3.5 Stars
Eight years ago, Sterling St. John, Duke of Morton, vanished mere hours after marrying his innocent young bride. Alaina was left humiliated, heartbroken and untouched. London buzzed with gossip, but she endured it all and emerged transformed. Now a sharp-tongued beauty and the fearless founder of a scandalously progressive ladies’ reading Society, Alaina has no intention of welcoming her wayward husband home. But Sterling isn’t the same man either. Hardened by years of secrets and haunted by decisions he cannot reveal, he knows protecting the wife he never wished to leave means keeping her in the dark.
A new author to me & whilst I enjoyed the book I didn’t love it. It was well written it flowed well, the story was interesting & the characters were well portrayed but the big but for me was that I found the chemistry between Sterling & Alaina lacking, I think it was Alaina’s immaturity & how she couldn’t let go of her grievances that tarred the book for me
I voluntarily read and reviewed a special copy of this book; all thoughts and opinions are my own

So difficult to imagine the life they led being newly married, an unconsummated union, and separated for eight years.
Sterling accepts an assignment before falling for Alaina but believes he can complete it and be married.
But as his life goes awry, Alaina comes into her own growing into a beautiful strong woman.
Reunited they find it difficult to align their lives and their goals.
Beautifully written romance with a hard fought HEA.

3.5 Stars
One Liner: A fluffy romance read

Eight years ago, Sterling St. John, Duke of Morton, vanished a few hours after his wedding. Since then, Alaina faced the London gossip and society with her head high. She founded the progressive ladies’ reading Society and lived an independent life. When Sterling returned home, Alaina had no intention of accepting him back into her life.
But Sterling has secrets of his own and is on a mission he cannot reveal. Protecting his wife means he has to keep her in the dark. However, even as they realize that they may still have something together, the secrets have to be exposed and the truth revealed.
Will this bring them together or tear them apart?
The story comes in Alaina and Sterling’s third-person POVs.

My Thoughts:
Well, this was an interesting premise and had a solid start. Though the narration was a bit slow, the book began with a bang after the prologue.
The initial bickering and conflict were interesting and gave us both sides of the story. The MMC made many mistakes, though he seemed to acknowledge them all and was determined to try and save his marriage.
I could see the FMC’s side, of course. She had it worse in many ways, and it did make sense for her to hold on to her grudge. It was her armor and served her well so far, so why let it down without a fight?
I appreciate that the spicy scenes started after 60%. That gave them enough time to get used to each other’s presence again.
However, once the main reconciliation was done, we don’t ‘see’ them growing together. The story simply summarizes this. It rather dilutes the chemistry since the whole thing still feels more like lust than love or companionship. At least a couple of scenes with dinner or ball dances would have helped. Also, it needed less of an inner monologue and more of ‘showing’.
Then came the unwanted third-act breakup. Honestly, we didn’t need that here. Instead, the whole thing should have been handled with a bit more maturity on both sides. For someone described as mature, the FMC doesn’t display it much when she could have. Yeah, she has a huge reason not to trust the MMC, but this section could have been better.
There’s an epilogue, which gives us the required HEA. NGL, a couple of side characters were quite interesting. Maybe they are from another series? If so, I might check out their stories.

To summarize, Courting the Duchess is the first book in the series and works as a standalone. It had its moments despite the flaws. I did partly binge on it, so there is enough entertainment if you can bear with some dramatics.
I’m curious enough to want to read the next book.
Thank you, NetGalley and Dragonblade Publishing, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Sterling was a young man when he made the decision to leave his very young wife the night of their wedding. He put country and duty before his marriage. Now he’s back after almost 9 years and wants to resume his life with said wife. I didn’t really like Sterling. He was an idiot and a bit too high handed for me. His apology was basically like forgive me, let’s move on. His manner with Alaina didn’t really improve until he figured out that his words weren’t enough. But to him it was all about normalizing his life. He was a selfish prick till the end and Alaina deserved better. He freaked out over the smallest things, I really didn’t like him and wish there had been a better ending for Alaina. Very glad for modern laws and attitudes regarding annulment. Alaina was able to find her own happiness in those years and his attitude towards the reading society stayed hostile till the end.

