The Duchess Hunt

3.5/5

4.5 If I remember all the details in January, I'll bump it up to a 5.

Dang, the hype is real on this one. It is definitely better than the first one. It was really really good.

I feel like the MMC's secret was 1) WILD, but somehow also 2) completely irrelevant to the plot? It just seemed like it needed to be a thing so that there was a plausible reason for them to think the threats were for him, not her, but it's wrapped up so neatly it seems like it could've been taken out. And also, HOLY SHIT dude, this is like Mr. Rochester levels of fucked up behavior and that's never really addressed? I finished this book and immediately started rereading because the pacing was so weird - I honestly thought I'd missed something.

Most of what I want to say here is a spoiler, so I guess I'll just cut it here (CWs for this book also under cut): first of all, MAJOR warning in this book for child sexual abuse/child porn, also abduction and forcing someone into an asylum (sorry, I know there's better phrasing, but that's what it's called here), plus early on there's people held at gunpoint and also there's blackmail/threats. I don't feel like this book knew what it wanted to be - I was definitely here for the boss/assistant trope, with a side of "helping the person you love find their spouse." Then it took detours into secret sex club, sex to get it out of their systems, and ended with blackmail/Terrible Secrets, and of course there's an HEA. I got to the reveal of the blackmailer and was like "...wait, who?" and it's not like it took me forever to read this book, it was just SO overstuffed I forgot who this guy was supposed to be. He shows up in the Secret Sex Club portion of the book and then not again until the end, so if it was supposed to be a big shock, it completely flopped for me. I don't know. I liked what I thought this book was from the blurb, but not what it ended up being. Penelope was a great character, and it's kind of a shame, because this ended up not being that much about her at all.