Lady Lucy Upton’s tongue may be too sharp to attract suitors but her heart is good, and when her painfully shy friend Cassandra needs help she devises a brilliant scheme to help her discourage an unwanted suitor, the Duke of Claringdon. Lucy will hide behind the hedgerow and tell Cass just what to say to discourage the duke…but it turns out that he’s made of sterner stuff than either of them anticipated. And Lucy is shocked to discover that tangling with the tenacious man is the most fun she’s had in ages.
Lord Derek Hunt made a promise to his dying friend to marry the demure Cassandra, and for a man who wants nothing more than peace and quiet after the horrors of war, she’ll make the perfect bride. If only the impudent Miss Upton will let him court the girl! Doing battle is the last thing on his mind, but bantering with Lucy behind the bushes is too tempting to resist. And the spoils of this war just may be true love…
Comment: This one had been in the pile for some years and having now read it, I assume I've added it to the TBR list because it would feature a couple who wasn't seeing eye to eye at first but then would fall in love.
In this novel we meet Lucy Upton, a young woman who, along with her friends Cass and Jane, is considered to already be "in the shelf". When the recently appointed duke of Claringdon, Derek Hunt, who is a war hero, starts appearing at the social events the gossip says he is looking for a wife, and that woman apparently is Cass. The problem is that Cass is already in love with someone else, even though nothing can come out it, but she doesn't want to offend this new duke. Thus, intrepid Lucy decides to help shy Cass by giving her the lines when the duke and Cass speak for the first time. However, hiding in a bush isn't enough to deceive this war hero and that is how the "battle" between them begins, but when will they realize that all this antagonism actually hides attraction and suitability?
This is the first book I try by this author. From the start I could see this would be a novel mixing up a fluffy vibe with the expected historical setting, which means this is a very wall papery type of story. Now, this doesn't bother me that much and I have both enjoyed lighter and more dramatic historical romances but there has to be a method to the madness or the characters need to be greatly developed so that the thinness of the plot doesn't seem weak, but... I will say while this was enjoyable enough, the overall sense I've gotten from this book is one of ordinariness.
From the start that Lucy got a little bit on my nerves by how... out of touch she seemed to be. I get it that this was meant to include amusing/funny situations but her decision to deceive a stranger in the way she and her friend Cass chose seemed quite childish. Why couldn't she do the same thing while confronting the duke from the beginning, with Cass alongside her? This was clearly meant to give us a "meet cute" that would only be the start of their antagonism, but I wasn't quite taken with the way things happened.
Then, the story went on, we got to learn things about both protagonists and some characters around them, but it was already practically half way to the book and I thought to myself, did this story really moved forward? I thought not, we kept on having the same type of silly situations in which Lucy and the duke would meet and would repeat many of their interactions and the small additions to their surrounding weren't enough to convince me of how their feelings were truly evolving.
I was starting to feel a little bored... learning things about Derek and his honor and all his friends still at war areas or being treated for medical issues, and having Lucy showing off her vulnerability to the duke when they were sharing an outing that was supposed to be with Cass, even if reluctantly, were interesting bits and helped me to think of their personality, but to be honest, I wasn't particularly convinced by the writing style and the lack of objectivity in what was happening. Many situations between them seemed to not have an actual purpose except showing the reader they were a good match.
I also started to get annoyed at the blatant disregard to the historical details. I've said I don't mind wall paper historical romances but a lot depends on writing and consistency... for instance, in this book mrs Bowman chose some things that were historical needs to suit the development of the novel while others weren't as important. Of course this a choice, but then the plot feels inconsistent and the characters feel they don't fit the period if we only see what they are doing. I'd go as far as to say the characters were lacking depth to carry the plot on their own.
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