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Longhope Abbey #4
A Scandalous Kind of Duke
Two friends. Too many missed chances.
Leopold Halton, the Duke of Dammerton, is the man with everything: perfect hair, beautiful waistcoats, and London’s finest collection of decorative objects. But two years after his highly entertaining divorce (entertaining for everyone but him, that is), Leo still doesn’t have what he wants most: another wife.
Leo is ready to propose to a suitable lady, but with gossip dissecting his every move, the family of his nearly-ideal bride demands that he first stop calling on artist Juno Bell, the first woman he ever kissed and now, a decade later, his friend.
After ten years of hard work to become an artist, Juno has everything she dreamed of: a flourishing studio, a wealthy patroness, and the freedom to live as she pleases. She even receives visits from a duke (and don’t London’s gossips love that!).
Juno has always known she can never hold on to Leo, yet when he declares their friendship must end, she finds it harder than expected to let him go. At least, not without a kiss.
After all, if their friendship must end anyway, then they have nothing more to lose … right?
Leopold Halton, the Duke of Dammerton, is the man with everything: perfect hair, beautiful waistcoats, and London’s finest collection of decorative objects. But two years after his highly entertaining divorce (entertaining for everyone but him, that is), Leo still doesn’t have what he wants most: another wife.
Leo is ready to propose to a suitable lady, but with gossip dissecting his every move, the family of his nearly-ideal bride demands that he first stop calling on artist Juno Bell, the first woman he ever kissed and now, a decade later, his friend.
After ten years of hard work to become an artist, Juno has everything she dreamed of: a flourishing studio, a wealthy patroness, and the freedom to live as she pleases. She even receives visits from a duke (and don’t London’s gossips love that!).
Juno has always known she can never hold on to Leo, yet when he declares their friendship must end, she finds it harder than expected to let him go. At least, not without a kiss.
After all, if their friendship must end anyway, then they have nothing more to lose … right?
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 22, 2022
131 people are currently reading
1183 people want to read
About the author
Mia Vincy
6 books854 followersMia Vincy wandered the world for years, sometimes backpacking, sometimes working variously as a journalist, communications specialist, and copyeditor. She always carried a tattered book or three in her backpack, until the advent of the e-reader meant she could carry thousands of books at once.
Mia eventually settled in a country town in Victoria, Australia, to write historical romances, in between bike rides through the countryside and muttering at the walls.
Mia eventually settled in a country town in Victoria, Australia, to write historical romances, in between bike rides through the countryside and muttering at the walls.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 169 reviews
November 28, 2023
While my immune system was (thankfully) being made a huge fool of by the bivalent vaccine (I mean, seriously, calm down) this weekend I got terribly sick of laying around. I wouldn't normally start an ARC with a fever over 100, but I did. And I just want to say this probably wasn't the reading the book deserved-and I don't think they are ever really the reviews the book deserves, but I hope it serves its purpose.
I have liked this entire series-- loving some of them. And although I was just reminded of rough patches with Josh's and Cassandra's story, I am equally reminded that I have never forgotten them either.
This story was structured a bit differently, as I have come to see all her novels may be unique to a structure her own, although I can't put my finger on exactly why that is. Regardless, I was hooked by the meadow scenes in all their vivid setting and teenage angst. I had no trouble reading, napping, reading, and reading some more. There were scenes that on my best days would have made me weepy-the exquisitely painful ones that I hold authors in esteem for. The leap of joy when resolutions came, and honestly, for as un-sexy as I was feeling there was some amazing sensual scenes that involved like..no contact, brief contact, a kiss?
So that's my synopsis. I felt a lot of feelings. Juno is wonderful. Leo was this even, friendly, wonderful person and I just loved how the first scene (post-teen years) set up his longing without mentioning Juno at all. It was clear--and it was wonderful. IT was essentially these two people you hope figure it out--they will frustrate the readers who get frustrated by indecision or lack of communication (to some extent). The story was not soft, however, it had its grit and angst.
I have more to say, and I honestly might come back to this on reread or reviewing the book briefly again. But it's out next week, in the world, and it's another great offering from Vincy.
Thanks to the author for the ARC of the novel, this has not impacted my review or rating.
I have liked this entire series-- loving some of them. And although I was just reminded of rough patches with Josh's and Cassandra's story, I am equally reminded that I have never forgotten them either.
This story was structured a bit differently, as I have come to see all her novels may be unique to a structure her own, although I can't put my finger on exactly why that is. Regardless, I was hooked by the meadow scenes in all their vivid setting and teenage angst. I had no trouble reading, napping, reading, and reading some more. There were scenes that on my best days would have made me weepy-the exquisitely painful ones that I hold authors in esteem for. The leap of joy when resolutions came, and honestly, for as un-sexy as I was feeling there was some amazing sensual scenes that involved like..no contact, brief contact, a kiss?
So that's my synopsis. I felt a lot of feelings. Juno is wonderful. Leo was this even, friendly, wonderful person and I just loved how the first scene (post-teen years) set up his longing without mentioning Juno at all. It was clear--and it was wonderful. IT was essentially these two people you hope figure it out--they will frustrate the readers who get frustrated by indecision or lack of communication (to some extent). The story was not soft, however, it had its grit and angst.
I have more to say, and I honestly might come back to this on reread or reviewing the book briefly again. But it's out next week, in the world, and it's another great offering from Vincy.
Thanks to the author for the ARC of the novel, this has not impacted my review or rating.
September 23, 2022
Mia Vincy is a treasure of the historical romance genre. Ok, she's the ONLY m/f historical romance writer I like, who is currently writing.
And I had so much fun with this one, basically gulped it in a day, smiled a lot. Vincy is very smart and witty and her characters are unique and are combined in an interesting ways.
