THE RUNAWAY DUCHESS by Joanna Lowell is an enchanting Victorian historical romance. I particularly enjoyed the reversal of expectations – how the flighty duchess realizes she can’t run away from her problems. By pretending to be who's she's not, Lavinia finally discovers who she really is.

Wow. Did this one catch me off guard, this is what I wish all historical romance could be: well plotted and excellently written (her writing is both very witty, uniquely descriptive, and yet incredibly lyrical at times), and peopled with complex characters, vivid settings, and with a growing chemistry and a potential for very real heartbreak. This is simply great storytelling, it was "unputadownable"for me, with two characters I really ended up caring about and rooting for. **Thank you so much to both NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!**

In spite of the heroine starting out as spoiled rich girl, this isn't a simple "reversed circumstances" girl gets her comeuppance kind of story, nor is it your all "frivolity and frills" kind of romance, there is something beautiful and visceral and very very real here, yes its very entertaining and wonderfully plotted but there's just something a little more here. Like there's a little dose of the Bronte's thrumming through it. It reminded me a bit of some of my old school favorites like Marsha Canham and Judith McNaught (if they'd taken to the Victorian Era), in terms of how invested I became in the characters and the story.

Also, this is one of those books that had a "big scene" one of those scene's that cinematic moments are made of, and I'm not going to lie I had ALL the FEELS and my eyes might have teared up (which is a VERY rare occurrence for me). By the very nature of the plot (someone is masquerading as someone else) you knew the moment was coming but still, when it did....ooofta all those feels.

Highly recommend to all, but most especially to the more serious reader, or someone looking for a more "elevated" historical romance.

DNF @ 18%

Unfortunately this historical romance just did not work for me in any capacity. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, The Duke Undone, and I knew going into this that this would probably have a similar, serious tone. But for me, this was missing any of the charm book 1 had.

This follows the ex-fiancé of the hero from book 1. And I found her such a difficult heroine to read from and root for. In fact I found her to be quite insufferable (hence the dnf). Lavinia is going through a lot and has suffered a lot of trauma so I tried giving her a chance. Not only has she experienced an emotionally abusive relationship, but also the death of her first fiancé. Her father recently went to prison and with him went her entire livelihood. On top of all of that, she feels pressured into a marriage with a man who treats her terribly.

But despite all of that, I could not listen to Lavinia complain and place blame for her life on other people for another page. Lavinia takes absolutely zero responsibility for her life and circumstances. She lets things happen and then complains about it without putting forth an iota of effort. I just found being in her head to be beyond frustrating and made it not a fun reading experience.

On top of that, while I like this premise in theory, I was struggling with the fact that both characters were consciously lying to each other. Not just in the way of keeping their real identities from each other, but fabricating entire backstories to maintain the lies. As well as hiding their actual intentions for each other. And the more they chose to lie, the more I struggled to connect to the idea of their romance (since nothing about it would be based on who they actually were).

In the end, I just wasn't enjoying the reading experience for this one and decided it wasn't for me.

This sequel to The Duke Undone is a fast-paced, fun historical romance with a heartwarming cast and good character development, particularly where Lavinia is concerned. Lowell keeps the reader interested with her excellent pacing and sense of adventure, and while her settings could use work, her plot is excellent and her entire concept is enjoyable and classic.

This was a fun read. It made me laugh. I loved all of the hiking in Cornwall.
The female was difficult to like at times due to all the lies she told but she grew on me.

This book takes both expected and unexpected twists and turns. The author helps you empathized with a seemingly irredeemable character and builds a beautiful love story. This plot line was one of the most interesting I've read in a while and it really makes me interested to see what she writes next and if she expands on this world.

I love this series and it just keeps getting better! Cornwall has a special place in my heart so I loved reading a romance set there.

I'm not saying Joanna Lowell is a witch, but I can't think of how else she could have made me adore Lavinia by the end of this book. When the spoiled, arrogant former rich girl gets the chance to run from her marriage to a lecherous duke, she grabs it. But to hide away, she pretends to be a world traveling botanist, fooling (for a brief time anyway) the real (and real lovable) botanist Neal.

Lowell's prose and world building is a gorgeous as it was in The Duke Undone, but I had serious questions of how she was going to bring this story together for a HEA. But she does (witchcraft obviously), making me not only adore this story but revise my opinion on Lavinia. A fantastic historical romance!

I didn't read the first one (I might at some time), and it didn't affect the reading of this book.

I wasn't expecting to like this story so much, but I did. Lavinia is in reduced circumstances and forced to marry an old duke. After the wedding, she realizes living with him will be even worse than she thought and, when the opportunity comes to take someone else's identity, she jumps at it.

