Cover Image: A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby

A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

I wanted to love this book so much but somehow I couldn’t get close to any of the characters and I think, because I don’t like children in my books , this one was a miss for me unfortunately.
Yes, I love the cover and the blurb and title mention a child but I’m always taking chances to find a great story regardless.
It’s still a great book that many people will enjoy but not for me.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

Was this review helpful?

The book begins with Patience, a recent widow trying to find a way get her newborn son back. Due to the time period, women did not have any rights to their children. Therefore, her son’s new guardian is the Duke of Repington, Busick Strathmore. And so the story begins…

I have been enjoying many historical romances lately and thought this would be right up my street, however, this one fell very short. I did like the overall premise of the story and felt it did have great potential. Sadly, the chemistry between Busick and Patience was nonexistent. I found the writing itself to be a bit convoluted. It was really hard to get into the storyline and care about these characters enough to share their plight.

Overall, this was just an okay read.

Was this review helpful?

I received the e-ARC from NetGalley for an early review.

CW: False imprisonment in mental hospital, forced separation of mother from child, suicide, war wounds and their effects, memory loss, drugging, murder.

Patience is a young widow who has been imprisoned in Bedlam by her late-husband’s uncle, Markham, for being “crazy,” because that’s all it takes. Markham’s taken over as guardian of her 3 month old son, Lionel, and possession of her house. She is broken out of Bedlam (legally) by a cool secret organization of widowed women who call themselves “Widow’s Grace.” Meanwhile, the real guardian (Busick)-who is the cousin of Patience’s late husband-of the baby has found out what happened and finally tracks down Markham, who’s been giving him the runaround, throws him out of the house, and Busick, along with a contingent of other soldiers he’s traveling with, take up camp at the house while he straightens things out. Patience is snuck in pretending to be a nurse for Lionel by the Widow’s Grace.
From there on it is Patience trying to get her baby back, the dynamics between Patience and Busick, and the threat of Markham and what his intentions really are.

What I liked:
-The cover was cute
-The description was interesting and I was super interested about the Widow’s Grace
-I liked the Heroine was a POC (and you got some background info on her, being from the West Indies) and the Hero was a wounded war veteran that actually showed how his injuries affected his life
-All the little moments between Busick and Lionel were adorable 
-Happy ending.

Some things I struggled with:
-The beginning was a confusing start, I had a lot of question marks in my notes where it was like “I think this is what is happening?”
-This cool plot point of the Widow’s Grace and these avenging women, which could have been used FOR SO MUCH FUN…were barely mentioned. 
-The connection between Patience and Busick wasn’t really there?
-It’s mentioned quite a few times that Patience has this cool accent where she rolls her Rs, but the way it’s written on the page makes it sound like she’s stuttering. It really didn’t need to be written out.
-Markham has this typical evil-doer moment where he literally explains his evil plans out loud, to Busick while they’re fighting…

Was this review helpful?

Thank you NetGalley, Kinsington Books and Vanessa Riley for loaning me an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
I'm not much of a historical fiction fan, but i've trying to dabble in the genre when I can. The title/cover caught my eye, but the blurb was a little more than confusing. I gave it a go anyways.
I guess my issue was I was just bored. I didn't find this to be most thrilling or interesting plot once written out which is a bummer because I think the basic storyline has a lot of promise. I just couldn't get myself invested like I seek when reading a great book!

Was this review helpful?

A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby is the first in a new series. There is some world building that will help connect future books in the series, but it's not too lengthy and didn't detract from this specific story. As with other Riley books, the opening scene grabs you and pulls you right in.

Patience is a widow with a son. She's lost custody of her son and her own personal freedom, due to a criminal relative of her late husband. Enter The Widow's Grace, a secret society directed by a titled woman, to help widows recover what is theirs - family, funds, freedom. The Widow's Grace helps free Patience from Bedlam and now is set to help her regain her son. Patience finds herself posing as a nanny for Busick, Duke of Repington, who now has her son and her former home. The Duke is an injured veteran of the first Napoleonic war and he is determined to return to battle. In the mean time, he is enamored with his young ward and the nanny he's "hired" for him.

