What a fun swoony read about finding yourself and choosing your own way! 4 stars, I liked the characters but the ending was not it for me.

There was more homophobia in this than I was expecting from a historical romance. Before you come at me telling me it is historically accurate, there is plenty in this book that is anachronistic. There were some good moments, but I spent so much time stressed about the homophobia that I didn’t really get a love story out of it.

I've been meaning to pick up a Jane Walsh book for a while now - I follow and enjoy her social media, and when she posts about her books the tropes always pique my interest. When I saw Her Duchess to Desire on Netgalley I snapped up a reviewer's copy. While it's technically the third book in a series of ff historicals there doesn't appear to be any connection between then other than the period setting and this one can certainly be read as a standalone. There was lots to enjoy in it, although it didn't quite light up my reading life: this is very much a 'three stars because it was fine' reads rather than a 'three stars and there were things I disliked/were problematic'.

Anne, the Duchess of Hawthorne, has been taking care of her husband's estates and duties for years while he gallivants around Paris with a parade of male lovers. They entered knowingly into a lavender marriage as friends and confidantes but shortly afterwards - many years before the start of this story - he abandoned her for a life of infamous parties on the continent. Anne's response was to cultivate a hard cold shell of unimpeachable manners, earning herself the title of the Discerning Duchess. If she takes a female lover it's quick, impersonal and always, always discreet - she is determined to protect the family name and the many people who depend upon it for their livelihood. But now her husband has come home to London with his long-term partner, Phineas, and he is determined to move back into the Hawthorne's London home, lover and all. Anne is incensed and terrified and more than a little hurt. In an attempt to thwart or at least delay his return, she decides to make the house uninhabitable; she will embark on a programme of renovations so complicated and disruptive that the Duke will simply give up and go away again.

To do this she employs Miss Letitia Barrow, an interior designer with a good reputation amongst the upper middle classes of Holborn but a stranger to the ton. Anne's logic is simple: Miss Barrow will be out of her depth, will never finish the job or at least never to ducal satisfaction, and the process can be drawn out for years if necessary. She doesn't anticipate Letty's impact on either her household or her life. The designer turns out to be an Anne Lister figure in a cravat and top hat, with a silver tipped walking cane, and a sparkling eye for the ladies. She's bold and open about her sexuality, moving through a London of queer spaces and people that Anne has never glimpsed before. She's also a very very good designer. What starts out as a friendship between the two women turns more intimate, as they demolish walls in Hawthorne House and in the facade that Anne has built around herself.

My favourite part of the book was undoubtedly the beginning, where we get to know both Anne and Letty as complex women, both unyielding and lonely in their ways. Anne's feelings about her husband and the position of power she has been able to carve out in a male-dominated homophobic world give us insight into why she behaves the way she does and circumscribes herself so fiercely; while Letty's experiences of being queer, a single mother and a working woman explain why she is free with her body but cautious with her heart. Seeing Anne open up to Letty's gentle urgings - to eat cake, to take a walk in the snow arm in arm - and seeing Letty start to dream of a more settled, comfortable future was just lovely. Plus, I'm a sucker for home renovation romance. Start talking about paint colours and door handles and you've got me. I swoon when a character does a DIY act of service for their love interest. I also very much enjoyed seeing Anne come to terms with her sexuality and think through how to live more freely, beginning to understand the Duke's decision to leave and live a more authentic life even though it hurt her.

However, I wasn't gripped by the latter half of the book, which felt less organic and more melodramatic than the first half. The third act dark moment hinges on the arrival of some bad actors from Letty's past, facilitated by her adult son Robert who acts as the misguided villain throughout. I didn't like the way this plot line was treated or find the denouement believable. Similarly, the reconciliation between Anne and the Duke, while satisfying in principle, felt rather simple and forced in detail and involved the silliest cameo ever given by the Prince Regent in a romance novel. The last forty pages were full of romance reasons that tied things up with a nice neat bow. While the book is at some pains to explore the injustice of homophobia and homophobic laws, with the Hawthornes both embracing responsibility to fight for equality given their relatively safe privileged position, there isn't much consideration of other forms of injustice. Race and class, for example, are rather simply hand waved away and the vast inequities of the very existence of a British aristocracy aren't tackled. Instead we get a "white saviour-aristocrat" ending that doesn't acknowledge the complexities of how injustice works in society.

Overall, then, I relished the satisfying low-key romance between Anne and Letty but didn't so much appreciate the broader attempts to set their relationship in "England Times" themes. I'd definitely try another Jane Walsh but I won't be rushing out to gobble her backlist.