The abandoned bride deserves revenge for being left for 8 years! Alaina has endured much alone during all that time. When her husband returns, his attitude is ridiculous. I love how feisty she is and how she stands her ground. The supporting cast of characters were fun and added to the story. I received an advance copy of this story.

This story had an interesting premise, but I had a hard time staying engaged. There’s a lot of fighting and very little loving, even though there’s some real nice steam. I didn’t feel the romance, couldn’t find the chemistry, and the ending felt rushed.
She makes a big deal of being all grown up, yet when it comes to her husband she’s a vindictive brat resurrecting her grudge at every opportunity. And he’s a good guy who made a lot of bad decisions – and then a few more, but at least he’s trying. He’s patient, persistent and his grovelling isn’t up to snuff, yet I still felt a little sorry for him.
For me a story like this doesn’t need a third act break-up. It needs something major, some serious emotional growth, something more than just fighting until one party caves.
I guess, it just didn’t work for me.

Courting the Duchess is the first book in the Spy Series.

I have to say I was very impressed by this book. This is not your typical book with lots of conversation or bantering back and forth. Of course there is conversation, but not as much as what you might enjoy in other books. I like to read conversations. For me they are often full of insight about the characters. In other books I admit to scrolling by the lengthy descriptiveness, which can often feel like filler.

This book, however, has long emotion filled information which is wonderfully written. While reading it you feel the characters emotions as the writer perfectly describes everything happening around and to them, which then leaves the conversation to be unnecessary. I loved the writing style as well as the characters. There is plenty of angst to be found in this story, but it is not always stated by the characters. It is in the writing, which is lovely, and fantastic. I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

I am confused, I read a previous book by Kelsey and absolutely loved it. I probably gushed over it. This book was a different story. While I loved the story itself and thought it was going to be so intriguing and interesting, it fell flat for me. I think the reason is that there is not enough dialog. It was all telling me and inner dialogue. I know some people like that so if that is your jam, this book is for you. I also really loved the fact that Alaina stood up for herself, went on with her life and made the best of the bad situation. You go girl! Like I said, the story is good and I definitely want to know about the next book about another spy who seems a bit sketchy.

Wow! Finally a second chance romance (my less favorite trope) that I really, really enjoyed. Maybe because it seemed they were starting anew like they didn’t know each other at all and all the book is based on the angst of the reunion (I love angst!). I loved Alaina and the way she reacted to Sterling’s reappearance: I think I would have done the same or worse! But I also loved Sterling, because he really was very young when he left her and didn’t really know what he was doing and what his choice would cost him. And even if he makes tons of mistakes, he’s genuinely in love and tries to atone for them in all possible ways. Gorgeously written and an intriguing start for this series. I’d love to have more mystery and spy stuff in the following books, but the next male lead is really promising.

Courting the Duchess
by Kelsey Swanson

The story presented in "Courting the Duchess" did not resonate with me as I had anticipated based on the blurb. While the story holds promise, I found the pacing and structure to be lacking in certain areas. Additionally, I appreciate a strong presence of dialogue in literature, and this story seemed to rely excessively on the characters’ internal monologues rather than their interactions with one another. Toward the conclusion, the couple did achieve a connection, but unfortunately, they were separated by a plot development that I found to be quite frustrating.

The backdrop of the story involves Sterling St. John, Duke of Morton, who mysteriously vanished just hours after marrying his innocent young bride. Alaina was left enduring humiliation and heartbreak while remaining untouched. Although London buzzed with gossip, she navigated the situation with resilience and ultimately emerged transformed. Conversely, Sterling has also changed; he is burdened by years of untold secrets and deep regrets. He believes that by keeping his wife in the dark, he is protecting her from the truth.

While this book possesses potential, it ultimately did not meet my expectations.

Such a feel good read! Major Bridgerton vibes and the perfect escapism. I binged it in one day and have no regrets. Loved how feisty Alaina was, and that it felt like a true slow burn romance. Would deffo recommend for a fluffy romance you get you out of a reading slump.