Wednesday, November 28, 2018

The Good, the Bad, and the Duke by Janna MacGregor [Review]

The Good, the Bad, and the Duke by Janna MacGregor
The Good, the Bad, and the Duke (Cavasham Heiresses #4) by Janna MacGregor
Format: ebook
Source: provided through NetGalley
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: October 26, 2018

Cavasham Heiresses
1. The Bad Luck Bride
2. The Bride Who Got Lucky
3. The Luck of the Bride
4. The Good, the Bad, and the Duke - Paperback | Kindle
5. Rogue Most Wanted

Janna MacGregor
| Website | Twitter | Facebook | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):
A lady with a noble mission. A duke looking for redemption. A forbidden love that cannot be denied…

Lady Daphne Hallworth is ready to celebrate the holidays with her family. But when they accidentally leave her home alone, Daphne uses the time to work on her dream—opening a home for unwed mothers. But her quest isn’t problem-free: She’s in a battle to win the property for the home against her brother’s best friend-turned-enemy, Paul Barstowe, Duke of Southart. And that’s not all: someone has stolen her personal diary, which holds secrets that could devastate her family. Daphne has always harbored private feelings for the man her family scorns…though perhaps striking a bargain with the handsome Duke will solve both their problems?

Paul, long considered good for nothing, aims to open a hospital to honor his brother and restore his reputation. So when a conflict over the land brings him straight into Daphne’s life, they make a deal: He will help her find her diary if Daphne can change her family’s opinion of him. But before he can win her family’s affection, he has to win hers first. Maybe love was the answer to their family feud all along?
Thoughts on The Good, the Bad, and the Duke: This is my first dip into the Cavasham heiresses world and...I must say, while I can see that Paul did some questionable things in the past, I never got the feeling he was a bad guy, exactly. Maybe that's because the circumstances behind why he acted the way he acted were pretty clear. Family can mess a person up something fierce and Paul's father wasn't exactly the best example of fatherhood a boy could know.

Which isn't an excuse (okay, maybe it is), but, all in all, I think Paul didn't do too badly. (I might change my mind if I read the earlier books, however. But my initial impression wasn't of a bad guy, just a guy doing  questionable things for all the wrong reasons.)

But this isn't all Paul's book. Daphne has a starring role, too. She's...mourning, I think. Even though time has passed since her sister's death, she wasn't given the chance to mourn properly and it drove her to cling to her sadness instead of addressing it. It isn't until she's left behind and comes back into contact with Paul that she begins to come alive again.

I haven't been reading a whole lot of historicals recently, so this was a nice literary break from the usual. Daphne and Paul had issues hey needed to work through and, by gum, they did just that. I liked it. I liked it a lot.

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