Review: The Duchess in His Bed

The Duchess in His Bed by Lorraine Heath
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lorraine Heath's "The Duchess in His Bed" was an enjoyable read with an interesting and relatively unusual setup. I found both of the main characters, Selena and Aiden, to be likeable and well-developed, and the secondary characters, particularly Selena and Aiden's siblings, added a lot of interest to the story as well. I hadn't read any of the earlier books in this series prior to starting this one, but I liked getting to know the couples from those books as they interacted with Aiden and Selena here, so I will plan to go back and read their stories at some point in the future.

Despite the likeable characters and interesting setup for this book, I have to admit that I found the first half of the story kind of slow-moving and had a hard time getting into it. It didn't seem to me like very much was happening at first. Selena visited Aiden's club every night, and they started to get to know each other, but all that seemed to be between them was insta-lust, not anything deeper. However, Aiden was immediately possessive of Selena, and even though he didn't know her at all and couldn't explain his feelings, somehow he "just knew" that what he felt for her was "different" than anything he'd previously felt for any other woman. Those feelings might have been more believable if they had developed later in the book, after Aiden and Selena had more time to get to know each other, but coming so early in the story, they just seemed off to me.

I found the second half of the book to be much more engaging than the first half, and it was easier for me to see the romantic feelings between Selena and Aiden begin to develop. The one (small) thing that annoyed me in the second half was how long Aiden took to make his decision about whether or not to help Selena with her plan. His reasons for hesitating were certainly understandable given his own childhood experiences as a bastard, but even so, his indecision was mildly frustrating and seemed somewhat out of character for a man who was so decisive in other aspects of his life.

Overall, while this wasn't my favorite among the Lorraine Heath books I've read to date, it was still an entertaining and enjoyable story, and I would recommend it. The likeable characters and engaging second half of the book mostly made up for the various things that frustrated me.

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

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