The Lost Duke of Wyndham and Mr. Cavendish I Presume by Julia Quinn

I have a mixed history with Julia Quinn. I have really enjoyed some of her books, especially The Duke and I and some of the others in that series. But some of her other books have been less satisfying - her humor doesn't always work for me, and many of her books have been disappointing. Still, when I read the premise of these two books, I was excited. I'm fascinated by historicals that deal with the privileges and drawbacks of titles - what does it mean to be a Duke, and what does it mean to have that taken away? Intriguing...

The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn
(2008, Regency Historical) 10/9/08
Grade: 4.5

For the past five years, Grace Eversleigh has been the companion to the dowager Duchess of Wyndham, a thankless job. But when a highwayman holds up their coach, she is oddly attracted to the mysterious stranger - and when it turns out that Jack Audley may be the dowager’s grandson, and perhaps the Duke himself, Grace knows her attraction is futile - or is it?

The premise is a little far-fetched, but the author makes it work here. Although this book has a lot of plot exposition, the focus is on the growing relationship between Jack and Grace. They spend a lot of time together, and the author does a great job in showing how and why they’re attracted to each other (not just lust). I love a hero who falls hard for the heroine, and Jack definitely qualifies. He could have been a stereotypical rogue, but the author made him three dimensional. There’s a lot more to him than a standard alpha hero. Grace is also a great heroine, with a dry and sarcastic sense of humor. In the end, this book may have bitten off a little more than it could handle - the hero’s dyslexia, in particular, is almost an afterthought - but overall, the real strength of this book was the intense yearning that develops between the hero and heroine - much sexier than just jumping into bed - and it gave the book a romantic intensity that is lacking in so many books these days.

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn
(2008, Regency Historical) 10/10/08
Grade: 3.5

When an unknown cousin appears out of nowhere, Thomas, the Duke of Wyndham, must face the loss of everything he’s known and worked for - his title, his home, his way of life. Perhaps even his fiancée. A few weeks ago, that would have been the least of his problems, but now, as he begins to see Amelia as a real person, that’s the deepest loss of all.

I expected to like this book a lot more than I did. The premise intrigued me, and I wasn’t bothered by the setup (this book takes place at the same time as the previous one, and many scenes are repeated). I was hoping that seeing the same story from another perspective would be refreshing. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The book felt choppy and unfinished, and it just didn’t have the flow of the previous book. It felt like the author wrote the first book, then had to fit the second story in with the first one, and it didn’t work. The hero and heroine weren’t well defined, and they didn’t spend enough time together. Every time they started getting closer, the book returned to the plot manipulations, which stopped the momentum. There were individual moments that were good - I wanted to know more about Thomas’s difficulties in adjusting to life without a title, and Amelia’s tentative steps toward independence - but it felt like the author was so constrained by the plot of the previous book, that she couldn’t develop these moments into a coherent, fully developed story. Too bad. The potential was there, but it just didn’t gel.

It's interesting - the first book has terrific sexual tension. It builds and builds, but the hero and heroine don't go to bed until almost the end - at which point, you are invested in these characters, and because of that, the love scene really meant something. I found this book much more "sexy" than books where the characters jump in bed early on (i.e. the recent Mary Balogh series).