#emily ek murdoch

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Don’t Judge a Duke by His Cover by Emily E.K. Murdoch

Dukes in Danger 1

 Hoydenish young woman of the ton meets Duke masquerading as a boxer while working undercover to catch a treasonous murderer…should be interesting and filled with intrigue but…sadly…not.

 Julia Dryden pushes her brother to take her to a boxing ring in a questionable area of town, distracts one of the boxers to the point he is knocked out, and she feels compelled to check to see if she is okay. She tells her brother to leave her and go home…and he does. I kept reading to see what would happen, see if she would have a chaperone, see if she did anything ladylike at all and…again…suspended belief to keep skimming the story.

 The romance between Lawrence the boxing duke undercover and Julia the independent naïve hoyden who ran free through London was SLOW. The mystery and search for the traitor was more a matter of waiting for the man to appear, and the class issues were overcome by some with greater ease than probable.

 This is a romance with a happy ending that did not draw me in, make me feel invested, or care about the outcome…and that made me sad.

 I think that some will enjoy this story, but it did not work for me.

 Thank you to NetGalley and Dragonblade for the ARC – This is my honest review.

 2-3 Stars

     BLURB

 Lawrence, Duke of Penshaw, is undercover and getting punched on a daily basis. Devastated by the murder of his brother by a traitor to the Crown, Lawrence agrees to leave his identity as Duke behind to go undercover at an illegal boxing ring in London. He’s waiting for the killer to return from France, and absolutely must not get distracted. Especially by a beauty from Society who absolutely should not be here. Julia Dryden knows her mother would be scandalized by her presence at the boxing matches—it flies in the face of their agreement for her to choose a husband by Easter. After all, she isn’t getting any younger. But her eye is caught by a tall, handsome man who gives everything in the ring and seems to have no fear of danger. From two different worlds—but not the ones she thinks—Julia has no idea the man she’s falling in love with is not a common rogue. And Lawrence has to keep it that way for if he loses focus, just for a moment, he may lose everything. The chance to catch a killer, put a traitor behind bars, revenge his brother…and Julia’s heart.

[readtilyoudie]

“Marry me,” she whispered.

Relief, joy, and desire rocketed through David’s body as he gazed down at the woman who would be his wife.

“I thought you would never ask,” he breathed.

- Advent with an Archduke by Emily EK Murdoch

[pollyssecretlibrary]

“A Governess of Many Languages”, by Emily E.K. Murdoch

I read this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review RELEASE DATE - SEPTEMBER 30th

This is the third book of the “Governess Bureau” series. It’s set in Regency era in an estate outside Brighton (around 1813). There’s a very long house party, a couple at odds, a meddling godfather, a terrible set of twins and a mouse of a governess who, perhaps, shouldn’t be there.

I gave this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.

I requested this book on Netgalley because of the trope. I have a weakness for governesses, you can blame the Brontës for that I guess. This book had a lot of potential, it truly had it, but it didn’t meet my expectations. It was a book I enjoyed reading because it is not bad, but it was just OK for me, let me explain.

The premise was unlike any I’ve heard of before. The book is about Stuart, lord Galcrest, whose best friends, le duc and the duchess d’Allaire, struggle with the education and the behavior of their twins, William and Jane. The children are absolute terrors and with reason, their home is a mess. So Stuart goes to the Governess Bureau and hires a little mouse of a governess, Elizabeth Stuart, who speaks many languages fluidly (which is a plot device because one of the children refuses to speak in English)

Elizabeth was my favorite character. She is a “gift” to the d’Allaire. She is shy and doesn’t really speak her mind because she was educated not to and because being a governess it is not her place to speak out about herself. But she has spirit and she will show later in the book.

Now, the d’Allaires don’t take well that Stuart went and hired someone in their place. Mary is acting strange lately, firing woman after woman in the household. So she feels instant hate for Elizabeth, being a woman and not hired by herself. The husband, Philippe, doesn’t know what to do with his family anymore so he has given up trying. Still Stuarts meddling is not taken well on his part.

Now the real problem for me was Stuart himself. I didn’t like him. Sometimes heroes grow in me, but Stuart didn’t. It’s not that he was always awful, he was not violent in the slightest and he was very clear about consent and the word ‘no’ which was great, but he was an asshole and sometimes borderline humiliating towards Elizabeth. Stuart has a very high degree of the ‘Peter Pan Syndrome’ for most of the book, he never grows out of his immaturity. He’s spoiled, selfish (he did what he did so he could play with his friends) and he doesn’t learn a thing when Elizabeth tells him about his privileges and her lack of ‘plan B’. He even takes matters into hand without consulting her at the end…

So the romance didn’t work for me just because Stuart has the mentality of a child of 10, I didn’t understand the foundations of their love, especially on her part since she is such a great character.

The conflict between the d’Allaires took most of the book and it fell a little long. But I could go with that no problem. The house party felt as boring as the characters felt in the end… thankfully we had Elizabeth and the twins to save the book. Their shenanigans were a lot of fun so, in the end, I didn’t dislike the book, it was fine.

[readtilyoudie]

Louisa sighed but giggled at the sight of his face. “Oh, David, you never attend to me! Sometimes I do not know why you bothered to come and see me, if you have no wish to listen!”

Because, David had wished to say, you are beautiful. You are clever. You make my heart do a horrible pitter patter that makes it hard to swallow and though I hate the sensation, Louisa, I wish to feel it every day. 

Every day for the rest of my life.

-  Advent with an Archduke by Emily EK Murdoch

[readtilyoudie]

“Well, the thing is, mother,” said Louisa with a bright smile, “it turns out that after all my complaints, I am actually far more interested in spending Advent with an Archduke than I thought.”

David stifled a grin. So, she had been complaining about his arrival, had she? There was the spiky, passionate Louisa he knew.

“But he...he is nothing!”

Louisa’s polite smile disappeared. “He is not nothing. He is David.”

And it was at that moment, if it was possible, that he fell in love with her all over again.

- Advent with an Archduke by Emily EK Murdoch