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The Autumn Duke*
Deficiencies Make Book Not Wholly Enjoyable
I think I have read most of the A Duke for All Seasons series. Unfortunately, I have found them to be of variable quality. I know that I enjoyed at least one of them, but some of these others have been a surprise with the number of deficiencies. I’ll mention these in no particular order. There are definitely some issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage. Commas are more problematic than usual. There was also a strange misuse of “whom” that caught my eye. Some word choices also didn’t seem quite right. Beyond language, I also had issues with the level of sensuality expressed by the duke so early in his acquaintance with the heroine. There was actually a level of what I would call the “ick factor” regarding his wayward thoughts. There seemed to be inconsistencies with the Duke’s age. At one point, the Duke said he was nearly 20 years past his father’s death. His father died when he was 14. Then later on in the story, it is mentioned that the Duke is 28. So those numbers don’t quite add up. I also thought that the characters themselves were very ill suited. They were too different in ways that matter to make a love story between them seem plausible. The duke has a rather wretched past with his father, who was physically and mentally abusive towards him. This has made the Duke a somewhat a solitary man who does not wish to wed because he fears he might harbor some of his father’s treachery within him. So he’s got a bit of a dark story. In contrast, the heroine seemed to be a bit of a bubblehead. She is at least definitely silly and shallow. To me, silly/shallow and deeply wounded don’t quite go together, or at least this author did not pull it off.