I enjoyed the characters and the journey they each take to trust again. I especially enjoyed Patience once she revealed herself. There is good push-pull between Repington and Patience. Patience is incredibly reserved, and early language with her is somewhat stilted for me, but once she is revealed to Repington, her character loosens up and the language Riley uses to describe her does as well. Repington never shows himself to be quite the rake he's alleged to be, but Riley does a good job showing his single minded focus, the old soldier mentality, the strength of character that is in one you want to trust. This is a slow burn all the way.

We have some suspense that's done well, and the bad guy gets what he deserves at the end. I enjoyed the side characters a lot and expect to see them again.

I'm interested to see where The Widow's Grace goes in future books. There is a sample at the end for the next in the series and it fully grabbed me as well.

Was this review helpful?

I was really excited about this one but ended up not even finishing it. The cover is so great but I hated the switch in narration styles and just the writing style in general and didn't connect or care about any of the characters.

Was this review helpful?

Everything felt a little forced, and the whole thing just wasn't quite my cup of tea. I certainly felt for the main character and wanted her to succeed, but it just...wasn't a book for me.

Was this review helpful?

I'll admit, it took me a little bit to get into this sweet novel because I felt like I was getting both too much and too little information at the beginning. However, my perseverance was rewarded by the rest of this delightful book. I really appreciated reading a historical romance where the characters weren't all white, since that's actually the way things were. The way the relationship between Busick and Patience developed was captivating, but let's not forget the absolute star of the show, Lionel. Riley managed to write a scene stealer that can't even speak. Not only was the romance delightful, but idea of The Widow's Grace is absolutely brilliant and I adore it. I'm excited to see where the rest of the series goes, since this is just the start.

Was this review helpful?

Unfortunately, I really did not like this book. In fact, I hated it so much I DNFd it. I'm really sad because this had so much potential. The cover was adorable and the premise of the story definitely had me intrigued. However, it was terribly slow, I wasn't attached to the characters, and I was not a fan of the writing.

Patience and Busick don't even REALLY meet until about 20 percent into the book and everything leading up to that was just unnecessary exposition. I also did not feel any sparks between Patience and Busick. I've noticed that many other reviews complained about how the book switches between the first and third person perspective, but that didn't really bother me. What did bother me however was the fact that the writing was so hard to read. It honestly felt like a bad classic.

To wrap things up, I really did not like this book, but I did like the fact that there was diversity, which you don't see often in historical romance.

Was this review helpful?

The plot was intriguing and I was excited to read the novel. I was unable to finish it as the writing and story lost my interest. The dialogue is a bit off and I had a hard time connecting with the characters.

Was this review helpful?

This is the first book in Vanessa Riley's new series, Rogues and Remarkable Women.

Patience Jordan is a newly widowed heiress from Demerara (a historical region on the north coast of South America that is now part of Guyana). Due to the laws of the time for women compounded by the fact that she is a minority, she has very few rights. She is wrongly sent to Bedlam by her husband's uncle, who initially takes possession of her home, Hamlin Hall, and guardianship of her infant son, Lionel. However, her husband's cousin, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, is his true legal guardian. The duke is an injured military commander and brings a small rag-tag army to Hamlin Hall to oust the uncle and claim his ward.
In the interim, Patience has found herself liberated from Bedlam by the Widow's Grace, a secret organization that helps wronged widows. With all of the former staff let go, the Widow's Grace is able to get Patience covertly installed as her son's nanny. Clearly having issues with pretending to be a servant when she was once mistress of the house, Patience is headstrong and forthright, However, Busick is draw to her impertinence, and they form a friendship. As they find common ground in their love for Lionel ... and maybe each other ... they work to untangle the mysteries surrounding her husband death.

This was my first time reading a book by Vanessa Riley. I love the attention to historical detail of the text and truly appreciated the author's notes following the story. A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby gives a rare look at the actual diversity that existed in Regency England, something most other historical romances ignore.

