C+
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
I spent a (mostly) happy two and a half days reading this one. For context, with my current circumstances, finding enough reading time to finish a book that quickly is only possible if the book has DRIVEN me to find the time to read. That being said, there is one thing that could be a major red flag for readers, and that diminished my own experience significantly. What pushed me through this one? My love for the heroine and how much I enjoyed reading about the two falling in love.
Portia has an epiphany while reading Mary Wollstonecraft at 16. The current system is desperately unfair and she makes the decision there and then to do what she can to reform society so it is more just and equitable.
At the age of 24, she chucks in her governess job and takes a position as assistant editor of a reform publication in Bath. Only, she finds out during her first meeting with the editor that no one gets paid. The publication is entirely volunteer run. So Portia applies for a job as a social secretary and chaperone.
Portia has detested dukes and the like since 16. She finds them abhorrent as a group. So to find herself seeking work in a duke’s household really sticks in her craw. Despite being testy and a bit rude during the interview, she gets the job of chaperoning the duke’s sisters during the day, leaving her evenings free for the publication.
Who is the duke in question? Leo is handsome (obviously) and a bit of a reformer himself. Not that Portia knows that at the start. But he finds himself drawn to the ‘prickly minx’ sitting across from him in that interview.
What ensues? Portia wrangling the spoilt sisters, writing seditious columns and trying not to be too distracted by Leo’s dimples. A lot more happens, of course – this book is not short on plot – but I’ll leave that for you to discover. Okay, I’ll give you a hint: it involves Leo’s role as a magistrate and a few arrests.
Portia is headstrong, smart, stubborn and firm in her principles. Leo is a bit more mercurial. By turns charming and anxious, he takes his responsibilities very seriously.
In terms of character growth, Portia has to accept that her generalisations about dukes might not apply to this particular one. There isn’t a tremendous amount of emotional development for either party, but the falling-in-love parts are detailed, vivid and overall a treat. For someone as focused as Portia, falling in love is disorienting and I really felt that as I was reading.
One thing didn’t sit right with me: Mr Duke-man needs to learn to express his feelings appropriately and talk through them. When Leo panics because he thinks someone he loves could be in danger, he becomes overbearing, angry and controlling. He is always deeply apologetic about it afterwards and the way it’s explained in the book, it’s a trauma thing based on earlier events in his life, but I didn’t like it. It happens (if I recall correctly) about three times in the book.
Without the dual POV, his actions would have driven me to stop reading, entirely because of my own personal trauma. A different reader might experience Leo’s outbursts totally differently or might be able to focus on the anxiety driving them and not the outburst itself, but this was not at all the case for me. I found his repeated tantrums upsetting and his unwillingness to change his behavior frustrating and ultimately disappointing.
His behavior in the final scenes really bothered me.
Leo loses his shit because Portia is writing for her reform publication again. It happens at around 93% and I couldn’t understand why it needed to happen. They had already overcome obstacles to being together. I get that Leo still had to make a grand gesture to demonstrate his commitment to Portia, but surely it could have been prompted by something other than his being an ass again.
Leo’s behavior was upsetting on a personal level and on a critical level, because his having another tantrum near the end doesn’t indicate that he’s grown or changed or recognized that his behavior when he’s angry isn’t acceptable. It diminished his character and the romance.
This book is exceptionally difficult to grade because if I base it on how I felt overall, then it’s an easy B. If I take into consideration my body’s reaction to Leo’s outbursts, then it’s a D-. If I focus only on Portia and her wonderful self it’s very nearly an A. A real mixed bag! How on earth to choose just one grade for a book that consists of such disparate parts? I settled on an average.
If you can look past the outbursts (and I really must stress how Leo’s behavior is almost perfectly formulated to map onto my trauma) then this book has a huge amount to offer. There’s romance and principles and kindness. The heroine is delightful fun to spend time with, especially as she moves through being flummoxed by her own feelings for Leo.
But Leo’s behavior when he’s in a temper and his inability to change even when he knows he has hurt people reduced my enjoyment of this book by a noticeable margin. This is a case where the hero isn’t worthy of the book he is in, and his inability to take responsibility and change his hurtful behavior compromised my overall enjoyment.
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