Neal is surprised that Muriel is different (not the way she looks, obviously) from the woman he's been corresponding for a while, but he's glad to finally meet her person.

Even with so many lies between them, they develop a friendship that turns into attraction. When Neal realizes Lavinia is not the real Muriel, he wants to punish her.

It's well written, the characters feel real and relatable, and the plot is engaging. Highly recommend!

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

Review: I really enjoyed reading the previous book by Joanna Lowell, The Duke Undone, which definitely precedes this book and not necessary for you to read first, but that will definitely shed a lot of light on a lot of Lavinia's issues and conflict throughout this story. I really enjoyed Neal as a character and their banter is really entertaining and engaging and definitely kept me coming back. That was really the only shining moment for me in this story though. I thought Lavinia was irritating with no idea about the consequences of her actions. When she meets Neal, she is on her honeymoon, and while I would also run away, it seemed like a problem that would not be easily solved. Spoiler it is not,

As much as I rooted for them to figure it out and get together, I found some of the circutious routes in this book distracting and didn't always keep me as entertained as I hoped.

Synopsis: A runaway bride dumps a duke and rewrites her own love story in this enchanting Victorian historical romance from the author of The Duke Undone.

Pretty and pampered, Lavinia Yardley always dreamed of becoming a duchess. But family disgrace forces her into marriage with the most vile duke in England, and she finds herself desperate for a way out. When a rustic stranger mistakes her for globe-trotting botanist Muriel Pendrake at a train station, Lavinia has a split second to decide whether to submit to her fate or steal someone else's.

Neal Traymayne spent his youth traveling the world as Varnham Nursery's most daring plant hunter. Now he runs the nursery and is ready to settle down with a like-minded wife who'll fit right in with his large, happy, down-to-earth family. His correspondence with Muriel Pendrake proved they're the perfect match. Odd that the woman in the flesh seems more like a society belle than a scientist.

As they tramp the Cornish moors together, Lavinia and Neal discover a wild and rare desire. But this blossoming love is rooted in lies, and when the real Muriel Pendrake shows up, they can't hide from who they are. The truth may wither their hopes of happiness, or it may bloom into the sweetest love of all.

An earthy, humbling romance. Flower pun intended!

Lavinia Yardley, a young woman desperate to desert her lecherous, old goat of a husband before the marriage is consummated, is mistaken for a renown botanist named Mrs. Muriel Pendrake when she steps aside at a train station to collect herself and figure out her next move. Instead of setting the record straight, however, she sees an opportunity for escape. And she takes it. Pretending to be someone she isn't.

As she and her companion, Neal Tramayne, travel across Cornwall with the intent to dig up plant specimens, discuss a manuscript, converse in Latin, and walk until their ankles blister, it isn't long before he begins to notice something is amiss, for Lavinia seems to know much more about being a socialite than she does about being a scientist. What follows is a slow unwinding of the truth (sometimes a little too slow) and a discovery that priorities, as well as people, can change given the right environment.

Having not previously read The Duke Undone, I expected this to be more of a romp. Instead, it ended up being more serious and toppling. (But in a good way!)

Since Lavinia has been a pretty and pampered mean-girl for much of her life, it takes time to warm to her and become sympathetic to her plight, which is rooted in the corset strings her family and society at large have been twisting behind her back for years to preen her into the perfect marriageable commodity. That said, what I liked about this book was its ability to humanize her as a character. The author did a good job of ironing out her off-putting faults and giving them context.

Neal was also an intriguing character, if a bit daft. He was loyal and intelligent, plus he listened. I will admit that it made me a bit nutty that it took him so long to put 2 and 2 together when it came to Lavinia's true identity, though. You'd think a scientific fella such as he was would've been writing down hypothesis after hypothesis and clamoring to set up as many experimental groups as possible until he figured it out, but for the most part he seemed more willing than not to go with the flow. I don't know, perhaps he was afraid to rock the boat too much?

Neal and Lavinia's romance toddled along well enough as well. Their chemistry was prosaic in spots, most obviously at the outset, but it gained steam and dimension the longer the plot rolled on. I liked the juxtaposition of them sometimes bringing out the best in each other, other times the worst. It gave their dynamic a lovely toiled earth quality.

