My American Duchess by Eloisa James

MY AMERICAN DUCHESS
Eloisa James
Avon
ISBN# 978-0-06-238943-5
February 2016
Historical Romance

Merry Pelford is on her third fiance. After breaking the first two engagements, she is determined to go through with this one or she will be forced to return to America so as not to live in shame. Lord Cedric Allardyce is the perfect match for her or so she believes until she meets a stranger on a balcony one evening. This stranger and she begin a conversation that leads to her realizing that she is attracted to this man. But her attraction has to be short lived because she realizes later that he is her fiance's twin brother.

The Duke of Trent is upset with his brother for giving their mother's ring to his fiancee. By rights, it is his to give, not Cedric's. However, he decides that the American girl he had quite a stimulating conversation with is the perfect woman for him and sets out to find her. When he discovers that his American girl is betrothed to Cedric, he can't believe it. Even so, he and Merry find themselves in a friendship that wants to be more. Merry soon finds that Cedric is not who she believed him to be and tries to cry off the engagement so that she may leave for America, but he's having none of it. Will she be doomed to marry a man she doesn't love?

I had high hopes for this book because well, Eloisa James. I found a few parts a bit hard to believe. After all, if the Duke and Cedric were twins, how could Merry not recognize that fact when she first met him on the balcony? Then there is another part that leads to same incredulity with them being twins. Merry seems a little flighty, perhaps, even though at the end she does finally fall in love for real and then it is Trent who doesn't believe in love. There is this push and pull with these two that gets a little tiresome with the first half, gains momentum throughout the second half, but then another plot used many times pops up. This is a little disappointing. I give higher marks for the second half, but was overall let down with this book compared to previous ones.

Reviewed by Jennifer Jones
Rating: 3