We have a duke Leopold, very streamlined to the outsiders but romantic who had his heart once broken in his youth and decided to be very practical about all these soapy matters of the heart.
Juno on the other hand is a free thinking bohemian painter who has seen the world, had romances and now lives with her two cats.
They were in love as teenagers, broke each other's hearts, became friends, still secretly pining for each other but at different times in their relationship, and now 10 years later, finally, their desires for each other synchronized.
I am usually a lover of romance that has some external conflict, this author's books being the exception to that rule. Vincy's characters and the conflict between them just works on its own.
And yet, something was a little lacking here, as if it was just a tiny bit underbaked and the ending felt rushed. And maybe I didn't feel they had a real conflict, just a ton of miscommunication that was fixed very easily as all miscommunications should, by talking.
Or maybe it's a problem of the "friends to lovers" trope, because I can see how hard it is to create drama and angst between two people who have known and loved each other as friends for 10 years after their move into lovers territory.
And I had so much fun with this one, basically gulped it in a day, smiled a lot. Vincy is very smart and witty and her characters are unique and are combined in an interesting ways.
We have a duke Leopold, very streamlined to the outsiders but romantic who had his heart once broken in his youth and decided to be very practical about all these soapy matters of the heart.
Juno on the other hand is a free thinking bohemian painter who has seen the world, had romances and now lives with her two cats.
They were in love as teenagers, broke each other's hearts, became friends, still secretly pining for each other but at different times in their relationship, and now 10 years later, finally, their desires for each other synchronized.
I am usually a lover of romance that has some external conflict, this author's books being the exception to that rule. Vincy's characters and the conflict between them just works on its own.
And yet, something was a little lacking here, as if it was just a tiny bit underbaked and the ending felt rushed. And maybe I didn't feel they had a real conflict, just a ton of miscommunication that was fixed very easily as all miscommunications should, by talking.
Or maybe it's a problem of the "friends to lovers" trope, because I can see how hard it is to create drama and angst between two people who have known and loved each other as friends for 10 years after their move into lovers territory.
Read
October 9, 2022A second chance friends to lovers romance, where divorced duke Leo is in love with scandalous artist Juno. The barrier between them is in large part a failure to get in sync--when one of them is ready to declare themselves, the other is in a relationship--plus a healthy dose of defensiveness based on both being rejected by parents, which means they both put self protection first at points when honesty would help. It's very human and convincing, but a bit frustrating in the 'two steps forward, one step back ' progression it gives the story, although obv if you like pining this will be catnip.
I had a couple of niggles, mostly around Leo's motivations, which were a bit slippery (his attitudes to both scandal and money seemed extremely mutable) and also by the duel, which didn't seem to fit the time period unless I've got something entirely wrong, which is always possible. But, niggles. Leo is a charming hero and flamboyant dresser, which is nice to see, and Juno a high-powered and determined heroine, and the writing is smooth and highly readable.
I had a couple of niggles, mostly around Leo's motivations, which were a bit slippery (his attitudes to both scandal and money seemed extremely mutable) and also by the duel, which didn't seem to fit the time period unless I've got something entirely wrong, which is always possible. But, niggles. Leo is a charming hero and flamboyant dresser, which is nice to see, and Juno a high-powered and determined heroine, and the writing is smooth and highly readable.
November 8, 2022
love this series but this one was a little disappointing as I didn't care about the characters
if you like mutual pinning and friends to lovers check this book out because you can read it as standalone
if you like mutual pinning and friends to lovers check this book out because you can read it as standalone
September 25, 2022
One more historical novel set in XIXth century England with a duckke, like dunno 90% of historical novels currently being published (9% will also be set in XIXth century England but with slightly different, but lofty titles). I am probably cranky, but for years, apart from a few favorite authors (of which, only one is currently writing historical romances and slowly), these stories are almost all not working for me. The first 3 books by this author were an exception so I was looking forward to this. But either I am in an even more impatient hypercritical mood, or this is worse than the earlier books, because I really did not like it.
The conflict is just stupid, kind of misunderstanding, mistimed, just talk you two, you are around each other a lot (and I am not seeing Juno as a crazily proud person, which she would need to be for plot to make sense).
Then the setting, our early 10th century duke has a FOUNDATION to patronize artists (crazily anachronistic) for the "decorative arts". He needs to marry an heiress so he can spend all her 25k pounds dowry to fund his foundation - while giving his half brother 20 and 50 pounds all the time. I expect the dowry would be all spent very fast, probably buying stuff like a perfume burner shaped like a dancing ballerina and more tea services to join the 40 something he supposedly has. This was just not cute for me. They are going to be in debt in 10, well, 5 years...
The conversations between all those supposedly upper class people were not subtle, not rich in subtext, and usually rather crass at getting to the points of obvious coercion trying to establish conflict. The relationship between several characters, the mingling between different social classes (the duke buying things from a peddler regularly outside his own house) also seemed totally off. A lot of authors seem to, by route, try to fit stories into 19th century Britain, just because, when those stories do not really fit - is it really more publishable? No clue, but frustrating.
The author seems to been setting secondary characters for future books (Hadrian the spy with a scar, the bad bad bad boy Blaise, the cousin with a bad marriage), I am not sure I will even sample those.
On the good side, the dialogue between Juno and Leo and Blaise was occasionally very funny - and if anachronistic, I did not care.
The conflict is just stupid, kind of misunderstanding, mistimed, just talk you two, you are around each other a lot (and I am not seeing Juno as a crazily proud person, which she would need to be for plot to make sense).