Riley chose to tell the story from two points of view. Busick's thoughts are share via third-person storytelling, the norm for historical romance, but Patience's thoughts are shared from her first-person point of view. It's an interesting choice, and while I appreciate the idea, it seemed gimmicky. I'd expect the first-person to help me better empathize with Patience, but this inner dialogue just made her seem more stubborn and impetuous since she was so self-focused when juxtaposed with Buswick's chapters.

As far as romance goes, the book is very chaste and nothing but a few kisses are shared between the couple (first kiss at about 70%), and the act of sex is alluded to in the last few pages. Many authors are able to keep sex off the page without a detriment to the chemistry shared by the main characters, but here, it felt very much like we were told there was a connection between Busick and Patience rather than shown.

Some of the phrases and sentence structure of book were also a little odd, and I frequently found myself backtracking to re-read and understand a sentence. A phrase that I'm not loving the imagery on is "he watched her wobble like she shifted through dessert jellies" or " a loud groan like a cannon's belch ripped from my duke." I also didn't enjoy ALL of the references to Patience breastfeeding her son. To hear about a Regency character breastfeeding their own child is amazing, and so a few mentions is more than fine, but it's shared that Busick smells Patience's "sweet milky soap" scent, Patience leaks though her clothes more than once and feels "sticky" - which is mentioned during one of their few kisses - and there are plenty of mentions to the baby Lionel's satisfied lip-smacking and loud burps. I like doses of reality in my romance, but this definitely takes away the chance for a romantic moment. Also, it's very rare that you find Patience interacting with her son and NOT breastfeeding him, while we see Busick reading to him and playing with him and having "crawling practice."

At the end of the day, I enjoyed the concept and the important social issues that Riley attempted to bring to light, but I felt the overall plot dragged as I stumbled over phrasing and word choice or struggled to connect with the two main characters.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Zebra/Kensington for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

While I finished the book, I can't say I enjoyed it. As someone who reads very fast (AKA reading issue), I had a hard time tracking all the different components of the story. And I don't think they were all explored to their full potential

I think others might enjoy this since there were some very interesting & unusual things going one with characters and storyline.

I received an ARC for this review.

Was this review helpful?

"A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby", by Vanessa Riley, is a novel based on an interesting premise: Patience Jordan, a widowed heiress has lost her husband (and all of his fortune) due to his suicide. She is now living in squalor and has been separated from her newborn son. When a Duke shows up on the son to inherit all of her previous husband's riches and their son as well, she must decide how to win it all back. The premise was intriguing, but this book just didn't draw me in. The characters were rather flat, and the chemistry between the heiress and the Duke was non-existent.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Was this review helpful?

I've been looking forward to this book for so long, between the cover and the synopsis I was so excited to read it. Unfortunately it was a DNF for me. I couldn't get over the writing style and word choices, and the fact that it switched between first person narration and third person narration was bizarre to me.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you, Kensington Books and NetGalley for this arc.

I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️. A story about Patience, an heiress who lost her husband from a very mysterious suicide: her newborn son was also taken away from her. Then there's Busick, a strict wounded military hero who is investigating his dead cousin's dangerous life. Both didn't get along in the beginning but will be an ally as things unfold.

A mother who will do everything to get her son back, a man who will do everything to keep the baby safe. I guess this is what gets me on this story. They both love baby Lionel. I do, however wish the romance between the two characters would be better because some points or engagement is monotonous. The story of Widow Grace is intriguing. There is some sequence that is a bit complicated to me, but nothing significant. The overall story is okay.

Was this review helpful?

I found this book alternatively delightful and anxiety producing. I was completely captivated by wounded warrior Busick Strathmore. His sense of honor and his can-do attitude, his "drills" and solutions to problems won me over. I love that his sense of self is not in the least wounded. This is no shrinking violet who thinks life is over because of major injuries. Patience has enlisted the Widow's Grace secret group to right wrongs done to her. She has lost her home and her baby boy upon her husband's death due to a villainous relation. She is resilient and fearless. She and Busick cross paths when he arrives at her former home to take charge of her son, his new ward.

Was this review helpful?

In Vanessa Riley's "A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby", a woman named Patience loses her entire family after her husband commits suicide, her son being adopted by the Duke of Repington. After finding a job as her son's nanny, Patience continues her maternal relationship, as well as creating a new, more romantic one with the Duke.