CWs: internalised homophobia; systemic and structural homophobia (secondary character is shunned; background characters are assaulted by police; tertiary character is arrested under sodomy laws); alcohol consumption.

Earlier this year I read my first regency wlw series and I absolutely adored it. Coming into this book I had no expectations that this story could top that series, Turns out, that this story was every bit as good as that series. This was my first Jane Walsh book, but it most certainly will not be my last. This story has a beautiful flow to the story that keeps things moving along and allows for an organic evolution of all of the key relationships. I found myself rooting for the couple to get the happily ever they both definitely deserved. I also really enjoyed that Walsh didn't drag out any of their disagreements and allowed the character to talk and work their way through their various issues. I would have given this 4.5 stars if that was an option because it was quite predictable. I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good regency-wlw love story.

I enjoyed this book and the two main characters had a great dynamic. Even though Letty was of a lower standing, she never let it stop her from doing her work or going after what she wanted whereas Anne, the Duchess, seemed like she had everything she could want but was still missing out on love.
I liked the development of each character's feelings towards the other and liked how the chapters alternated between both of their POV's so the reader can see what they are both thinking throughout the novel.
Overall a good, easy to read novel with likable characters with a little bit of drama added in to add to the excitement.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending me an arc through NetGalley!

The story follows Anne, Duchess of Hawthorne, and Letitia (Letty) Barrow, who is trying to start her own interior design business, which is made more difficult by the fact that she is a woman and a single mother. When Anne decides to renovate Hawthorne House in London. As the two women spend more time together they start getting closer and fall for each other. 

I loved the story of how these two women fall for each other despite all odds and while this was a bit slower to get into at the start, it does really picks up soon is a rather enjoyable read.

This was SUCH a lovely queer historical romance!! It was slow to start out with at the beginning but I loved the interior design aspect and the romance was very sweet. Can’t wait to read more of her books!

Very interesting story!
The relationship between the main characters was lovely and I was rooting for them the whole book!

This was a lovely read, with two compelling leads, a fully-fleshed out world, and a wonderful cast of supporting characters.

Anne, the Duchess of Hawthorne, is trapped in a miserable marriage of convenience. She’s dreading the return of her husband, his lover in tow, and goes to great lengths to prevent it - namely, hiring an interior designer to completely overhaul her house in the hope that it will be unliveable. Letitia Barrow, a designer determined to make a name for herself, wants to not only be appreciated for her skills but to earn enough money to comfortably support herself and her son. No prizes for guessing what happens next!

Not only do we have slightly older leads than we usually do in regency romance, each of our two leads had her own character arc, including friends and family, that was distinct (but not completely unconnected) from the romance. In fact, I would say that the romance acted more as a vehicle for their individual storylines, both of which were incredibly satisfying to read.

I also loved the focus on the wider queer community, the challenges they faced, and how the characters dealt with them. While the author doesn’t shy away from the very real dangers facing queer people of this era, she isn’t afraid to give them all a happy ending too.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

dnf at 55%

I was so sad that I didn't like this one because the book had a lot of potential! It's a sapphic historical romance about anne, a duchess, and letty, an interior designer hired to renovate her house. anne is big on reputation and discretion while letty is proud of who she is and refuses to hide herself. they are also of different classes.

what i DID like: the flirting/banter was really good at the beginning! i loved the innuendos that anne couldn't quite be sure were flirtatious (plausible deniability, yk) but that she was attracted to anyways! i also liked the idea of queer community, though this wasn't executed at its best in my opinion.

that brings me to the points of this novel that brought me to stop reading. first, the historical accuracy reallllllly got on my nerves. i obviously don't read historical romances to read contemporary romances, but i also don't read them to be depressed by all the ways women and queer people were limited in the past. in that way, i want inaccuracy. let me believe these people overcame these problems!! anne was tooooooo stuck on reputation and couldn't communicate with her husband (who she was supposed to be close with!!). i was so sad to see letty had no queer women as friends, which is acknowledged by letty and even relatable (queer spaces are so often male). but i don't want to relate to depressing things in my romances.

the pacing also did not hit for me. the characters spent a lot of time repeating their thoughts to themselves or to others and not .... doing things? like the dates and sex scenes were so short (WHERE IS THE FOREPLAY).. anne's dance with her gay duke husband is talked about for longer than one of the first dates she goes on with letty. annnnnnnd this leads into my final, and perhaps biggest, issue with this book: the comp het.

there is so much. compulsory heterosexuality. in this book. the duke is CONSTANTLY described as seductive./hot/attractive, which is weird because the two POV characters are lesbians. anne's inability to literally have a CONVERSATION with this man is the main problem of the book. like ????? YOU ARE FRIENDS WITH HIM. yes he hurt you but TELL HIM THAT stop saying how hot he is and then getting mad that he has a boyfriend?????????? that was the WHOLE POINT OF YOUR MARRIAGE ????? he was supposed to be irrelevant but i kept being confused if anne had actually been in love with him but she is like, explicitly a lesbian. that is why she married a gay man. even letty describes him in a way that a hero in a romance novel would be described. it really made me cringe. when anne got mad at letty for something the DUKE DID was when i put this one down.

overall, i was excited for this one and it wasn't queer in the happy way i enjoy :(

(thank you to netgalley and bold strokes books for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.)

