[Historical Romance] The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

Since his return from war, the Duke of Ashbury’s to-do list has been short and anything but sweet: brooding, glowering, menacing London ne’er-do-wells by night. Now there’s a new item on the list. He needs an heir—which means he needs a wife. When Emma Gladstone, a vicar’s daughter turned seamstress, appears in his library wearing a wedding gown, he decides on the spot that she’ll do.

His terms are simple:

- They will be husband and wife by night only.

- No lights, no kissing.

- No questions about his battle scars.

- Last, and most importantly… Once she’s pregnant with his heir, they need never share a bed again.

But Emma is no pushover. She has a few rules of her own:

- They will have dinner together every evening.

- With conversation.

- And unlimited teasing.

- Last, and most importantly… Once she’s seen the man beneath the scars, he can’t stop her from falling in love…

Girl Meets Duke. Book 1

Was it a trashy novel? Unmistakenly.

But did I have fun? Absolutely.

The thing is this novel hardly passes as a historical romance. Outside the fact that author confessed to name badminthon earlier than the real name of it appeared, this book reads as modern one.

It's not only about the words they use, it's about how they talk.

But modern contemporary romance would not allow a plotline like that. Which is absolutely bonkers.

The relationships in this one are quite shallow, although author tries to insist on the opposite.

I still had my fun with this ridiculous novel because of those dialogues between FMC and MMC. They are not realistic at all, my brain simply separated them from the plot that is so ridiculous.

I'm the raccoon of my pile, I can sniff the trashiness, because basically the story starts right away and it's outside the scope of my imagination. Emma comes to him demanding to be paid for her work on his ex-fiancee's dress (don't question details from here on out, because there's too much to ask) and she refused to back down in front of a duke whose face (by his own words) scares children into hysterics. On the contrary our girl is unlike anyone else and sees him as manly or a good ass.

Ash needed a wife and soon (what's the hurry who knows, we don't even know his age..I believe, but I repeat, don't question the details) and Emma seems to be just right.

Seamstress to Duchess doesn't surprise anyone.

His reason for this marriage may not be that dumb, but hers is. You go girl. She knows she may get a house where she can help a young girl who was deceived to.. basically deceive others. Because she was pregnant, couldn't confess to her loving father and wanted to conceal the fact of her pregnancy and birth. No exploration from Emma's side into the loving father, she acts just because of the girl's words. Just because she was thrown out like that once. Remarkable, but as turned out off the mark.

So they marry within a week. And they procede to procreate (not my word, direct quote).

Honestly they have that insta-lust from the first touch. Which eventually turns into love because well, they don't need much, they just treat each other as human beings, while other wither betrayed or did something hurtful.

The only good side to modernity of their conversations from the get-go is the fact that they communicated a lot and did not have misunderstandings. The two times they did it felt so forced, like please. I laughed so hard. But they needed a conflict to confirm their feelings so here we are.

Ash acted like a mixed media, sometimes he's an utter ass, sometimes he can be nice.

In the end both admited that all the previous rules they decided to invent for their marriage did not work and they love each other.

I have no idea why someone mentions Pride and Prejudice, because of his smashed mirror I thought of Beauty and the Beast. She comes, she heal, happy ending.

What I also find quite flat is Emma's relationship with future protagonists of their own books. Honestly, we know nothing about them outside of bare minimum, their name and occupations. But the friendship aspect that author tried to promote fell flat to me, because their connection was so thin. Penny invited Emma just out of the blue, Emma liked this small circle of "outcasts" thus she stayed. I always find the supporting female friendship cute, but I honestly wished more, but since this novel is the level of flat floor surface I couldn't do anything if it felt shallow.

Very contrasting experience. Maybe because I switched off my perception of everything else outside of joke. You can't convince me that this is something more than an average fun book that is totally not serious. If one will find the jokes and everything else crude, I can see that too. I kinda clicked with the humor, so I was done with this book in no time.

Maybe later I will collect another post for short reviews, I've been on a search lately and had more to the collection of historical mystery with couples (as I call it). And I think I will do it after I'll filter through several Korean novels I found lately. As for Chinese novels as my main food, I'm not in the mood for any of the bookmarked I have.

RATE: 3/5.