Review: Anything But a Duke

Anything But a Duke by Christy Carlyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Christy Carlyle's "Anything but a Duke," but not as much as I did the first book in the series. There was just something magical about Nick and Mina's story that I felt was missing here. Part of the problem was that I had a hard time warming up to Diana, the heroine of book #2. She was very focused on finding success with her inventions and didn't seem to have many interests or much of a personality outside of that. It was difficult for me to figure out exactly what Aidan, the hero, saw in her, besides the beauty he commented on several times over the course of the story.

I was also a bit confused about Diana because she was supposed to be a very intelligent young woman, but she didn't always seem to make smart decisions. For example, why would she turn down Aidan's marriage proposal, knowing that her mother would force her to seek a husband elsewhere who would probably not let her continue to work on her inventions? Not only did Aidan love Diana, he appreciated her cleverness and was willing to support her work. There's no way she would have gotten a better marriage offer from anyone else. I guess we were supposed to admire Diana for loving Aidan enough to give him up, but the sacrifice was completely unnecessary given that Aidan would never have proposed to another lady because of his feelings for Diana.

Diana's hot and cold attitude towards Aidan was a further irritant. Why on Earth would she go over to his house and throw herself at him one night, just to try and set him up with one of her friends the very next day? It also drove me crazy that she wouldn't talk to Aidan about her fears regarding their possible marriage. Aidan seemed pretty clear on what he wanted, so if she had just been honest and expressed her concerns to him, they never would have run into the awkward situation with Diana's friend Grace at the end of the book. It was entirely unnecessary, and frankly kind of cruel, for Diana to drag her friend into Diana and Aidan's drama, especially knowing how desperate Grace was to marry so that she could escape her father's house. Diana had to have known that there was no way Aidan would actually propose to Grace, so why get Grace's hopes up?

While I found Diana to be somewhat irritating at times, I liked Aidan a lot. He was a completely self-made man and worked hard to earn his fortune. I was intrigued by the mystery surrounding his search for his birth mother, though the outcome of that subplot was somewhat predictable. Still, Aidan was an easy hero to root for, and I was glad that he found someone who made him happy because he certainly deserved some happiness in his life.

One final thing that bothered me about this book was the constant focus on Diana's family connections, or lack thereof. Even though Diana may not have been a "noblewoman" like Aidan originally thought he wanted for his bride, she seemed to have some pretty good connections in society thanks to her finishing school friends. It's not like Diana's family were complete outcasts from the ton. Her uncle was a baronet, so the Ashbys were certainly respectable, and I can't see how they would have been a major impediment to Aidan's achieving his goals. He may not have been able to reach the highest levels of society if he married Diana instead of the daughter of a duke or earl, but it's not as if he was contemplating marrying a housemaid!

Overall, "Anything but a Duke" was a pleasant read in spite of these relatively minor annoyances, and I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series, which will hopefully feature the Marquess of Huntley. He seems like an interesting character and I have a feeling his book will be quite the adventure.

*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews