TBR Challenge: Anna Cowan - Untamed

Outspoken and opinionated, Katherine Sutherland is ill at ease amongst the fine ladies of Regency London. She is more familiar with farmers and her blunt opinions and rough manners offend polite society. Yet when she hears the scandalous rumours involving her sister and the seductive Duke of Darlington, the fiercely loyal Katherine vows to save her sister's marriage – whatever the cost.
Intrigued by Katherine's interference in his affairs, the manipulative Duke is soon fascinated. He engages in a daring deception and follows her back to her country home. Here, their intense connection shocks them both. But the Duke's games have dangerous consequences, and the potential to throw both their lives into chaos…

Comment: For the month of April, the theme of the TBR challenge post is unusual historical. I suppose many books could be interpreted this way, but I've chosen one which is identified or labeled as such by many readers. I have had it for a long time but it has slipped my attention until now, where it would fit this theme perfectly. I also had some expectations, considering the blurb and the opinion of some people whose review I've checked.

In this book we meet Katherine Sutherland, a woman many would think of as unusual among the more refined ladies in the city. She is spending some time with her sister, a countess whose marriage has been gossiped about in the papers, especially because of her connection with the Duke of Darlington, someone Kit believes to be unsavory. At a ball, she happens to express her blunt opinion to him, unknowing he was in disguise and that the man everyone thinks is the duke happens to be a friend of his in a convincing role. The duke is surprised but fascinated by Kit and since he has some issues of his own and would like to be away from London for a while, he manipulates things so that Kit believes she is helping her sister by taking him away from the city. Where else could Kit take him, but her own house in the country? She is amazed he travels with her disguised as a woman but that doesn't stop her from seeing his more vulnerable side and the feelings between them become stronger. But is there any future for them when they are from different classes and their personalities seem to be different as well?

I had not read anything by this author before this book and her writing style was a novelty. I didn't really dislike the book nor her way of telling the story but I wasn't as impressed as I would have liked, and I admit I imagined the story would go in a different path, more towards a traditional type of plot, which I see I shouldn't have expected.

In fact, this is an unusual story and not only because there's a difference of class and of personality between the protagonists. These things alone would make for a story we might label unusual but I suppose that isn't as unusual nowadays, when it comes to historical romances anyway. The unusual elements are very clear: the duke likes to cross dress and the heroine isn't a refined lady, making her out of her depth in a ballroom but uncaring of rules. That such opposite people would find each other and develop a relationship is amazing enough but I was curious to see how the author would deal with the dynamics between them.

Since this didn't follow a more traditional road, in the sense that the focus could be in them spending time together and falling in love and try to be together no matter what, the story seemed to be centered in other elements, such as political intrigues related to the dukedom and how Darlington should be recognized as the duke or if he isn't eligible for it. There is also a lot of talk and general content about his actions, his personality, his role and how he sees himself, why he feels is natural to cross dress, to embrace his "unmanly" nature (his definition), how manipulative he is, how he plays the society "games" when his spirit/heart isn't truly in it, among other aspects. I won't go into why this is clever or intentional by the author but from a pure escapism POV, I was sometimes too distracted by all these things and failed to see how the duke and Kit were falling in love.

The words are there and the scenes and I could see how the aim was to showcase that even in differences and in expectations, they could still find each other, but apart from one scene close to the end, their romance was kind of boring, to be honest. Both have issues, emotional scars they didn't deal with properly before and that now affect their behaviors and notions of self, which is all great and necessary for character development, but the way this was told just didn't captivate me. I suppose I wanted them to be a bit more clever about everything, a bit more aware of what it all meant in the past and why they are now this way, making these choices and decisions. instead, it feels as if they are thinking about their problems and why things might not work or how others might perceive them... which is all realistic and part of being human, but I wanted less introspection, more romance.

Perhaps I'm being unfair or I didn't get the point of the story, but these two weren't happy people and the things that made them miserable might be quite fair but the process of their romance didn't warm up them to me. Kit was a little easier to like because she is a young woman who does what she has to in order to see things happen, and she prefers to stay home and deal with things she controls. The HEA she and the duke achieve would not have been believable if her personality weren't one of self confidence and of tackling things straight on, so I kind of liked her and was happy she found her path but this wasn't one of those stories where I feel their romance was the best solution. I often thought maybe they should simply go their own way and remain alone.

The plot is sometimes confusing, all the games and moves made can be a bit tiring to keep track of and with the tactics used by the duke to set things up, I sometimes felt a little annoyed. 

As for the secondary characters, Kit's mother and brother were unassuming, quiet people and I liked them and the contrast to Kit and the duke in disguise. Some village related sub plots which affect Kit and her family were more interesting to me than the political stuff or the dukedom issues and even Lydia, the sister who first linked Kit and the duke together weren't as fascinating. Often characters would act in such ways... OK, in real life I might be more understanding of what they perceive as their flaws and challenges, but in fiction this made for an annoying read at times.

In the end, I just didn't feel a connection with the protagonists as a couple. Their romance didn't feel special, despite the circumstances that should have guaranteed that anyway. Even the cross dressing and all the details linked to it about the duke's personality and tastes felt a little secondary, as if he was just doing it to get a result and not because he truly felt that need, so it made me think of him as someone who was simply too confused. Perhaps as confused as I felt sometimes while reading...

Grade: 5/10