When the Duke Returns

By: Eloisa James

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

The Duchess of Cosway yearns for a man she has never met...her husband.

Married by proxy as a child, Lady Isidore has spent years fending off lecherous men in every European court while waiting to meet her husband. She's determined to accept him, no matter how unattractive the duke turns out to be. When she finally lures Simeon Jermyn back to London, his dark handsomeness puts Isidore's worst fears to rest - until disaster strikes.

The duke demands an annulment.

Forsaking his adventuresome past, Simeon has returned to London ready to embrace the life of a proper duke, only to find that his supposed wife is too ravishing, too headstrong, and too sensual to be the docile duchess he has in mind. But Isidore will not give up her claim to the title - or him - without a fight.

She will do whatever it takes to capture Simeon's heart, even if it means sacrificing her virtue. After all, a consummated marriage cannot be annulled.

Yet in forcing Simeon into a delicious surrender, will Isidore risk not only her dignity - but her heart?

©2008 Eloisa James (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers

A Duke vs. a Duchess....... an entertaining match

Firstly, this is actually book 4 in the Desperate Duchesses series - I hadn't realised this and listened to it as a stand alone book, whilst this didn't detract from my enjoyment of it in any way, there were often chapters relating to another couple's marriage which I suspect may have been from previous books and it did not conclude their relationship which will be book 5 in the series This Duchess Of Mine. My point is, reading them in order would be beneficial but not absolutely necessary.

Coming back to this book, which I thought was funny, charming and a sweet romance about 2 virgins who were married by proxy at a young age finally meeting 11 years later (still virgins) and coming to terms that they are not each others 'ideal' partner and yet the chemistry is there. So, should they get an annulment or consummate their marriage - which proves easier said than done. Good likeable characters that make you want to scream, but it was also touching and tender and, of course, it's a ridiculous tongue in cheek romp in the eighteenth century and the epilogue has a surprising twist too!

Worth a credit? Yes definitely a typical E.J. story.

ENJOYABLE ROMP WITH CUTE CHARACTERS

They were married by proxy when quite young and had never met. When the finally did, many years later, the attraction was immediate. However, they were opposites - he quiet, contemplative, and more introverted. She was open, outgoing, and knew what she wanted in a husband. The ending was inevitable.

Great Story

Would you consider the audio edition of When the Duke Returns to be better than the print version?

Yes, the narrator brings out the emotions in both of the main characters as they interact with one another.

Who was your favorite character and why?

both Isador and Simeon. Isador is a very strong minded woman and yet she doesn't try to get her on way even when she's wrong nor does she try to show that she could take care of herself even though she can, just to prove to him that she could,( you know the type where the female lead is always trying to prove to the male lead that she is as smart or as capable as a man so she tries to prove it anyway she can just to be contrary), and Simeon is alpha male enough to acknowledge that Isidor, is smart and able to take charge of certain things and yet not be intimidated by her strong character so he doesn't try to force her to see things his way and the fact that they both try to compromise enough to see each others view points make me like this story very much.

Have you listened to any of Susan Duerden’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, she does a good job. I like her voices both male and female. As a matter of fact I prefer her voice to that of Rosalyn Landor, because, Ms. Landor's male characters sound like some old stodgy uncle or grandpa and the same with the female characters, the voices of the female character sound to me that of an old aunt or a grandma's voice, stiff and too low to be a young woman's voice. I love listening to Susan Duerden's character voices she acts out the emotions of each one of her character and you can hear it in her voice. I am very pleased with her narration. I wish she would do more of these. I always listen again and again to the stories she narrates, she makes the stories enjoyable to listen to.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, I like how Isidor and Simeon declared their love for each other, it made me cry.

Any additional comments?

Aside from the subplot of the stuffed up toilets, which wasn't to my liking at all, I don't know how the author came up with that type of scenario for the two main characters to get together, if one ignores those parts that mention it, this was a pretty good story.

Most intriguing plot of series so far

Any additional comments?

So far, the most memorable book of the series. I wasn't crazy about the Italian accent, but it didn't matter once I got to know the characters - I shouldn't give away why. The build up to their inevitable love scene(s) was a lovely tease. The ongoing subplot with Jemma, Villiers and Beaumont (sp?) is getting more complex - love it.

I'm getting P.O.'d with the author.🙄

*Slight Spoiler Alert*


Look, its an OK series, I wouldn't say don't read it...I'm just generally pissy about entitled grown ups not so grown ups. I'm also annoyed none of these books can truly stand alone.

Can I just get a story at a time? Is that too much to ask?

