Review - My Favorite Duke by Bianca Blythe

Bianca Blythe's My Favorite Duke is the second book in her Duke Hunter's Club series. The book focuses on Lady Juliet and the Duke of Ainsworth, Lucas. Juliet is betrothed to the Duke of Sherwood and couldn't be happier, except that he never attends events and she hasn't seen him in almost a year. Lucas poses as a bumbling botanist to hide his true vocation as an agent of the crown as well as a duke. When Juliet decides to sneak to the Duke of Sherwood's castle to investigate some untoward rumors she's heard, she is waylaid by Lucas, and she has to rethink who is, in fact, her favorite duke.

I really wanted to like this book, unfortunately it just didn't really work for me. The author had some really good ideas and all the bones of a great story were there, it just seemed like a lot of scenes were rushed, or not enough description was given to really become invested in the action. I couldn't really sympathize with either of the main characters, it seemed like the actions they took weren't considered (or the reader wasn't informed of their considerations). At one point Lucas tells Juliet that he loves her, and she says "we can be friends" brightly. Then he left. What did he feel about that, what did she feel about that? It's never explained, and was honestly a little frustrating. Again, the plot was solid with a lot of twists and turns, I just felt the characters needed to be fleshed out more so that we would be invested in the action.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy of this novel in exchange for my review.