Then the setting, our early 10th century duke has a FOUNDATION to patronize artists (crazily anachronistic) for the "decorative arts". He needs to marry an heiress so he can spend all her 25k pounds dowry to fund his foundation - while giving his half brother 20 and 50 pounds all the time. I expect the dowry would be all spent very fast, probably buying stuff like a perfume burner shaped like a dancing ballerina and more tea services to join the 40 something he supposedly has. This was just not cute for me. They are going to be in debt in 10, well, 5 years...
The conversations between all those supposedly upper class people were not subtle, not rich in subtext, and usually rather crass at getting to the points of obvious coercion trying to establish conflict. The relationship between several characters, the mingling between different social classes (the duke buying things from a peddler regularly outside his own house) also seemed totally off. A lot of authors seem to, by route, try to fit stories into 19th century Britain, just because, when those stories do not really fit - is it really more publishable? No clue, but frustrating.
The author seems to been setting secondary characters for future books (Hadrian the spy with a scar, the bad bad bad boy Blaise, the cousin with a bad marriage), I am not sure I will even sample those.
On the good side, the dialogue between Juno and Leo and Blaise was occasionally very funny - and if anachronistic, I did not care.
January 13, 2023
I fall a little out of love with Mia Vincy with each new book. A Wicked Kind of Husband was a fabulous debut but each release has let me down. The Premise of A Scandalous Kind of Duke was promising; a friends to lovers, second chance romance between a free spirit artist and a duty bound Duke. However, it fell short. How can I care if the main characters end up together if they don't seem to care themselves?
I did like Juno, she was interesting and independent. Unfortunately, she had a backbone made of spaghetti. I wanted to see Juno mad - I never felt her anger, sadness, or even happiness. Her main emotion was passive apathy. Leo never grew on me and had no character development until maybe the last 10% of the book. His life was guided by his convenience, He had regard for Juno's feelings or desires. Lets not forget he was either married, courting, or engaged to another women through most of the story. The steam level was about a 3/5, the build to the sex scene was paced well although, the sex scene was a little overwritten and OTT for my taste.
I do think Miss Vincy is a great writer but her delivery falls short. I was much more interested in the side characters, especially St. Blaise and Miss Macy, then I was the MC. I will say that I loved the epilog.
Juno deserved better and I wanted her to tell Leo to kick rocks. It would have been more impactful if they didn't end up together, that is really saying something as I ALWAYS need a HEA! This is a story of two fickle people whose favorite game is Ring Around the Rosie, forever running in circles.
I did like Juno, she was interesting and independent. Unfortunately, she had a backbone made of spaghetti. I wanted to see Juno mad - I never felt her anger, sadness, or even happiness. Her main emotion was passive apathy. Leo never grew on me and had no character development until maybe the last 10% of the book. His life was guided by his convenience, He had regard for Juno's feelings or desires. Lets not forget he was either married, courting, or engaged to another women through most of the story. The steam level was about a 3/5, the build to the sex scene was paced well although, the sex scene was a little overwritten and OTT for my taste.
I do think Miss Vincy is a great writer but her delivery falls short. I was much more interested in the side characters, especially St. Blaise and Miss Macy, then I was the MC. I will say that I loved the epilog.
Juno deserved better and I wanted her to tell Leo to kick rocks. It would have been more impactful if they didn't end up together, that is really saying something as I ALWAYS need a HEA! This is a story of two fickle people whose favorite game is Ring Around the Rosie, forever running in circles.
August 2, 2022
It's been two years since the last installment of the Longhope Abbey series and oh, was this worth the wait! First I should mention that all of the books in the series can be read in any order, independently, and none have cliffhangers. Thank you for that, Ms. Vincy. I hate cliffhangers.
Juno Bell (I seriously love her name) is an artist in London. She's living on her own, making her own decisions, doesn't answer to anyone, keeps the company of other artists, writers, and poets, although not much time is given to them. It didn't need to be because her big story is with Leopold Halton (Leo), Duke of Dammerton. They met when they were much younger and were meeting secretly in the early morning hours for walks in the meadow and conversation. Nothing past that happened, but they fell in love.
Only Leo is a stringent follower of the rules. He's going to be a duke someday and there are things that are expected of him to maintain honor and give power to the title. That does not include marrying an artist, who is most definitely of a lower class. She can never be his duchess. She wasn't good enough.
All hell breaks loose after that...for both of them. They both make errors in judgment, make mistakes that can't be undone, and assume too much. They were both suffering from broken hearts and unrequited love. They made bad decisions that affected others and in the end, nearly finished them off for good. I didn't see how this was going to play out favorably for them.
This was a fantastic story. I loved the stoic, well-dressed Duke of Dammerton. He was rigid and unyielding until he couldn't be anymore. I loved the whimsical, fun Juno, who guarded her heart as well as her secret drawings. She hid behind a facade of living life on her terms; a woman who did as she pleased and gosh darn the consequences. She was so broken, yet she refused to admit it or let anyone see it. The two of them were so good together and they needed each other no matter how they denied it. I liked the besotted fool Tristan St. Blaise, Leo's half-brother. The way he nonchalantly stole things from Leo (he did it right in front of him) and poked at him was comical at times, but it almost cost him dearly. The other secondary characters, like the three I mentioned, were so well-defined and so dynamic, they flew off the screen and drew a response from me. Let's line up and slap Beatrice, ha ha! Nobody develops characters like Mia Vincy.
This story had me from the very beginning and did not let go until the end. I loved everything about it. The characters, the angst, the plot, the steam, the clever epilogue, all make this a strong contender for my Top 10 list for the year on my blog.
So good!
*I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily left a review.
Juno Bell (I seriously love her name) is an artist in London. She's living on her own, making her own decisions, doesn't answer to anyone, keeps the company of other artists, writers, and poets, although not much time is given to them. It didn't need to be because her big story is with Leopold Halton (Leo), Duke of Dammerton. They met when they were much younger and were meeting secretly in the early morning hours for walks in the meadow and conversation. Nothing past that happened, but they fell in love.
