Project Duchess

3.5* Review originally published at Romancing Romances. I received an ARC through a giveaway, and I am leaving a voluntary and honest review. Thank you. This is the first book in a brand new series about... Dukes! Grey was a great character, I liked how fierce he was, how he grows throughout the book, how he deals with some things that are problematic (although here I do think some things could have been different, but I’ll expand on that next). I wasn’t a fan of Beatrice… I didn’t connect with her. I understood some of her reactions, I think she had to go through a lot, and she handled herself the best she could, that’s not the point. I just… didn’t like her. I liked the middle part of the book the best. The beginning felt a bit slow, and the end was rushed without actually having much happen… It did leave me with enough interest to read the next book in the series, especially since I liked the secondary characters more than the main ones. Joshua and Gwyn have a great chemistry, and I can’t wait to read their story. Now, this is important. This book handles forms of abuse. Abuse from men towards women. Not rape, but still sexual abuse. Unwanted touching, blackmailing, disgusting comments… Beatrice did have to endure a lot from someone she should have been able trust: her uncle. Grey is super concerned if the heroine was raped – spoiler alert – she wasn’t. And, of course, he is relieved but, at the same time, it ends up being a bit of a dismissal of the other things Beatrice had to go through. Heroes, especially in (today’s) historical romance, seem always ready to go and defend the heroine’s honour (“let’s go and punch/hurt/kill the aggressor” kind of thing) and, even if it’s something protective, in a way it almost diminishes Beatrice’s role in standing up to herself – which she does. Apart from that, I did enjoy the book enough to want to keep reading the series.