I had such high hopes for The Duke, the Lady, and a Baby, especially because the title was catching! The book’s summary plot is composed of a mixed race (West Indies) widowed heroine fleeing Bedlam, hatching a plan to take back her baby by pretending to be his wet-nurse, all while falling in love with her deceased husband’s dashing and honorable cousin whilst also sometimes pretending to be a man. See, this book had all the makings for a fun, adventurous and also diverse story (finally, we have characters in a book that aren’t all staunchly, boring white characters!), but after the initial intrigue of the stories beginning, the plot plummeted to nowhere slow. The Duke was a numbskull; I couldn’t stand behind a male lead that was just too stupid to compute what was staring directly in front of him. (Patience, the heroine, tells Busick directly to his face that she is not the nanny, but his cousins widow and he still does not believe it to be so.) There are ample moments that allude and directly point to Patience being the widowed wife of his cousin, not to mention the obvious fact that she is a woman of a completely different heritage, the same heritage as her charge— his ward— and there are no other people of that ethnicity around for many many miles… am I explaining this well enough for you? The ‘hero’ is dumb. I didn’t like or believe that Wellington’s major war strategist could not figure this out before Patience told him after 6 weeks of this nonsense! This still bothers me if you couldn’t tell. Patience deserved someone smarter and who knew his mind. I also didn’t learn much about the main characters as their development was stunted, so I didn’t know what it was exactly that made the two fall in love with each other.
Weirdly, I was still intrigued by supporting character Jemina’s storyline of being let out of Bedlam while still suffering from amnesia, however the plodding story made it hard for me to finish.


I received an ARC from the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really enjoyable book! Patience was a little different than the typical heroine with a bit of an outsiders view. But more so than the actual romance in the book, I really liked the concept of the Widows Grace which added another unique spin on the Regency time period. As far as the romance portion, this was how I like them, there’s actual plot to go along with the romance! I definitely look forward to reading more!

Full review to come.

I found myself on a bit of a historical romance binge, so when I saw this on NetGalley I jumped at the chance and I was lucky enough to be approved for it. Unfortunately, as much as I wish I could say that I fell in love with this story, with Patience and with Busick (also lowkey, the name Busick just didn't click with me...). Don't get me wrong, there were moments in the book where I truly did enjoy it, but then ogther parts just fell flat. I loved the concept of the Widows Grace and I have no doubt that it definitely has the potential to make a great series, but this book wasn't it for me.

One of the reasons where this began to not be, you know, amazing for me - was when I was plopped right into a scene which I failed to truly comprehend until a few chapters later. Whilst I appreciate that it was a 'hook' - dropping your reader into the action and all, a little bit more contextualising or perhaps even explanation may have done more to truly draw readers into the action - for a while I just felt confused. As for the final 'reveal' towards the end, I just found it quite jarring and didn't connect with it as an explanation for all of the occurrences - again, that's just my personal opinion. Like I mentioned earlier, the concept of the Widows Grace was intriguing but seeing as this was the beginning of the series - a bit more explanation surrounding the characters introduced would have been wonderful to see - for example, I was left wondering throughout the book if I was supposed to know more about Jemina than I did - her character (I'm guessing has more to say - perhaps in a sequel) could have done with a lot more fleshing out and I almost felt as if she could have been removed from the story.

On the topic of characters - I found Patience to be an intriguing lead heroine - as a 'foreigner' within English society, bringing race to the conversation and I really did enjoy having that representation. So, snaps all round on that aspect. Busick was your kind of typical alpha male hero and he was okay. Seeing him with Lionel was cute though.

The story concept itself was, don't get me wrong, quite intriguing and the theme of motherhood was great to see explored. Riley has a manner of writing that is poetic and this, at times, worked wonderfully. Whether it was always necessary to describe things in the most poetic way possible? A different matter, entirely. If I were being truly nit-picky, some of the dialogue felt a bit....awkward. But - then again, each to their own. I have no doubt in my mind that this story would suit many others and would be a joy to read - for me, I just didn't really connect with it.

Overall - a nice read, but perhaps not one that I connected with. Definitely give it a go if you're interested. I know that I *am* intrigued by where the story of the Widows Grace will go next.

Note: I was very generously gifted an ARC of this novel by the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This was a fast read and an interesting read. The ending was predictable like all romances but this was a clean reading. Different for those looking for reads that aren't dripping with sex. Very good