This was not a bad book, and I liked the characters, its just the author doesn’t grasp the culture of Regency England in any believable fashion. ~ Shadow, Guilty Pleasures
Description:
Sometimes the man of your dreams . . .
Shop girl Poppy Fairchurch knows it’s pointless fantasizing about the Duke of Autenberry. Still, dreams can’t hurt anyone . . . unlike the carriage Poppy spies bearing down upon the unsuspecting duke. After she pulls him to safety, the duke lapses into a coma and Poppy is mistaken for his fiancée. But one person isn’t fooled: his arrogant and much too handsome half-brother, Struan Mackenzie. Soon Poppy isn’t sure what she wants more . . . the fantasy of her duke or the reality of one smoldering Scot who challenges her at every turn.
. . . is not who you think.
An illegitimate second son, Struan may have built an empire and established himself as one of the wealthiest men in Britain, but he knows he will always be an outsider among the ton. Just like he knows the infuriating Poppy is a liar. There’s no way the haughty Duke of Autenberry would deign to wed a working class girl. It doesn’t matter how charming she is. Or tempting. Or how much Struan wants her for himself.
Review copy provided for an honest review
While this Cinderella story was well written and captivating, the main action is so improbable as to be unbelievable. Poppy, a well bred woman who ends up selling flowers in a flower shop, is totally infatuated with the Duke of Autenberry who comes into the shop weekly for flowers for his many paramours. During a fight with a man she has never seen, Poppy saves the Duke’s life, only to have him strike his head and fall into a coma.
After seeing him to his home, a series of misunderstandings leads to his staff and family believing Poppy is the Duke’s fiance. The one person who doesn’t believe that is the man whom the Duke was fighting, his half brother, Struan MacKenzie. The Scotsman and Poppy find themselves drawn to each other, but their relationship is based on lies. Will they be able to continue their relationship when Poppy reveals who she really is? And what will happen when and if the Duke awakens, knowing full well that Poppy is not his fiance.
Between the incongruity of Poppy working in a flower shop, to people thinking this girl in the rough clothing could attract a Duke, the premise stretches the reader’s sense of reality beyond what can be borne. In a world where people did not mingle with others in different stations, the connection between the Duke and Poppy is not believable. That she would find herself connected to his bastard brother makes more sense.
This was not a bad book, and I liked the characters, its just the plot didn’t fit the culture of Regency England in any believable fashion.
“…just the plot didn’t fit the culture of Regency England in any believable fashion.” That’s unfortunate, thanks for the review Shadow