Only Leo is a stringent follower of the rules. He's going to be a duke someday and there are things that are expected of him to maintain honor and give power to the title. That does not include marrying an artist, who is most definitely of a lower class. She can never be his duchess. She wasn't good enough.
All hell breaks loose after that...for both of them. They both make errors in judgment, make mistakes that can't be undone, and assume too much. They were both suffering from broken hearts and unrequited love. They made bad decisions that affected others and in the end, nearly finished them off for good. I didn't see how this was going to play out favorably for them.
This was a fantastic story. I loved the stoic, well-dressed Duke of Dammerton. He was rigid and unyielding until he couldn't be anymore. I loved the whimsical, fun Juno, who guarded her heart as well as her secret drawings. She hid behind a facade of living life on her terms; a woman who did as she pleased and gosh darn the consequences. She was so broken, yet she refused to admit it or let anyone see it. The two of them were so good together and they needed each other no matter how they denied it. I liked the besotted fool Tristan St. Blaise, Leo's half-brother. The way he nonchalantly stole things from Leo (he did it right in front of him) and poked at him was comical at times, but it almost cost him dearly. The other secondary characters, like the three I mentioned, were so well-defined and so dynamic, they flew off the screen and drew a response from me. Let's line up and slap Beatrice, ha ha! Nobody develops characters like Mia Vincy.
This story had me from the very beginning and did not let go until the end. I loved everything about it. The characters, the angst, the plot, the steam, the clever epilogue, all make this a strong contender for my Top 10 list for the year on my blog.
So good!
*I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily left a review.
January 26, 2023
4.5 stars. I have not enjoyed a book so much in a while. That secret longing of two friends just pulled all my heart strings. And Mia Vince’s prose is superb to describe such emotions.
Our heroine is a self sustaining artist, lives bohemian life, have had lovers in the past but only one true love. However her one true love is a divorced duke looking for a rich wife and on top of that he is her friend. Not a best friend but a friend.
Our duke Leopold is a fashionable man with interest in beautiful artisanal fabrics, porcelain, lace and other trinkets. The relationship with Juno once meant a lot to him but now it is all packed away in a box of young fancy and nothing else.
However the armor they build around one another begins to crack and we as readers are treated to the glimpses of one of the most beautiful love that lives underneath it.
I’m taking a half star off because of the ending or the last 1/4 of the book which compared to a very careful beautiful beginning, felt chaotic and did not hit the spot just right for me.
But because I probably highlighted a sentence on almost every page, the book gets 4.5 stars
Our heroine is a self sustaining artist, lives bohemian life, have had lovers in the past but only one true love. However her one true love is a divorced duke looking for a rich wife and on top of that he is her friend. Not a best friend but a friend.
Our duke Leopold is a fashionable man with interest in beautiful artisanal fabrics, porcelain, lace and other trinkets. The relationship with Juno once meant a lot to him but now it is all packed away in a box of young fancy and nothing else.
However the armor they build around one another begins to crack and we as readers are treated to the glimpses of one of the most beautiful love that lives underneath it.
I’m taking a half star off because of the ending or the last 1/4 of the book which compared to a very careful beautiful beginning, felt chaotic and did not hit the spot just right for me.
But because I probably highlighted a sentence on almost every page, the book gets 4.5 stars
October 13, 2022
This novel somehow feels deserving of more than three stars, but I can’t bring myself to rate it 4.
While the prose and character development were on par with Vincy’s usual high standard, reading the story itself felt like walking in circles for hours. It left me feeling dizzy and confused. The conflict between the h and H also came across as redundant and childish.
Even the best HR series’s have a weak spot, and this one is by no means a bad book, but rather a victim of my own inflated expectations.
While the prose and character development were on par with Vincy’s usual high standard, reading the story itself felt like walking in circles for hours. It left me feeling dizzy and confused. The conflict between the h and H also came across as redundant and childish.
Even the best HR series’s have a weak spot, and this one is by no means a bad book, but rather a victim of my own inflated expectations.
August 6, 2023
I've given this an A for narration and a B for content at AudioGals.
Mia Vincy’s Longhope Abbey series continues with book four, A Scandalous Kind of Duke. Friends-to-lovers and second-chance romances are two of my favourite tropes, and the glimpses we’ve had of the two protagonists – free-spirited, bohemian artist Juno and stuffy, duty-conscious duke Leo – in the previous books have been intriguing, so I’ve been looking forward to their story.
A decade earlier, before Leo Halston was a duke and Juno Bell had embarked upon her artistic career, they shared a passionate kiss and Juno told Leo she loved him. Taken aback and not at all sure what to make of any of it, Leo reacts by telling Juno they can never be together because of the difference in their stations and the duty he owes to his family; Juno shrugs it off by telling him she never expected anything more, but had kissed him simply because she wanted to, in the moment.
Ten years later, Leo, Duke of Dammerton, while not exactly a pauper, nonetheless needs an injection of cash in order to expand the artistic foundation that shares his name. His divorce from the Hungarian princess he married in haste some years earlier was as costly as it was scandalous, but that was two years ago now, and Leo decides to kill two birds with one stone – do his duty to his lineage and obtain the money he needs for the Dammerton Foundation in the time-old manner so beloved of strapped-for-cash aristocrats and marry it. Being a young, handsome and still-fairly-wealthy duke makes him an eligible parti, but although his family history (his father had two families and lived with his mistress) and being divorced haven’t quite put him beyond the pale as far as the ton is concerned, its matrons and marriage-minded mamas view him with more than a little suspicion. It hasn’t helped his cause that the last couple of young ladies he was seen to have shown some interest in were then set aside, at no little cost to their own reputations. After all, when a lady falls out of favour with a duke, everyone else naturally wonders what was wrong with her.
