Deceiving The Duke

4.5. Better than I expected I read ALOT! I also read according to my mood .... sometimes I'm up for something intensely emotional, other times I appreciate the tension /complexity of action books and 'who done its'. Sometimes I read for information... frequently I read simply to reduce stress - for relaxation and pleasure. This book comes in under the last category with a bit of intrigue. It was better than I expected from some of the reviews. When you start reading you have a basic idea of the story line. Romance, mistaken identity, rectified & HEA. How you get to the HEA is what makes the book worth the time reading ... or not. What I really liked was the dialogue between the primary characters. Often, in the case of mistaken identity, the wording is a bit outside the scope of how I think the characters would speak (taking into account time/place of the setting). It's stilted from the effort of trying too hard not reveal the real situation ( who the people truly are, what they 'do', who they're related to, where they come from, etc.). With the exception of one incident, when I had to go back and reread a couple of paragraphs several times to make sense of them, the rest of the book flowed well and was easy to read. Only one other incident bothered me. I don't like extraneous situations. Things either have value getting to know the character, help visualize the setting or explain the particulars of a specific situation. Short of that it's not needed. Two very minor bumps. The story itself was good - even had a couple of little unexpected twists. The good guys were good, the bad guy was 'hateable'. Overall, Kissing the Enemy by Leighann Dobbs, was worth the time. The characters were likable and ones I wouldn't think twice about revisiting. A solid B+.