Always Be My Duchess

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Thank you to Netgalley and Forever Publishing for providing an ARC copy of this novel.

This was a relatively cute historical romance novel. Nève Valery is a French ballerina down on her luck — she absolutely needs to find someone to hire her in a ballet. She needs money, in order to help pay for her ailing sister's doctor. Lord Lysander Blackstone needs to prove that he's an upstanding gentleman who's settling down in order for another lord to sell him his property. Lysander only wants to buy this lord's property in order to raze it to the ground so he can build his railroad through it. They have a rather hot meet-cute, and well, they come to an arrangement. Nève will pretend to be his fiancé, and Lysander will pay her big bucks.

This was really extremely slow to start for me. Their meet-cute was steamy, but then it cooled way, way down until I was left wondering where exactly the book was going. There was a solid chunk of the book where nothing really happened. Once it picked back up, however, the book picked up some heat again. Nève and Lysander butted heads a lot — Lysander was rather stoic, and I think supposed to have Asperger's / be on the spectrum. Nève was bright, and bubbly, and hated that Lysander never really showed emotion. They're at odds until Nève gets a bit more of Lysander's history, and then, well, things make sense.

Overall, the book was cute. The supporting characters really stole the show when they were on the screen — I'm looking forward to their books, if they get any.

Neve and Stone have an enjoyable meet cute outside a theatre resulting in them being chased through the streets. I enjoyed some of the Pretty Woman moments like the wardrobe makeover, Stone's piano playing and the ballroom conversion other parts were a miss for me.