Leo has, however, found an ideal candidate in Miss Susannah Macey, who fulfills all the criteria suggested to him for the perfect wife; she has twenty thousand pounds, is of child-bearing age and is very suitable duchess material. She doesn’t exactly fire his blood or his imagination, but he likes her and is determined to make her a good husband and ensure that this marriage works. When her grandfather – her guardian – insists Leo ends his friendship with Miss Juno Bell (in his opinion, an unmarried woman making her living as an artist is an aberration!) before he will consent to the marriage, Leo is fully prepared to do as he asks, despite his niggling feeling of injustice. He needs some kind of order in his life and this is his chance to do things right.
In the decade since that kiss and declaration of love, Juno has worked hard to make her name as an artist and is flourishing. She’s the niece of a baronet – Sir Gordon Bell and his wife took Juno in and cared for her after her parents dumped her on their doorstep and left the country – and being on the fringes of society means she can live more or less as she pleases. She paints, she travels, she takes the odd lover (very discreetly of course); she lives a bohemian lifestyle, and it suits her. She’s maintained her friendship with Leo despite that youthful indiscretion, and if his hasty drunken marriage caused a pang somewhere in the vicinity of her heart, well, that’s long since gone and forgotten. Mostly.
Of course, Leo’s decision to cut ties with Juno isn’t as easy as he thinks it should be, and even though Juno has known Leo would have to marry again some day, that isn’t as easy to accept as perhaps it should be. These two have been in denial about their feelings for one another for so long that it seems they’ve actually started to believe that they’re nothing more than friends, and they have a lot of soul-searching to go through in order to realise the extent to which they’ve been fooling themselves. Juno has never understood just how much her abandonment by her parents has informed her attitude towards relationships, how her belief that nothing lasts has translated into words and actions which have led Leo to believe she’s not interested in anything permanent. And Leo’s disastrous first marriage has made him want to eschew passion and any serious entanglements, so he’s given off signals that he’s ‘untouchable’ and is not desirous of anything that involves real and deep emotions.
It’s very rare for me, a hero-centric reader, to find that I like the heroine more than the hero in a romance, but this is one of those times. Juno is so very much herself, so lively and honest and interesting and I was pleased that the author found a way to portray her authentically and as a woman of her time. So many heroines in historical romances these days are social reformers, tavern or gambling-hell owners who gad about London with little regard for their reputations and act and speak in a manner more in keeping with the twenty-first century than the nineteenth, but Juno, despite her free-spirited nature, isn’t one of those. She knows she has to maintain a degree of respectability and operates within the social boundaries, which are perhaps a little more flexible because of the fact she’s not one of the social elite, but which are nonetheless very much present.
Leo is a witty, charming hero, but I found him harder to like to start with (not helped by the fact that he acts cruelly towards Juno on a couple of occasions.) There’s no doubt he’s constrained by duty and responsibility, and also by his own view that he needs his life not to be “messy”, but it wasn’t until the second half of the book that I really started to like him, once we started to see his more vulnerable, less pig-headed side, the real man beneath the veneer, the man who loved deeply and has never really stopped.
Mia Vincy is a terrific writer – in fact, she’s one of the handful of writers of historical romance I still read – who knows how to craft interesting, well-developed characters and imbue them with warmth and charm, and to introduce conflict into a story in a way that is dictated by the characters rather than any particular plotline. I liked Juno and Leo individually and as a couple and I enjoyed the book as a whole, but the pacing is on the slow side, especially in the first half, and the second seemed like a race to the finish. I also can’t deny that this is one of those stories that couldn’t exist if the protagonists had just had a simple conversation, and came away thinking that perhaps it might have worked better as a novella.
That said, getting to listen to Kate Reading for eleven hours can never be a bad thing! As I’ve gravitated away from m/f romances, I’ve listened to her less frequently than I used to, but she’s every bit as good as I remember, and delivers a consistently excellent performance here. Her portrayal of Juno is especially good, really capturing the character’s zest for life and generous spirit, and Leo sounds exactly as he should, complete with that slight aristocratic drawl and deadpan delivery of witticisms Ms. Reading is so very good at. She’s equally good when it comes to conveying the true emotions motivating the characters – despair, anguish, passion – and at creating and clearly differentiating a large-ish secondary cast which includes stuffy old Earls, gossipy (and vindictive) matrons, proper young ladies and a wonderfully louche former soldier – who happens to be Leo’s half-brother.
A Scandalous Kind of Duke isn’t my favourite book by this author and lacks the humour and vitality of the other books in the Longhope Abbey series, but Kate Reading’s performance kept me engaged through the slower parts, and if you, like me, miss the days of really good historical romance (in which the word ‘historical’ was not so often ignored) then this one might be a good bet.
This review originally appeared at AudioGals.
Mia Vincy’s Longhope Abbey series continues with book four, A Scandalous Kind of Duke. Friends-to-lovers and second-chance romances are two of my favourite tropes, and the glimpses we’ve had of the two protagonists – free-spirited, bohemian artist Juno and stuffy, duty-conscious duke Leo – in the previous books have been intriguing, so I’ve been looking forward to their story.
A decade earlier, before Leo Halston was a duke and Juno Bell had embarked upon her artistic career, they shared a passionate kiss and Juno told Leo she loved him. Taken aback and not at all sure what to make of any of it, Leo reacts by telling Juno they can never be together because of the difference in their stations and the duty he owes to his family; Juno shrugs it off by telling him she never expected anything more, but had kissed him simply because she wanted to, in the moment.
