I thoroughly enjoyed The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran. It’s a historical (probably the duke part of the title gave that away) set in India and England, mid-eighteenth century. I particularly enjoyed having a different setting and a broader scope of story than a lot of historical romances I’ve read lately. (Don’t get me wrong, I can certainly enjoy a more narrow focus, but this was a nice change of pace and place.)
The hero is one-quarter Indian with strong ties to his Indian family and that allows Duran to explore non-British India. His being part of both worlds and in a way part of neither, gives way to interesting characterization, and I was quite taken by Julian.
I also liked the heroine, in part because I appreciate prickly, difficult heroines when they’re well done. I feel that Duran gives Emmaline enough baggage (and not too much) to make her believable and understandable.
One of the things I enjoy most about romance can be the slow coming together of the hero and heroine and in The Duke of Shadows, because of the structure of the story, Julian and Emmaline have to learn about each other twice.
Highly recommended.
Now, as is my wont, I went searching through old reviews, after writing this, and rounded them up here. Dear Author has a number of reviews of varying grades by: Janet, Jane and Jan.
