Review: Second Duke's the Charm

Second Duke's the Charm by Kate Bateman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This book tried to have all the pieces, but it really felt like none of the pieces quite fit together. The idea and premise were strong, but in my opinion the execution left much to be desired.
Tess was forced to marry a very wealthy elderly duke at 19, but lucky (?) for her, he died just after the wedding. At which point her two best friends who just happen to be there show up and help her move the body so no one thinks she poisoned her new husband, and they decide to form a detective agency to help out the less fortunate... (okay. Seems a bit far-fetched, but I was willing to suspend belief). Then we fast-forward a few years, when the young women have a successful business, but Tess finds herself unsatisfied. After a steamy encounter with a stranger, she discovers that he is the new duke set to inherit her late husband's title. He proposes marriage completely out of the blue, she accepts (I think so she can keep her detective agency running...? The logic seemed funny to me), but worries considerably more about lying to her new husband about that fact that she in completely "inexperienced" than lying about the fact that she has been employed by royalty to find a blackmailer.
I had a hard time connecting with both main characters. Tess's priorities seemed messed up, and she was preoccupied with things that didn't really matter. And Justin felt very two-dimensional. I felt now organic chemistry between the two--they just liked each other because of how "beautiful" they were. And I certainly didn't feel any growing feelings of love between them. The plot and pacing were strange as well. Things that should have been a big deal were glossed over, and things that were treated as huge road blocks in the relationship didn't seem like they should matter at all--mountains were made out of molehills and molehills were turned into mountains. And the ending was more than a bit ridiculous--just tell each other the truth!
And I got really sick of reading the word "perverse."
I tried with this book, but just didn't like it. I ended up skimming about half-way through, just because I wanted to see who the blackmailer would turn out to be. I wouldn't recommend this book and probably won't read anything else by this author.

View all my reviews