Ten years later, Leo, Duke of Dammerton, while not exactly a pauper, nonetheless needs an injection of cash in order to expand the artistic foundation that shares his name. His divorce from the Hungarian princess he married in haste some years earlier was as costly as it was scandalous, but that was two years ago now, and Leo decides to kill two birds with one stone – do his duty to his lineage and obtain the money he needs for the Dammerton Foundation in the time-old manner so beloved of strapped-for-cash aristocrats and marry it. Being a young, handsome and still-fairly-wealthy duke makes him an eligible parti, but although his family history (his father had two families and lived with his mistress) and being divorced haven’t quite put him beyond the pale as far as the ton is concerned, its matrons and marriage-minded mamas view him with more than a little suspicion. It hasn’t helped his cause that the last couple of young ladies he was seen to have shown some interest in were then set aside, at no little cost to their own reputations. After all, when a lady falls out of favour with a duke, everyone else naturally wonders what was wrong with her.
Leo has, however, found an ideal candidate in Miss Susannah Macey, who fulfills all the criteria suggested to him for the perfect wife; she has twenty thousand pounds, is of child-bearing age and is very suitable duchess material. She doesn’t exactly fire his blood or his imagination, but he likes her and is determined to make her a good husband and ensure that this marriage works. When her grandfather – her guardian – insists Leo ends his friendship with Miss Juno Bell (in his opinion, an unmarried woman making her living as an artist is an aberration!) before he will consent to the marriage, Leo is fully prepared to do as he asks, despite his niggling feeling of injustice. He needs some kind of order in his life and this is his chance to do things right.
In the decade since that kiss and declaration of love, Juno has worked hard to make her name as an artist and is flourishing. She’s the niece of a baronet – Sir Gordon Bell and his wife took Juno in and cared for her after her parents dumped her on their doorstep and left the country – and being on the fringes of society means she can live more or less as she pleases. She paints, she travels, she takes the odd lover (very discreetly of course); she lives a bohemian lifestyle, and it suits her. She’s maintained her friendship with Leo despite that youthful indiscretion, and if his hasty drunken marriage caused a pang somewhere in the vicinity of her heart, well, that’s long since gone and forgotten. Mostly.
Of course, Leo’s decision to cut ties with Juno isn’t as easy as he thinks it should be, and even though Juno has known Leo would have to marry again some day, that isn’t as easy to accept as perhaps it should be. These two have been in denial about their feelings for one another for so long that it seems they’ve actually started to believe that they’re nothing more than friends, and they have a lot of soul-searching to go through in order to realise the extent to which they’ve been fooling themselves. Juno has never understood just how much her abandonment by her parents has informed her attitude towards relationships, how her belief that nothing lasts has translated into words and actions which have led Leo to believe she’s not interested in anything permanent. And Leo’s disastrous first marriage has made him want to eschew passion and any serious entanglements, so he’s given off signals that he’s ‘untouchable’ and is not desirous of anything that involves real and deep emotions.
It’s very rare for me, a hero-centric reader, to find that I like the heroine more than the hero in a romance, but this is one of those times. Juno is so very much herself, so lively and honest and interesting and I was pleased that the author found a way to portray her authentically and as a woman of her time. So many heroines in historical romances these days are social reformers, tavern or gambling-hell owners who gad about London with little regard for their reputations and act and speak in a manner more in keeping with the twenty-first century than the nineteenth, but Juno, despite her free-spirited nature, isn’t one of those. She knows she has to maintain a degree of respectability and operates within the social boundaries, which are perhaps a little more flexible because of the fact she’s not one of the social elite, but which are nonetheless very much present.
Leo is a witty, charming hero, but I found him harder to like to start with (not helped by the fact that he acts cruelly towards Juno on a couple of occasions.) There’s no doubt he’s constrained by duty and responsibility, and also by his own view that he needs his life not to be “messy”, but it wasn’t until the second half of the book that I really started to like him, once we started to see his more vulnerable, less pig-headed side, the real man beneath the veneer, the man who loved deeply and has never really stopped.
Mia Vincy is a terrific writer – in fact, she’s one of the handful of writers of historical romance I still read – who knows how to craft interesting, well-developed characters and imbue them with warmth and charm, and to introduce conflict into a story in a way that is dictated by the characters rather than any particular plotline. I liked Juno and Leo individually and as a couple and I enjoyed the book as a whole, but the pacing is on the slow side, especially in the first half, and the second seemed like a race to the finish. I also can’t deny that this is one of those stories that couldn’t exist if the protagonists had just had a simple conversation, and came away thinking that perhaps it might have worked better as a novella.
That said, getting to listen to Kate Reading for eleven hours can never be a bad thing! As I’ve gravitated away from m/f romances, I’ve listened to her less frequently than I used to, but she’s every bit as good as I remember, and delivers a consistently excellent performance here. Her portrayal of Juno is especially good, really capturing the character’s zest for life and generous spirit, and Leo sounds exactly as he should, complete with that slight aristocratic drawl and deadpan delivery of witticisms Ms. Reading is so very good at. She’s equally good when it comes to conveying the true emotions motivating the characters – despair, anguish, passion – and at creating and clearly differentiating a large-ish secondary cast which includes stuffy old Earls, gossipy (and vindictive) matrons, proper young ladies and a wonderfully louche former soldier – who happens to be Leo’s half-brother.
A Scandalous Kind of Duke isn’t my favourite book by this author and lacks the humour and vitality of the other books in the Longhope Abbey series, but Kate Reading’s performance kept me engaged through the slower parts, and if you, like me, miss the days of really good historical romance (in which the word ‘historical’ was not so often ignored) then this one might be a good bet.
This review originally appeared at AudioGals.
December 31, 2022
Mia Vincy’s done it again! Another absolute gem.