Her Duchess to Desire was just absolutely wonderful, a character-driven romance with historical and social depth. Jane Walsh reminds me a lot of Olivia Waite in that you learn as well as love through her books - in this case, that education being about home decor and art, along with regency era social politics. The politics were especially interesting, as what initially seems to be an inconvenience and an embarrassment eventually comes to be a driving force for reconciliation.

I think what I found most pleasant about the read was the way it evolved, uncovering character motivations and transforming their roles within the story. Not only that, but Walsh keeps us guessing as to where relationships are headed, which is no mean feat when you know a HEA must be in the offering. The sensuality of this was lovely, with clever wordplay and subtle flirting slowly giving way to stolen glances, gentle touches, and secret kisses . . . before the fires of love catch fire and we experience the true heat of passions.

Anne and Letty are both fantastic characters, strong women in their own right, but very different in how and why they've lived their lives. It really is an opposites attract romance, a love story that makes equals of women who are seen as being of different birth. They become friends before lovers, and that friendship is a big deal, both personally and socially. Even though Anne is the Duchess, the noble with the prestige, reputation, and wealth, I was most concerned for her happiness and anxious to see her open herself to love.

I was sent the e-ARC for Her Duchess to Desire. We have Lettie, an unmarried mother with aspirations to be an interior designer. She has big dreams to be a good role model for her son in making her way in the world. We also have Anne, the Duchess of Hawthorne. She’s the icy duchess whose heart is hardened after her husband abandoned her for Paris and his lover.
I liked Lettie, she is a modern woman who is transparent about who she is and I love that about her. I felt like Anne was very much repressed by the constraints of her upper-class society. Her journey to love freely and become the woman she wants to be is a beautiful journey. Their relationship is tender and uplifting.
The Duke of Hawthorne was a vibrant and charismatic character, a juxtaposition to Anne and at first, I was wary of his motives but came to like him as the story progressed. However, I cannot say the same for Lettie’s adult son, who came across as an entitled brat.
I enjoyed this book for its primarily queer cast, and it was beautiful to read a book where the characters were able to socialise in dedicated queer spaces. This book gave us brief glimpses on the topic of criminalisation and ostracisation of queer people in a historical setting and how the community helps each other in these situations. I found that intriguing and would have liked it if the book delved deeper.
Historical romances are a form of escapism. We read romance stories to believe people can find love and live happily ever after. In order for romances to work for any marginalised group, we must in some part suspend historical reality. But then again, it is wonderful when an author works within the narrow constraints of historical context and still provides that happily ever after.

This is what Jane Walsh did in Her Duchess to Desire. We have a book with a predominantly queer cast, we have an unmarried working mother with career ambitions, a queer couple who married each other to hide their queerness but ultimately learn to live truthfully.

This was a GREAT historical romance! I tend to shy away from queer ones because of the stifling homophobia but Jane Walsh handled it really well. It was handled very appropriately while also not detracting from the beautiful story between Anne and Letty, I enjoyed it immensely.

This was a really enjoyable sapphic historical romance! I liked that the characters were actually mature adults (34 and 42) with their own lives and their own complex backstories. I enjoyed the actual romance. I appreciated that there was some racial diversity in the supporting cast, cause this genre tends to be very white.

But I think my favorite thing was the focus on historical queer community and the ways in which queer people have always managed to find each other and form bonds, whether those bonds are romantic or sexual or platonic. That’s another thing that I don’t see often enough in books, but especially not in historical romance.

This one wasn’t as political as I personally might have liked to see, but there were some good and interesting conversations about power and privilege.

There were definitely also some issues. The title and cover art are quite frankly embarrassing. It’s an indie book, and the writing wasn’t always super consistent. And the historical accuracy was pretty poor in some very distracting ways when it came to things like the characters’ hairstyles and clothing.

But I still very much enjoyed the book overall and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a sapphic regency romance!

Jane Walsh is back with another great sapphic historical romance! Her characters are nuanced and complex, her writing is clear and succinct, and she includes historical details that add richness to the story. Like in her previous books, Walsh includes lovable queer characters (main and side alike) and safe spaces for them to gather.

