The Reluctant Duchess by Roseanna M. White

The Reluctant Duchess

MY REVIEW:

“The Reluctant Duchess” is often a study of contrasts. Heroine Lady Rowena Kinnaird is both fragile and courageous with a backbone as strong as the Scottish coast where she was raised. And what a contrast her new life as the Duchess of Nottingham is to the rugged Highlands she knows and loves! How different can her new husband Brice Myerston be to that cruel man he saved her from with a hasty marriage? Rowena finds herself removed from one dangerous situation only to discover that she is right in the middle of another one!

What can I say about “The Reluctant Duchess” that would not be needless repetition of other glowing reviews? I was captured on page one and held prisoner until the dramatic and satisfying end. I loved the primary characters Rowena and Brice and also enjoyed catching up with Brook and Justin from the first book of the Ladies of the Manor series, “The Lost Heiress”. Filled with historical facts, danger, suspense, mystery, and romance, the plot began at a steady pace but gathered momentum as the story progressed.

I liked the portrayal of both Brice and Rowena as unique individuals with both strong and weak attributes. I also appreciated the fact that their relationship progressed slowly and was not a love-at-first-sight romance. Their personal and spiritual growth were strong points in the narrative that did not compromise its emphasis on Christian faith.

So, this is another glowing review of “The Reluctant Duchess”. I loved it and cannot wait for the next installment of this series. If you enjoy historical romantic suspense set in Great Britain, you should love the book and the rest of the series.

A copy of this book was provided for review by Celebrate Lit.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Will Fleeing the Scottish Highlands Only Leave Her in More Danger?

Lady Rowena Kinnaird may be the heiress to a Highland earldom, but she’s never felt good enough–not for her father, not for the man she thought she’d marry, not for God. But after a shocking attack, she’s willing to be forever an outcast if it means escaping those threatening her life.

Brice Myerston, the Duke of Nottingham, has never been one to shy away from manor-born ladies, yet the last thing he needs is the distraction of the newly introduced Lady Rowena. He has enough on his plate having recently come into possession of a rare treasure for which many would kill, yet those around him seem intent on pairing him with this desperate but beguiling girl.

Rowena is reluctant to marry this notorious flirt. And when she learns that Brice is mixed up in some kind of questionable business with a stolen treasure, she fears she’ll end up in more danger than she fled.

Purchase your copy here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. The Reluctant Duchess is Roseanna’s eleventh published book. Her novels range from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. She lives with her family in West Virginia. Learn more at www.RoseannaMWhite.com

GUEST POST FROM ROSEANNA WHITE:

Though I’ve written nearly thirty books, thirteen of which will be out by the end of 2016, there’s something very special about the Ladies of the Manor Series. The first book, The Lost Heiress, is a rewrite of the first novel I ever wrote—at the age of 12-13. Once I finished that first novel, I made it my goal to keep adding more manuscripts to my “finished” file. I started in immediately on the sequel . . . and soon ran into a problem. You see, I knew who I wanted these characters to be. Brice Myerston, a duke, whom readers would have met in the first book. And a young lady from Scotland who had suffered abuse.

That’s it. That’s all I knew. And it stymied 13-year-old me, who hadn’t a clue what it felt like to suffer such things, and whose imagination, while rich, just lacked a certain basis in the realities of human nature. Probably a good thing that I gave up on the story back then, and didn’t dust it off again until my mid-20s, when I was reworking the series. And better still that Rowena had many more drafts to go through before she finally took to the printed page in The Reluctant Duchess.

I narrowed my setting down, during those years, to the Highlands, and I chose Loch Morar because of how perfectly the region of Lochaber suited the story I wanted to tell. Isolated. Stark. Rugged. Beautiful. Sometimes cruel. This was a land utterly perfect for my heroine’s family, for her back story. Then came the challenge of picking a clan for her to belong to—because lemme just tell you, one could quite easily offend with such choices, if not portrayed properly, LOL. And because I wanted her father to be chief of her clan, I ran the risk of people mistaking him for the actual chief, if I chose an actual clan.

A writing friend came to rescue and offered her last name for my heroine: Kinnaird (pronounced “kin-AIRD”), which is a sept (branch) of another clan in reality, so had no chief of its own, but was still a well-established Scottish name. Perfect!

So Rowena Kinnaird was born after many years of her character floating in and around my head and computer screen. And I got to pair this backward, sometimes shy, sometimes stubborn Scottish lass with the charming, suave, polished English duke I’d had planned out since I was 13.

I went to great pains in The Lost Heiress to make Brice Myerston a favorite character, so that readers HAD to read his story. Mwa ha ha ha. ? So far, so good on that score! Brice is a hero who has his faults, but he also has character. He has faith. He has a good heart, he’s considerate, he’s understanding. And he’s also so accustomed to charming everything female that he doesn’t quite know what to do when Rowena doesn’t seem inclined to be charmed.

There are clashes. There is tension. There’s much healing on Rowena’s part. Many trials for them both. But I hope that through this story of The Reluctant Duchess readers see what it means to triumph over past hurts. And how brightly God shines against the darkness.

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