These characters are so different from the usual historical regency types. Leo is soft and sweet and non violent Duke and Juno is fierce and rigorously independent artist. They have undeniable fluent chemistry as both friends and pining lovers. The angst and tension (and # of scandals) build wonderfully until they all reach a chaotic satisfying boiling point. What more could I ask for??
These characters are so different from the usual historical regency types. Leo is soft and sweet and non violent Duke and Juno is fierce and rigorously independent artist. They have undeniable fluent chemistry as both friends and pining lovers. The angst and tension (and # of scandals) build wonderfully until they all reach a chaotic satisfying boiling point. What more could I ask for??
September 30, 2022
I think this is the one that just… did nothing for me. We don’t really have a lot of complexity or development of the main characters; and there really is not much of a plot. The main characters actually felt rather shallow.
Like the only thing that happens in this book is that they’ve been horny for each other for years, miscommunicated as young adults, which hurt both of their pride, and later on they just remained as friends. And during those years he is emotionally cheating on his wife (even if it was a loveless marriage and she cheated on him as well) while frequenting female mc’s house. Female mc gives him a place “to rest, be himself” and he keeps bringing her gifts. And male mc decides that he MUST marry somebody with money so he can maintain a museum he owns, which is like… yeah, sure.
I just could not connect with neither of them. The other main characters of the previous books had bigger emotional issues and growth, and showed much more depth. With Leo and Juno I was by the middle of the book and felt no connection or cared about them.
I kinda want St.Blaise and Miss Macey to be a thing, ngl. And I’m looking forward to Hadrian having his own book one day.
Like the only thing that happens in this book is that they’ve been horny for each other for years, miscommunicated as young adults, which hurt both of their pride, and later on they just remained as friends. And during those years he is emotionally cheating on his wife (even if it was a loveless marriage and she cheated on him as well) while frequenting female mc’s house. Female mc gives him a place “to rest, be himself” and he keeps bringing her gifts. And male mc decides that he MUST marry somebody with money so he can maintain a museum he owns, which is like… yeah, sure.
I just could not connect with neither of them. The other main characters of the previous books had bigger emotional issues and growth, and showed much more depth. With Leo and Juno I was by the middle of the book and felt no connection or cared about them.
I kinda want St.Blaise and Miss Macey to be a thing, ngl. And I’m looking forward to Hadrian having his own book one day.
April 29, 2025
DNF at 38%. As a girl we went to the yearly community
festival benefitting a non-profit. We as kids liked cotton
candy (once a year!). This story reminded me of cotton
candy.
The MCs kissed as teens. Years later divorced (duke) Leo
had a foundation supporting local artisans. Curvy artist
Juno associated w/ bohemians and painted the H's half-
brother in the nearly nude. Leo wanted Susan Macey for
her nice dowry. The MCs seemed a tad bland.
Mia Vincy wrote the v. good A Wicked Kind of Husband,
so this one does not seem up to her own standards. Sorry.
festival benefitting a non-profit. We as kids liked cotton
candy (once a year!). This story reminded me of cotton
candy.
The MCs kissed as teens. Years later divorced (duke) Leo
had a foundation supporting local artisans. Curvy artist
Juno associated w/ bohemians and painted the H's half-
brother in the nearly nude. Leo wanted Susan Macey for
her nice dowry. The MCs seemed a tad bland.
Mia Vincy wrote the v. good A Wicked Kind of Husband,
so this one does not seem up to her own standards. Sorry.
November 20, 2022
2 star DNF due to boredom at 14% of a pre-publication giveaway. It is looking more and more like Mia Vincy is a one hit wonder for me.😥
September 22, 2022
I would gladly sell my soul to have Vincy publish a thousand historical romances I could devour, just like I did with this one. I couldn't put it down, even at work, oops.
January 11, 2024
Another marvelous book in the Longhope Abbey series with an incredibly interesting heroine, Juno. She’s an accomplished artist and lives a bohemian lifestyle in London. She’s been friends with Leo, Duke of Dammerton for about ten years... it is an unusual relationship… despite class differences. Their paths have crossed several times … as their misunderstandings about each other persist.
A very emotional read … riveting story, exquisite writing, a few witty zingers and oodles of swoon worthy passion make this another winner in this series. Looking forward to more books by Mia Vincy!!
A very emotional read … riveting story, exquisite writing, a few witty zingers and oodles of swoon worthy passion make this another winner in this series. Looking forward to more books by Mia Vincy!!
August 8, 2025
these books are making me sick. SICK
September 25, 2022
Leo, the aesthetically-inclined Duke of Dammerton, maintains a long-standing friendship with somewhat respectable artist Juno Bell.
September 14, 2022
considering i've declared myself mia vincy's #1 fan, receiving an advance copy of this through her newsletter was the biggest treat!!!! i was SO excited to read this
i was slightly hesitant considering it was friends to lovers, but if i trust anyone to do that trope justice its mia vincy - and i think she delivered! i don't think she's capable of not delivering! her characters always feel so real and carefully crafted, their motivations so believable, their tension so magnetic it simmers off of the page!
having said that, i will say the first half of the novel was considerably stronger than the first; i much preferred the mutual pining and seemingly unrequited feelings and painfully (deliciously) unresolved sexual tension between leo and juno to the two of them aware of their feelings for each other and still trapped in layers upon layers of missed opportunities and miscommunications.
i also have grown incredibly weary of the new HR trope wherein the heroines can't seem to reconcile their desires for an independent life/career with the institution of marriage and their simultaneous desire for romance, a family, etc. - juno does quite a bit of this in the book, and though it was eventually revealed to be for a different reason than the usual, i still think there could have been more of a reflection on her true desires re: marriage and family, since its mostly just "no, don't want/need it" and then a sharp turn to "yes, actually!" at the end
all of that said, i enjoyed this and i love mia vincy's work! she's without a doubt my favorite HR writer at the moment, and i can't wait for her next :)
i was slightly hesitant considering it was friends to lovers, but if i trust anyone to do that trope justice its mia vincy - and i think she delivered! i don't think she's capable of not delivering! her characters always feel so real and carefully crafted, their motivations so believable, their tension so magnetic it simmers off of the page!