Despite being a little protracted in the beginning, I thought this was cute overall. Witty. Fans of Evie Dunmore and Martha Waters will find much to enjoy in it.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

I don’t know where to begin to describe how much I adore this book.
Quick summary. A newly married duchess runs away from her old goat of a husband and is assumed to be a world travelling botanist by the handsome and charming owner of a nursery. As they travel across the British countryside, Lavinia Yardley sheds the smallest, worst parts of herself that have been twisted by society and her family to make her into the quintessential marriable lady. Her companion, Neal Traymayne, also finds himself readjusting his misconceptions along the way as they bring out the best and the worst in one another.
The prose – the gorgeous, intelligent, mesmerizing prose, my friends. You will revel in Lowell’s pitch perfect descriptions of both the mundane and the wonderous. I would say she is much like Sherry Thomas in how you can admire her wordsmithing without being overwhelmed by it and distracted from the story.
The story – the heartbreaking, uplifting, seriously romantic story. How Lavinia finds her way back to herself in the most absurd situations but never becomes a paragon is amazing. Each of the characters you encounter is fully realized and perfectly imperfect.
I have read hundreds of historical romances and always go back to a handful of authors who I hold up as stellar examples of the craft – not just of writing romance but of writing incredible fiction overall – and with The Runaway Duchess, Joanna Lowell has become one of them.

A case of mistaken identity/impersonation revolving around the fall of former antagonist Lavinia Yardley and a botanist love interest.

I didn't mind this book, but I didn't love it. Neal is nice, he's just a bit of a dummy; it takes him far, far too long to realize something is amiss with Mrs. P and I just had the most tired feeling that this lie would go on and on until suddenly it wouldn't. (Thank God it didn't quite turn out to be exactly like that.) Lavinia is a determined idiot, by turns quick-thinking and utterly clueless. She's not particularly likable in the way you'd expect of an everywoman romantic heroine and yet I often felt very sorry for her. She is the sole provider of some much-needed angst, so I at least appreciated her for that.

With the previous book, The Duke Undone, I thought there was a tad too much going on; in this one, there's slightly too little. There are some very sweet moments and a good dose of botanic musings. But the chemistry between Lavinia and Neal often felt prodded along with a stick rather than left to naturally roll. Certain points about beauty and intellect seemed half-heartedly pursued as well. Overall, I just expected a little more.

The premise of this book really dragged me in, but... the actual heroine. Wow, what a turn-off. She was so cruel to random strangers... she just became instantly unlikeable and from that point onwards, it was a real struggle to have any kind of positive feelings for her.

One of the things we love about historical romance is the ridiculous situations our heroes find themselves in. Kidnapped by pirates? Masquerading as a nobleman's mistress? Dressing up like a harlequin to fight crime in Georgian England? We've read them all and loved them. The Runaway Duchess takes a similarly ridiculous setup - a young woman, desperate to escape her unhappy marriage, is mistaken for a plant hunter and instead of denying it, goes along with the charade.

What's different about this book (and Lowell's previous romance, The Duke Undone), is how seriously it treats the subject matter. What could have been a romp turns into a sublimely angsty romance. The Runaway Duchess also features a heroine who could have been incredibly unlikeable. Indeed, for the first third of the book (at least!) while we were interested in Lavinia's plight, we weren't particularly sympathetic to her. But that's what makes the book so special: its insistence on humanizing Lavinia despite her unsympathetic actions and off-putting interior thoughts.

We'll close with 2 final thoughts:

1. Yes, it made (one of) us cry;
2. Neal's lovemaking can only be described as "earthy." (That's figurative AND literal - he's a botanist, after all!)

Lavinia is a spoiled, (formerly) rich girl. Now in reduced circumstances, she's forced to marry a lecherous old duke to save her family. But she quickly realizes things are going to be much worse than she expected, and when the chance comes to flee, she takes it. Neal is a passionate botanist who has decided to propose marriage to Muriel Pendragon, a fellow scientist--as soon as he meets her. When Neal mistakes Lavinia for the intrepid Mrs. Pendragon, Lavinia doesn't correct him. Instead, she hops into his carriage for a botany expedition in the opposite direction from her loathsome husband. But now she has to pretend to actually *be* a world-traveling plant expert.

I was not expecting to like Lavinia's story. She is the unpleasant fiancee of the hero from the previous book in this series, and she didn't seem to deserve redemption. But after getting her comeuppance and learning some hard truths about the world, the former heiress grows up and changes her priorities. Meanwhile, Neal is extremely likable and loyal. A mostly charming adventure, with only a few extraordinary coincidences to help the plot.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

A great romance featuring a complicated, introspective young woman who is forced into marriage with a lecherous, disgusting, elderly duke by her disgraced and penniless parents. After the (unconsummated) wedding night, on the train to the duke's country estate, she manages to run away. She meets a handsome stranger who assumes she is the woman he is picking up at the station, the widow Muriel Pendrake, who is an internationally known botanist, very independent and well educated -- the opposite of our heroine, Lavinia. Lavinia seizes the opportunity to assume Muriel's identity and falls in love with this wonderful stranger. What will she do when things begin to fall apart? This was so much fun, with lots of lighthearted moments. Truly look forward to recommending this title, which is a companion to the author's first book, The Duke Undone. Want to read that too!