Clorinda De Villiers was wed in haste (and dare I say, at random!) to the Duke of Westhampton, her reason for agreeing to the mad bargain being to save her family from financial ruin, and his to make a respectable alliance. He barely looks at her, let alone speaks, and almost as soon as they arrive at Westhampton, he departs for London and leaves Clorinda behind, and the poor young girl is ordered (by him) to "be prepared at all times for his return". In a fit of pique, she decides to go to London by herself, disguised, and to make the Duke fall in love with her to "teach him a lesson".

The Duke is incredibly arrogant, boorish, rude and selfish. And naturally, he is jaw-dropping sexy and sought after by all the young misses and their matchmaking mamas. He's a Duke. He's hot. He's rich. Of course everyone loves him. Even though he's a complete asshole. And remains so throughout the book. He falls in love with Miss de Vere, yet he never tells her that he's already married, and he kisses her and treats her like he would any of his mistresses. The only difference between him and the perverted Lord Winterstoke (the villain, apparently) was that the latter wasn't hypocritical about his relations with women. He was a publicly acknowledged dangerous rake and didn't shy away from it. Westhampton was just as bad, but got away with his behaviour "because he was a Duke". Bleargh.

My main problem with the love story though, was that it was purely based on physical appearance. Westhampton wouldn't look twice at Clorinda when she was dressed in dowdy country clothing, but now that she's in town masquerading as the beautiful Miss de Vere, wearing all the latest fashions, suddenly she's gorgeous and irresistible. The Duke and "Miss de Vere" meet freaking three times in London and are already desperately in love with each other. Clorinda HATED the Duke with a passion, and now she LOVES him with the same passion. It was so dramatic and unrealistic.

The only things that made this book bearable were the lavish period details and descriptions, which I surprised but pleased to encounter in such a short work, and the character of Monsieur Lafayette, who reminded me of Avon from TOS, calling Miss de Vere his infant and being super wise and classy and all that. ;)

Other than that, this wasn't a good read. Much too short for the kind of plot, little to no character development, too much focus on the hero's mistresses, and a stupid appearance-based silly love story. It would have been better if Miss de Villiers and the Duke of Westhampton had been engaged and not married. Adultery was never attractive, even if Regency noblemen were allowed to

Duchess in Disguise

Similar Duchess in Disguise