The Debonair Duke
On her website, Emily Hendrickson says:
‘[T]oo many of the peers we encounter in Regency novels sound more American than British. A true aristocrat should have the accent that comes from attending the exclusive schools, [and] the words used…’
If she knows this, why does she use such Americanisms as: ‘outsmarted’ instead of ‘outwitted’ and ‘figure out’ for ‘work out’? Indeed, why does Hale allow her to? Perhaps because this is a reprint of a Signet Regency Romance of 1996 and they took it over wholesale.
Lady Pamela Taylor, who is in London for her first Season, is sent a necklace of sapphires and diamonds by mistake. She seeks the help of the Duke of Wexford to try and discover who sent it. To this end she wears it to every evening event she attends, and she and the Duke have to ‘figure out’ who is the villain of the piece. Personally, I ‘worked out’ who it was from their first entrance.
This novel won the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence 1997, which may be a recommendation for some, but I found the characters flat, the emotion lacking, and the novel boring.
