The Ugly Duchess

Avon

The Ugly Duchess
Eloisa James
2012

The Summary
"How can she dare to imagine he loves her...when all London calls her The Ugly Duchess?

"Theodora Saxby is the last woman anyone expects gorgeous James Ryburn, heir to the Duchy of Ashbrook, to marry.  But after a romantic proposal before the prince himself, even practical Theo finds herself convinced of her soon-to-be duke's passion.

"Still, the tabloids give the marriage six months.

"Theo would have given it a lifetime..until she discovers tat James desire not her heart, and certainly not her countenance, but her dowry.

"Society was shocked by their wedding...and is scandalized by their separation.

"Now James faces the battle of his life, convincing Theo that he loves the duckling who blossomed into the swan.

"And Theo will quickly find that, for a man with the soul of a pirate, All's Fair in Love--and War."

The Good
The Ugly Duchess was actually kind of fun.  I enjoyed reading about a heroine whom no one considered pretty.  She's striking, but never pretty; breathtaking in all her haughty, untouchable glory, but never beautiful.  And yet she's incredibly successful--she runs an entire estate, including multiple business, on her own--and manages her own affairs quite nicely.

More to the point, she's unwilling to take grief from anyone.  I mean, seriously, Theodora exercises her intelligence and her steely determination to do what she likes whenever she likes.  Even when her world feels like it's crashing down around her, she's unwilling to break under the stress.

When she finds out her guardian, the Duke of Ashbook, has been pilfering from her dowry, she kicks him out and cuts ties with him.  When she discovers that James has lied to her, learning he only married her to cover his father's tracks, she basically dissolves their marriage.  When she sees her visage in the newspaper with a terrible new moniker, the Ugly Duchess, scrawled beside it, she steps back, licks her wounds, and then astonishes them all by sending the world of fashion into a fervor and single-handedly reinvigorates the bankrupt Duchy of Ashbrook.

Theo is quite extraordinary.  I only sort of liked James.  He's not a bad guy and he really does seem to love Theo, even if he does a terrible job of letting her know.  But, as the story progresses, I couldn't help cheering for Theo.  She's completely, totally self-sufficient and she's not afraid to take charge of her life, even when things seem at their worst.

That's just the way I like my heroines:  spunky, smart, and self-sufficient.

The Bad
The Ugly Duchess is an odd story.  I mean, James does a passable job of creating a believable scenario and a relatable characters; however, you have to suspend disbelief a little when James sets out on his own and, drum roll please, becomes a pirate.

Don't get me wrong, stranger things have happened in history.  You have only to look at Rejected Princesses to see what I mean.  I just thought it seemed a little...strange, unbelievable for a book that truly felt like it made the effort to keep itself grounded in historical fact and kept just a touch of realism.

Otherwise, no complaints.

The Ugly
Two things:  one, people are cruel and it's terrible to see their cruelty acted out on others; two, it's a very, very explicit novel.  The latter made me feel especially awkward when I realized Theodora and James were 17 and 19, respectively, when they were first married.  I really didn't need all that explicit detail regarding people who are essentially minors.