The Duke’s Desire by Elizabeth Elliot

Hero and Heroine Change and Grow

I am a great fan of Regency romance, and while I have read quite a few lately, most of them have left me desiring something different, something of a little more quality. I’m delighted to say I found that with this book. I loved that the heroine was a little older and not the stunning beauty that seems to be required of all heroines in romance (whether contemporary or historical). She was smart, kind, and compassionate—which is exactly how I like my Regency heroines to be. The hero was an approachable and likable one, not to irascible for once, but rather a good and decent man with a great affection for those in his care (like his sister). So the two main characters were simply a delight. The machinations of a plot though, kept them romantically apart for a while because all assumed that the heroine’s more beautiful younger sister would be the perfect match for him. It was a delight to see the hero and heroine’s blossoming affection, and both characters grew as people as well during the course of the novel. Unfortunately, this is far too uncommon in romance and especially Regency romance; so finding that here was a lovely surprise. Both these two characters had to learn more about themselves and how to fully appreciate another person. There were some issues with grammar, punctuation, and spelling, including surprising ones like incorrect verb forms and wrong forms of other words. This was somewhat distracting, unfortunately. But in the end, I found this to be a sweet, relatively low angst story that was simply a pleasure to read.