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The third book I read for the Historical Romance Readathon was Eloisa James's standalone My American Duchess. This is also the December pick for the Rake Appreciation Society hosted by Crystal and Jen! I was able to apply this to the prompts green/red on cover, new to you author, rec'd to you and book I owned. I also was able to use this for the friend gave 5-stars prompt for Winter's Kiss, and Last Christmas (bought last year and never read) prompt for the Merry + Bright Readathon.
Merry is in London after two failed engagements in Boston. As an American Heiress, she's having trouble fitting in and ends up agreeing to marry a duke's second son, Cedric. At the same ball, she goes to get some air on the balcony and ends up running into the Duke of Trent without knowing he is the duke and also her future brother-in-law. When their cute banter is over, Trent decides to approach Merry as the woman he want to court as his wife. When he goes to get an official introduction, he is surprised to see that the woman he wants as his wife is his future sister-in-law. As Cedric continues to belittle Merry, both her and Trent fight the feelings forming between each other. Merry just can't break a third engagement and bring the scandal upon her Aunt and Uncle.
I have been wanting to read Eloisa James for a while now, but just didn't quite know where to start. I own quite a few of her books (for the gorgeous stepbacks) and have heard good things about her books. When the Rake Appreciation Society announced this was December's book I was pleased. It's a standalone so a good way to try her writing. Now, this is my favorite trope wrong sibling. It just usually hits all my buttons. However, even though I gave this book 5-stars, I don't know if it hit everything I want from that type of trope. If I were to be really specific, I would rate this more 4.5-stars.
I loved the connection between Merry and Trent and how their relationship just kept evolving, even when they were trying so hard to stay friendly as future siblings. It doesn't always happen this way, but Eloisa was very smart in how their relationship was progressing but didn't really get physical until it seemed that Cedric and Merry were no longer together. I did want that to come sooner in the book. I also didn't like how mean Cedric was. I've read other historicals with this prompt and much more prefer the version where the other partner is just agreeing to the marriage for business reasons and has no romantic or even platonic feelings for the heroine. I understand that part of the reason he was shown like this is to get the reader to be okay with Merry breaking off their engagement, but he was just a little too much for me. I'm going to try to be as spoiler free as possible, but I also didn't really like the wedding scene. I was very much in my feels and feeling so bad for Merry and that she didn't have anyone to turn to and as a reader I didn't like being thrown for a loop as much as Merry. What made that an issue for me was I was left wanting more from Trent in apology/explanation. Merry was more accepting of what happened, which is fine. Since it was written in a way that really put you in Merry's perspective and blindness to what was happening I felt like the grovel/explanation also needed to be partly towards the reader. I don't know, maybe it's just me. Either that or make her veil easier to see through so she had even a moment more to deal with what was happening.
Despite my rantings over those two things, I really did enjoy the book overall. I will definitely be picking up more of Eloisa James's books. I'm not sure where I'll start next, but there's quite a few options. I'm thinking one of her older series that's already complete. If you haven't tried her before, I don't know if this is the place to start since it's definitely more angsty and I'm not sure how her other books are, but it is a standalone so there's that. I had a lot of fun (as always) chatting with everyone about the book. If you weren't able to make the live the video has been posted!
Have you read My American Duchess?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: My American Duchess, Eloisa James, 5-stars, 2 days, Paperback, 402 pages, published in 2016
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