We’ve seen Anne, Duchess of Hawthorne (34, lesbian) in the previous books in the series as the imperious, prickly wife of the fun-loving Duke of Hawthorne. Anne hates that her husband goes traveling with his lover, leaving her in charge of running the dukedom. Not ready to face her husband again, Anne hires relatively unknown interior designer Letitia “Letty” Barrow (42, lesbian) to redesign the entire house, deferring Hawthorne’s return. Anne hopes that Letty will prove to be an incompetent designer and thus buy Anne more time. But when Letty proves to be a talented designer with an arresting personality, Anne has to deal with her unexpected attraction.

It took me a while to warm up to Anne, mostly because I didn’t understand the intensity of her hatred toward Hawthorne. As the story goes on, though, her personality starts to shine and her feelings become more understandable, and I ended up really liking her. Letty, though, I adored right away. I loved her confidence and determination to succeed in her career, and wow does the woman have game! I liked her relationship with her son Robert (even though Robert himself could be annoying), and how she doesn’t let society’s opinions of her having a child out of wedlock get to her. Anne and Letty are a wonderful pairing, and I enjoyed their chemistry. Letty sees through the ice queen facade to the real Anne, and Anne inspires Letty to turn Hawthorne house into a beautiful home.

I didn’t really find anything wrong with this book (I can’t say whether or not the historical details were accurate), but it’s not a five-star book for me because I found it slow at times. The descriptions of the dukedom and the sensory details were great, but mostly, I wanted more heart-to-heart talks and steamy scenes between Anne and Letty. There was also a lot going on, and I found myself losing interest in parts. For these reasons, I didn’t rush to finish the book.

I’d recommend this book if you’re in the mood for a sapphic historical romance with well-rounded characters and celebrations of queerness.

content warnings: graphic sex, absent parent, prejudice, homophobia, violence, alcohol (recreational)

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This was a fun Sapphic regency romance filled with likeable and well-developed characters. It is the story of Anne, the Duchess of Hawthorne and Letitia who is trying to build her own interior design business which is made harder as she is a woman as well as an unmarried mother.

If you love historical fiction, especially a Sapphic regency romances, then this novel is for you.

Thanks NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book for review!

This is my first read of Jane Walsh’s and it just so happens to be a sapphic historical fiction. Say no more.

The reader is thrown into the drama in the first chapter as we find that the Duke has been on a decade hiatus with his male lover and wishes to come back to live at the estate of Anne, the Duchess of Hawthorne, Anne is a typical ice queen who lives to rule and do it well in the process. To prevent her husband from moving back into the estate, Anne decides to hire someone to redecorate. Cue Letitia Barrow - who just so happens to want to grow her business away from her current neighborhood. As time passes and their relationship evolves, the once icy exterior of Anne begins to melt, and she develops into an adoring character. The journey that the reader takes with Anne as she lets go and begins to accept herself, is truly captivating.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

DFN at 48%

Unfortunately I couldn't finish this book. It was not that it had something wrong with it, which is why I'm still giving it 3 stars, but I guess it's not for me. I was excited to read this after binge watching Bridgerton (and missing queer characters in it) but it didn't really click for me. I really liked The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics and it's impossible not to compare the two reads since they're both sapphic in regency times.

But I guess I didn't really like either the characters of the Duchess or Letty. I didn't really feel the emotional connection between them.

And even though I can appreciate a story where being queer doesn't really seem to be a big deal it still felt too easy for the two of them to accept their feelings and act on it.

* Thanks to NegGalley and Bold Stroke Books for providing me with a copy to review with my honest opinion

What a magnificent piece of writing. I usually pride myself on my vocabulary, but this writer had me using a dictionary many times and that made my nerdy self infinitely happy. Her use of the time's vernacular, the changing of the voices from Duchess, Regent, to common tongue was marvelous. You do not have to be a history buff to fall for this book. The love story will sweep you up in its arms, the bouts of turmoil will unmoor you, the reveal is significantly wonderful, the MC's are emblazoned in my brain and it all culminated into an HEA that time stood still for. I was so swept away in the tone and the scenery and the imagery and the verbiage... I cannot wait to read this again and again. It is truly timeless.

I love the fact that this book exists. Queer romance is still hard to find in historical romance, particularly wlw romance.

I also really enjoyed the interior design aspects of the book, it seemed really well researched and thought out.

While I didn't love this book and found the romance a bit rushed and instalovey I could tell that with a bit more time I would really have fallen for the characters.

This is my first read from Jane Walsh and I would definitely read another.

I received this arc from Netgalley in return for an honest review. Thank you!