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Review: Wish Upon A Duke, Erica Ridley
Dec. 16th, 2018 01:59 pmI recieved an e-ARC of this, after having heard some buzz about the series on Twitter. I'm grateful for the opportunity to read outside of my normal trope/genre preferences, but I'm afraid I'm not a convert.
This was… a book for someone who is more of a fan of ‘regency romance’ as a genre, and who is less invested in historical fiction actually being historical, than I am. I began by expecting to be annoyed with it for having Too Many Dukes, but in fact, despite the title, the hero is not a duke. Instead I found it impossible to accept that Our Hero, a man so pedantic his meet cute with Our Heroine involves him upbraiding her for incorrect astronomical facts, could possibly believe this alpine village with a pond ‘frozen nearly all year round’ and deep snow all winter is in England. It’s… Geography doesn’t work like that.
Things that were notable and good about it: Our Heroine has a pretty significant specific phobia, which she does address throughout the novel, but she isn’t defined by it and she works on it rather than magically overcoming it. I think it’s fair to say Our Hero is not neurotypical either, but nor is he a stereotype. I wish Our Heroine had had some motivation to make her personal life changes other than in order to maintain a relationship with Our Hero, but at the same time, it didn't seem like the most unrealistic trajectory.
I was /extremely/ unhappy with the resolution to the ‘we are deeply incompatible because he loves to travel and she hates to go places’ problem. Like. A lot. But not because it was not a happy ending! Or even necessarily an unhealthy one: I just found it deeply unappealing from a personal standpoint. My sense is that Ridley has Her Thing She Writes, and if you like that thing you'll like this, but that I should probably not read any more of Her Thing.
This was… a book for someone who is more of a fan of ‘regency romance’ as a genre, and who is less invested in historical fiction actually being historical, than I am. I began by expecting to be annoyed with it for having Too Many Dukes, but in fact, despite the title, the hero is not a duke. Instead I found it impossible to accept that Our Hero, a man so pedantic his meet cute with Our Heroine involves him upbraiding her for incorrect astronomical facts, could possibly believe this alpine village with a pond ‘frozen nearly all year round’ and deep snow all winter is in England. It’s… Geography doesn’t work like that.
Things that were notable and good about it: Our Heroine has a pretty significant specific phobia, which she does address throughout the novel, but she isn’t defined by it and she works on it rather than magically overcoming it. I think it’s fair to say Our Hero is not neurotypical either, but nor is he a stereotype. I wish Our Heroine had had some motivation to make her personal life changes other than in order to maintain a relationship with Our Hero, but at the same time, it didn't seem like the most unrealistic trajectory.
I was /extremely/ unhappy with the resolution to the ‘we are deeply incompatible because he loves to travel and she hates to go places’ problem. Like. A lot. But not because it was not a happy ending! Or even necessarily an unhealthy one: I just found it deeply unappealing from a personal standpoint. My sense is that Ridley has Her Thing She Writes, and if you like that thing you'll like this, but that I should probably not read any more of Her Thing.