Throughout the novel, Riley uses multiple perspectives to tell her tale: through the first person POV of Patience, and the third person POV of the Duke. By utilizing this switch, Riley uses her skill as a writer to simultaneously show multiple sides to her story while also making it clear that Patience is her main character. Since these are the only characters however, it can at times cause confusion. Had the third-person portions been from multiple characters POVs (such as small vignettes), I think that this would create more clarity. I personally had little problem with it, but think it could have been stronger this way.

Overall, I loved the story. While Patience lost her whole family, she shows perseverance as a strong female character, pursuing the love for her son and not giving into her bleak situation. I would love to see a sequel to this book - I loved the scenes between the Duke and Lionel, and would love to see more!

Was this review helpful?

The cover of this book is really cute. However, the story isn't entertaining. I was looking forward to reading this book because the blurb seemed interesting. Overall, I couldn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

For a historical romance, the author couldn't deliver the historical aspects. The author wrote in both first-person narratives and this person's narratives. It was confusing. The only thing I liked was the protagonist's chemistry.

Was this review helpful?

"A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby" by Vanessa Riley pulls the reader into the story from the start by introducing you to Patience Jordan as she sneaks into her former home, dressed as a man, to feed her infant son. An outsider to English society from the West Indies, Patience is without family or friends and at the time of her husband's death is falsely accused of madness by his uncle who seeks custody of her son and her fortune. Committed to Bedlam, Patience is rescued by the Widow's Grace, a secret society of avengers led by Lady Shrewsbury.

With Lady Shrewsbury's help, Patience is hired as her son's nanny by his true guardian, Duke Repington. Although Repington is still recovering from injuries sustained during the Peninsular War, he is hoping to recover his strength to be recalled to serve Wellington again. Although she gradually comes to see him as an honorable man, Patience is determined to gain custody of her son and return home to her family in the West Indies.

At the heart of this book is the story of two wounded individuals who must gradually overcome their initial mistrust and fear to find happiness with each other. The story is told from alternating points of view and the reader can see the relationship develop through each of the character's perspectives - and fears. What is special about this book is that it confronts issues pertaining to prejudices about race and disability that easily enable injustice to occur.

When I finished this book, I immediately went to the Vanessa Riley's author page on the web to read more about her and start reading more of her books. In addition to other books Ms. Riley has authored, I learned that "A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby" is the first book in a new series involving women from the Widow's Grace. I cannot wait to read them!

Was this review helpful?

A Duke, the lady and a Baby was a perfect read for a rainy, spring weekend. The main heroine Patience was strong, determined and unapologetic in her quest to get her son back. There is nothing quite like a mother's love, is there? Our hero, Busick is a injured veteran, cousin to Patience late husband and determined to find out what really happened.

Things I loved about this book:
Riley did an amazing job describing the gruesome realities of England. The book in no point shyed away from the racism, sexism and inequalities that were the everyday experience for many during the time. It was refreshing to read about a heroine that was not only from West Indian origins, but also a heiress and an ingenious one at that.
Our main hero Busick. Here I am completely disregarding the name. Naming a injured veteran BuSICK seems a bit too much on the nose even for me. Regardless, Busick won me over the moment he appeared and hired everyone. I love me a man that takes action.
The side characters and especially Jenna. I did immensely enjoy reading and getting to know the side characters. Jenna in particular was well developed and with a personally (and purpose) that felt natural and an organic part of the story. It is ridiculous how many romance novels have side characters just for the sake of having them.

Things I expected more from:
I must admit the first 100 pages I felt like there was something strange with the writing, but I could not figure out what. I really liked Patience, but she seemed a bit difficult to connect with by a historical romance novel. In fact, switching between Busick and her POV carried a completely different feeling for me. Then I realized, all of Patience¨s POV and only hers! was written using "I". I do not know why but the constant switch between the two writing styles made the book feel almost disconnected at some part. It was as if it was one person that wrote Patience and another Busick. I guess that was the purpose, but it did not feel natural to me.

Overall, it was a good read that I would recommend if you feel like winding down with a cuppa and an interesting historical romance.

Was this review helpful?