The Lost Duke of Wyndham (Two Dukes of Wyndham, Book 1) | Julia Quinn

The Lost Duke of Wyndham (Two Dukes of Wyndham, Book 1) | Julia Quinn | The Lost Weekend.....

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The Lost Duke of W...

	The Lost Duke of Wyndham (Two Dukes of Wyndham, Book 1) Julia Quinn Avon, 2008 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 100 reviews view larger image
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No charm, no charisma, no good

When Julia Quinn writes a funny book, she is outstanding. This book is not funny. It is not charming. It just plainly is not something that should be read.

The book is made up of "He thought" "she thought" pages and pages of what the characters thought. The author doesn't give her reader a chance to think for themselves about whether or not the characters are worthwhile.

It is an obvious precursor to a book about the deposed Duke Thomas and his erstwhile and long-suffering fiancee, Amelia. So much so, these two characters have scenes that are hinted at but not explained in this book. You are left dangling, and, in the writer and editor's views, wanting to read the next book in the series. Not so for me - while I think Thomas and Amelia might actually be a decent story, the story of Jack and Grace turned me off the series.

We are told repeatedly that Jack is funny and charming. I could not find either trait in his character. What he is, apparently, is a man out to seduce a woman in his grandmother's employ. That, in the end, he wants to marry her, doesn't excuse his efforts to ruin her.

And then there is Grace - a fine woman who falls for a highwayman who held a gun to her head... something tells me this wouldn't happen in real life. In giving up her virginity to this charming scamp (why charming, because the author says so, of course!) all she worries about is whether or not she will become pregnant. She doesn't care about her future except that no one else knows what she has been up to.

Apart from Jack clutching his heart and knowing that the pain there is love (and not heartburn), I ask you, where is the love in this book? Where is the romance? Where is the funny dialogue? Where is the reason for reading the book? Where, oh where, is Julia Quinn being held hostage and being forced to write this tripe?

I would have given this a one star but I do save that for the absolutely worst of books (just as I save five stars for the absolutely best - Heyer notably ranks five for me consistently.) I wish we could give a 1.5 as this would have scored it on the nose.

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The Lost Weekend.....

is actually a movie title but it could also describe two days spent with Julia Quinn's new novel, The Lost Duke of Wyndham. I agree with other reviewers who think this book is a waste of time. At first I thought it suffered by comparison to Duma Key, which I had just finished (whether you like Stephen King or not, he can WRITE!) but then I realized: No, it's The Lost Duke itself; it's just.....well, it's not good.

I approached this book warily, after the amateurish and boring Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever. But convinced that was an early I'm-just-learning-how-to-write Quinn she'd dusted off under the pressure to publish, I took a chance. And it began well enough. Grace and her situation appeared promising and Jack seemed intriguing. But it all went nowhere! This is not a novel as much as a string of verbal sparring scenes between the hero and heroine or the hero and whoever he happens to be talking to, all of which mean nothing and move the action forward not at all. Dialogue has a purpose and that purpose is to impart information to the reader, to develop the characters, and most of all, to move the plot along. The dialogue in this book is not interesting and it tells us nothing except that Grace and Jack exchange quips each time they meet, just as though they were in an unfunny sitcom. Almost nothing happens in this book and what does happen fails to create excitement, anticipation, tension, or even much interest. The characters are shallowly developed, the narrative repetitive and static, the plot minimal, and the resolution thrown away in an epilogue. Halfway through I gave up and skipped to the end.

I may have to give up romances. I was horribly disappointed in the last book from Loretta Chase, who can almost do no wrong, and now this. While Julia Quinn is hardly in Chase's class, she has certainly written far better than the last two books published under her name. I long for someone with the talent of Laura Kinsale. Better yet, Laura Kinsale herself!

Go read Duma Key. At least it's SUPPOSED to be a horror story!

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