Then, will the blind stop leading the blind? All the ladies in this book keep turning to Jemma, when she's got her own damned house to clean and by all accounts (four books worth) has been regularly getting into issues with her husband since 6 months into her marriage. Ran to France for revenge against his cheating ways. Came back to England cause he passed out (from an illness he refuses to get medical opinions on) and attempts to continue her revenge by tempting the man's best friend. Give me a break😒. Jemma's book is up next, so maybe I'll sympathize a bit more. But I doubt it and I digress.

Isidore is so ungrateful its not funny. She was married before she reached maturity through proxy. Her husband takes off, likely because of his nightmare of a Mama and she mad cause the man didn't cheat on her and remained a virgin? Someone, hand me a glove, she needs to be slapped into the reality of the world she lives in. I think that's the gripe I have with Isidore - she wanted her husband home, he came home, that wasn't enough? I tried reading this from 23 year old's perspective but I was never this sheltered and dunce at 23. I mean, heeeeellllloooo, you got him back - now be his wife. That's not to say Cosway wasn't problematic, but she beat him in every way. Just dotty.

The only character I truly love in this series, for all his shit, is Villier. He's👏🏾 the 👏🏾on👏🏾ly👏🏾reason👏🏾 I keep reading the series 1) because Eloise was smart enough to save his story for "last" ( not counting the numbers series) and as I said, 2) each book in the series has several plots being executed at the same damn time🤦🏿‍♀️. So, I'm stuck having to read all of them just so I'm prepped for Villier😍😍😍😍. Like I said, not telling folks not to read but figured I'd keep this review honest.

Amazing

I absolutely love this story. It’s truly beautiful and I love how the hero and heroine find themselves also while finding and learning about each other! It’s a really great read.

This may be my favorite in the series so far!

We first see Lady Isadore finally meet her duke at the end of the previous novel, "Duchess by Night." In "When the Duke Returns" we learn more about that first encounter and at last discover why Simeon stayed away from London, indeed all of Europe, for so many years. Neither Simeon or Isador is what the other expects, but they're immensely attracted to each other. More importantly, their relationship teaches them more about themselves and eventually they're able to see that their differences can make for a good partnership.

Initially, Simean was a difficult hero to fall in love with. He seemed like one of those people with a lot of "book smarts" (in his case gained from extensive travel) but limited real-life experience. One of the things I love about this book is that their first few weeks of marriage reveals that despite her gender, and societal constraints on women, Isador's beauty hides an interesting combination of business acumen and empathy.

EJ continues to tease us on the triangular relationship between Jemma, Elijah, and Villiers. Ironically, as Jemma & Elijah's marriage grows stronger, so does the friendship between Elijah and Villiers. I look forward to seeing the repair of this marriage, and this friendship. And I can't wait to finally see Villiers finally fall victim to love :)

P.S. Susan Duerden continues to be a wonderful narrator.

Distracting Narration!

Listening to this book was painful. Narrator’s voice was wrong and annoying. Her inflection was off…just not good. I was looking for a story with male virgin! Gave this a try, story line was alright. I’m getting tired of the same stories with the badass alpha male who knows Exactly how to initiate a young dumb virgin. And they fall in love in a ridiculous short amount of time. Oh, and the 8-14 year age difference! Come on!! How about a 27 year old gal deflowers an-incredibly hot 24 year old male totally built tattoo artist?! I digress, apologies. I would not recommend this book.

Interesting Hero

I enjoyed this story the most of the series so far. Since Cosway is a world traveler/explorer, it allowed him to have ideas that made him skew more modern and made him more appealing. Isidore is more intelligent and interesting than she appeared in the earlier books. I appreciated her viewpoint of love and also what she deserved as a woman who waited so long to even meet her husband (insane that was something that could happen). The side characters are enjoyable and interesting and I’m very excited to get to the next book as we’ve been waiting for Jemma and Elijah’s book since the beginning.
The narrator’s work really grated on me for this book. When any female character becomes emotional they sound like an incredibly shrill eight-year old. And Isidore is a passionate Italian, which means she sounds shrill quite frequently. It became hard to take the heroine seriously when she sounds like a child throwing a tantrum (no matter how good her points might be) and when her voice was so irritating. The male voices are all very, very breathy and when they are meant to get deeper/huskier it gets worse. I can’t describe it— it’s almost like if vocal fry had a child with a ghost who is trying to seduce you. The narration is tolerable half the time, but as Isidore becomes emotional frequently and the heroes are often speaking to women in those tones, it frequently becomes tedious to listen to in spite of whatever might be happening in the plot,

Awesome! I really like these book.

The characters are not very strong but I like the way the author explore the circumstances where the characters find them selfs in...