The Once and Future Duchess
By Sophia Nash
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: May 27, 2014
It seems to Isabella that she has been in love with the Duke
of Candover all of her life. He, as much as her father, taught her the things
she needed to know to manage the duchy, and he did it so well that Isabella,
despite her youth, excels at managing all her responsibilities. Unlike her
father, Candover believed that she was wise enough and strong enough and brave
enough to be a duchess. It was also Candover who taught her, albeit
unwittingly, that the sound of a man’s voice could make her knees weak and his
rare smile could make her tremble. But she thinks she lacks the beauty and
sophistication to attract Candover. Isabella summons every ounce of courage she
possesses to propose that she and Candover solve their mutual spouse-finding
problem by marrying one another. When he rejects her offer, Isabella is
humiliated.
Honor is supremely
important to James Fitzroy, Duke of Candover. He is committed to his ducal
responsibilities and to his brotherly duties. He is loyal to a fault, and he is
a man who is true to his word, whatever the cost. Isabella’s father was
Candover’s godfather, a man Candover admired and one who was kinder to him than
was his own father. The Duke of March married a much younger woman with
disastrous results, and he was determined that Isabella marry a man near her
own age. He asks Candover to pledge his word that he will ensure that Isabella
does not marry an older man. Candover promised, and now neither the tenderness
Isabella evokes in him nor the desire that requires all his control to master
will make him false to that promise. But he is unprepared for the devastation watching Isabella flirt with the eligibles on the Prince’s list brings and for
the rage that fills him at the thought of her in another man’s arms.
The Once and Future
Duchess is the fourth, and according to rumor, the final book in Sophia Nash’s
Royal Entourage series. I love the series and have impatiently
awaited the book in which the cool, mysterious Candover would catch fire and
have his secrets revealed. But, having read it, I have mixed feelings about it.
I loved the characters. Isabella is all that Candover assured her father she
was, and certainly she is wise beyond her eighteen years. But she is also
poignantly lonely at times, even more so when it seems that her friendship with
Candover has been shattered beyond repair. She and Candover are alike in their
essential aloneness. His secret and his heavy sense of being responsible for
the well-being and happiness of those important to him mean that not even those
closest to him are admitted to true intimacy. I was deeply invested in these characters
and in seeing them arrive at their HEA, which, although a consummation devoutly
to be wished, often appeared to be a faint hope. I also loved seeing characters
from earlier books.
Despite my affection
for the characters, however, if this is the final book in the series, I hate
the loose threads. The Duke of Sussex makes me laugh, and I was very pleased
with his match. Nevertheless, I really wanted more of his story than the reader
gets in the rather rushed secondary romance. I adore the Duke of Barry! He is
my kind of hero, and, while his HEA is suggested, I think he deserves the full
treatment complete with kisses and sighs. Finally, there is Calliope Little,
Isabella’s young cousin. She is a scene-stealing delight in the tradition of
Josie Essex and Minerva Highwood, and, like them, she demands her own book. If
this is the last book, I feel cheated. If it’s not, I will willingly wait
another year or more for the romance of Barry and Mary (please) and for
Calliope’s story.
I think The Once and Future Duchess can be read
as a standalone, although a reader new to the series will miss various
nuances. I recommend the full series,
but this book offers its own particular rewards. My frustrations with the loose
threads aside, I found much to love in this book, and I was once again reminded
that Sophia Nash is a wonderful—and underappreciated—romance author.
~Janga
~Janga
