling in love a lot, smart, loving and loyal – I kept reading for her character.