C-
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
Theme: Enemies to Lovers, Epistolary
Archetype: Diverse Protagonists
Yet again, I have picked up a book because of its cover. I feel zero shame for this shallowness on my part. Okay, sometimes it backfires on me, but this time it worked out, kind of. Although I’ve landed on a C- here, depending on your answers to the questions I pose in this review, you might land in DNF territory, or as high as a B. Very much a case of ‘your mileage may vary’ depending on your personal views.
Eleanor is a compositor, the best in the business. She, along with her two friends, puts individual letters in the right order so that ultimately books and newspapers can be printed. Peter (a duke, of course) has invested in a machine that can do the same job at a fraction of the cost that it takes to employ a large team of compositors. He has a warehouse full of the machines and prepares to sell them to publishers and newspapers in London.
When Eleanor and Peter first meet by chance at the zoo, Peter hides that he is a duke. He implies that he’s a civil servant. There is some lovely chemistry, but that chemistry is a ticking time bomb because it’s only a matter of time until Eleanor realises he’s a duke. They meet again at a few society events because Eleanor (as part of a publishing deal) is serving as an author’s (Lady Wharton’s) companion. When Eleanor realises that he’s a duke, she’s hurt. When she realises that he is the duke that is about to put an entire group of people out of work, she is incensed.
While this is happening, Eleanor’s anonymous pen pal (Peter’s sister) has had surgery on her eyes and so Peter (known as ‘the captain’ to Eleanor) reads his sister her mail and includes notes of his own to Eleanor (aka Booklover). They strike up a deep and sincere friendship.
Do you see the potential for mess here?
There are three questions that any prospective reader needs to ask themselves when deciding if this book is for them.
First: ‘Can I forgive Peter for his multiple lies?’ If you can (and I did, with some difficulty) then it’s possible to enjoy this book.
I’m going to hide why I had difficulty behind a spoiler because it happens late in the book.
Despite figuring out that ‘booklover’ and ‘Eleanor’ are the same person at about the midway point of the story, Peter only reveals that he is the ‘captain’ at the very very end of the book. If this had happened to me personally, I would be enraged. Eleanor maintains that he did the right thing keeping it a secret, but I couldn’t get on board with that decision. This was one of the factors that lowered my overall opinion because the feeling I was left with when I finished reading was, ‘not cool, bro’.
BUT most of what came before the end was genuinely interesting to me for a variety of reasons. I enjoyed Eleanor, and I wanted to spend more time with her.
Second: ‘How important is prompt, fair, and just treatment of the working class?’
When there is sudden mass unemployment and people are demonstrating, Peter takes no responsibility and repeatedly says that it is their responsibility to retrain. Eleanor loses her shit with him (quite rightly) and for a time they are bitter enemies. Why on earth did I keep reading at this point? Because I was sure that he would listen to Eleanor and actually use his privilege for something good. I clung to that hope desperately. But did he?
It takes Peter ages (80% of the book) to use his influence to get the newly unemployed decent severance packages and opportunities to retrain. He saw how deeply his invention impacted innocent people and he took way too long to act. That I struggled with a lot.
Third: ‘Could you see your way to falling in love with the person that rendered you not only unemployed but unemployable, with your entire career over, as the field no longer exists?’
Peter tries to restart his friendship with Eleanor after she loses her job. Eleanor is allegedly gracious in defeat, according to her, and so they become, in their words, ‘friendly’.
But I struggled to get on board with this. I’ve been let go once and I still hold a huge amount of anger for the circumstances of me losing that job as it was unjust and hurtful. Losing a job and a livelihood are traumatic experiences. I would never, not once in a million years, be friends with the person who ended my career, nevermind fall in love with them. But perhaps that’s a me thing. I’m not proud to admit that I had to push down my moral outrage to get to the end of the book.
Despite my frustrations, I still devoured this book in a couple days because it is an original premise with interesting characters. If you can answer all three of the questions I put forward in the affirmative, then you’ll enjoy The Duke’s Got Mail. I wasn’t able to answer all the questions in the affirmative and I still landed on a C- for this book which to me means a book that is readable and pleasant but not going to set my world on fire or keep me up past a sensible bedtime. It may have been that I was so looking forward to their HEA that I just closed my eyes to the clear obstacles to it. That is, in part, due to the writing, which I found engaging; due to Eleanor, who I enjoyed for the most part, and due to my own headspace where I NEEDED a HEA. For some of the Bitchery, I think this book might enrage them and cause them to flip tables. For others in the Bitchery, perhaps in a similar position to me, they’ll find it a pleasant way to pass the time.
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!
