Niki (mustreadalltheromance)'s Reviews > Duchess If You Dare

After a tough childhood with a single mother, Scarlett Wynn knows the world can be harsh and unforgiving, especially for women. When her seamstress disappears without a trace, Scarlett is determined to learn what happened to her. Her pursuit leads Scarlett to cross paths with the Duke of Aylesford at a high-class brothel of all places. The duke is also trying to get to the bottom of a mystery, one apparently linked to Scarlett’s own investigation so she decides they can help each other. She just has to keep her attraction to him tamped down.

Ambrose Cross, the Duke of Aylesford, has always known his duty to the title and has striven to avoid any scandal and maintain a pristine reputation. Scarlett’s determination and drive force him to look beyond his sheltered world and see things differently. He’s instantly drawn to her in a way he’s never felt before, though he knows he can’t have her in the way he wants. When the mystery Ambrose and Scarlett are looking into turns out to be linked to several missing women, they begin getting closer to the truth and into danger themselves. Their connection rapidly grows to something deeper, and with their lives in peril, they soon realize the need to realign their priorities.

This story started off so strong and the setup and plotline have so much potential. Somehow though, the pace was very slow, and it took a lot of effort to keep myself interested at times. The connection between Ambrose and Scarlett is fairly instantaneous, which is fine, but I never really felt that spark of chemistry. This could be due to the fact that both their inner monologues were almost constantly stuck on enumerations of why they could never truly be together. That got old and repetitive very quickly. The character development never really panned out here, especially for Scarlett and the other Maidens of Mayhem. We only got one scene with the ladies all together, which is likely because they each have stories occurring concurrent to this one. Still, I never really understood their goal and we didn’t get any info about how they got started or how they operate now. I just wanted more background about them as a whole and especially about Scarlett. We know she has this terrible past and her mother’s experiences have let her to distrust men, but we know almost nothing about how she got where she is, how she learned her skills, or really anything. Perhaps this is meant to add to the mystery, but I wanted more.

As for the mystery itself, things progressed at a paradoxically slow pace with Ambrose and Scarlett preoccupied with their attraction but also with keeping each other at arm’s length. This just culminated in a couple of rather cringy love scenes which were further undermined by each character’s virtually identical and tediously repetitive inner thoughts on how they had only one night to be together. Even when the mystery was solved, they weren’t there, but instead learned the final details from another character and the whole mystery just fizzled out without any real justice or a clean resolution. Especially for a heavy topic like human trafficking, I wanted more of a wrap-up. Even after they each realized their hearts and that they wanted to be together no matter their class disparity, Scarlett went back to her old fears, her resolution to follow her heart, made only a few pages previously, went out the window, and she went back to pondering about martyring herself by leaving so Ambrose’s reputation would be preserved. Give me a break. This angst was unnecessary and could’ve been derived from the mystery resolution instead if it was that important.

Overall, this story was solid enough, but I don’t think it lived up to its potential. I’d still recommend this as a historical mystery, but I likely won’t read it again. That said, I like this concept and am intrigued to see where the series goes with the next book and hope that provides more details on the Maidens.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Blog link: https://mustreadalltheromance.blogspo...