having said that, i will say the first half of the novel was considerably stronger than the first; i much preferred the mutual pining and seemingly unrequited feelings and painfully (deliciously) unresolved sexual tension between leo and juno to the two of them aware of their feelings for each other and still trapped in layers upon layers of missed opportunities and miscommunications.
i also have grown incredibly weary of the new HR trope wherein the heroines can't seem to reconcile their desires for an independent life/career with the institution of marriage and their simultaneous desire for romance, a family, etc. - juno does quite a bit of this in the book, and though it was eventually revealed to be for a different reason than the usual, i still think there could have been more of a reflection on her true desires re: marriage and family, since its mostly just "no, don't want/need it" and then a sharp turn to "yes, actually!" at the end
all of that said, i enjoyed this and i love mia vincy's work! she's without a doubt my favorite HR writer at the moment, and i can't wait for her next :)
May 8, 2024
2.75⭐️ I guess it was too much to ask for another 4-5 star read…so I’m not even surprised I ended up dnf’ing (27%) it. Just my luck, I suppose!🤷🏻♀️😂
Our story follows two childhood friends, our mmc Leo (a future duke) and fmc Juno (an aspiring artist). Everything started with an innocent friendship and we were told that they slowly fell in love with each other. One day, Juno finally confessed her feelings and proceeded to kiss Leo, who was so startled and confused that he didn’t know how to respond to her declaration, even though he was in love with her as well. You can imagine Juno’s reaction, she immediately came to the wrong conclusion thinking that he didn’t reciprocate her feelings, he didn’t try to explain himself either, sooo they simply went their separate ways for a while.
Two years later, they met again in Viena. Leo wanted to propose to her because he regretted not telling her how he truly felt, but by that point, it was already too late. Juno didn’t want to feel rejected a second time around so she pretended to be over him and apologized for her childish infatuation with him, saying that she only sees him as a dear friend.
Btw, we the readers didn’t get to see any of this, we were only told in a short summary how everything unfolded.
Anyway, right around the time he wanted to propose to her, we weren’t given a specific time frame, Leo sees Juno in the arms of another man, passionately kissing one another! He was completely devastated by that!
And you guessed it, in order to forget all about Juno, he starts a life of debauchery (because of course, duuh 😏😂) and he meets a woman named Erika, who promises to make him forget all about Juno! Erika, who later became his wife. Yep, he married another woman out of sheer stupidity while being in love with Juno and he divorced said woman a couple of years later after she cheated on him. 🤓
Ok, but that’s not even what bothered me the most, because I would normally enjoy something like this, it would be the perfect angst feast!😂
What truly annoyed me was that Leo & Juno feelings for each other weren’t fleshed out at all. I didn’t feel their anguish, their hearbreak!
I usually try to be as objective as I can in my reviews and I try to respect the plot that the author went with! If that’s the way she wanted the story to go, I totally respect that.
But if you want the reader to be emotionally invested in a love story that is supposedly so strong that it survived a 10 year long separation and a divorce, you have to give me more than curiosity and indifference, more than what I’ve seen from these two. Because Leo & Juno behaved like mere acquaintances who oscillated between attraction, curiosity and indifference towards each other. Nothing else. And I wanted passion, I wanted draaaama, pining, I wanted…I don’t know, MORE! This would have been the perfect setting for such a passionate story.
Listen, these two weren’t unlikeable characters or anything, they just didn’t do anything for me, they were just THERE!🤷🏻♀️
Some 1/2 stars reviewers complained about Leo, that he wasn’t good enough for Juno, but I completely disagree! I didn’t get the feeling that Juno cared nearly as much for Leo as he cared for her! Or maybe she didn’t want to show her true feelings, Idk..
I mean she was kind, funny, vibrant, all qualities that I love in my heorines, but she also seemed indifferent when it came to her friendship/relationship to Leo. Which completely ruined the romance for me!😂🙈 And I totally get her fear of being rejected a second time, but it felt like she would be just fine if he decided to marry someone else. 🤔
Also, another thing that didn’t sit well with me and that solidified my opinion that she didn’t particularly care for him, was that Leo only slept with his ex wife (that’s what we were led to believe up until that point, I don’t know what was said after the 27% mark), while Juno had many other lovers. She said that it was perfectly normal, she sounded almost proud of herself.🤷🏻♀️
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those readers that expects the fmc’s to remain completely celibate during a long separation while the hero sleeps with numerous other women. No, I would have been completely fine if we were told that she had 1 or 2 lovers during those years but she was portrayed as this blasé women who had sex with anyone and everyone without a care in the world. Which was weird, unrealistic and a bit far fetched for that time period, even for an eccentric like her.
So that’s the premise of our story! It’s a second chance romance between two friends that got separated because of a misunderstanding. Normally, I would eat this up, I would have finished it in a day, but not this one.
Idk…
Give it a try, maybe you will like it more that I did. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace for this… who knows!? 🤷🏻♀️😂
Sorry for the long review!😜😂
Ps: English is not my first language, so I apologize for any grammatical errors ✌🏻
Our story follows two childhood friends, our mmc Leo (a future duke) and fmc Juno (an aspiring artist). Everything started with an innocent friendship and we were told that they slowly fell in love with each other. One day, Juno finally confessed her feelings and proceeded to kiss Leo, who was so startled and confused that he didn’t know how to respond to her declaration, even though he was in love with her as well. You can imagine Juno’s reaction, she immediately came to the wrong conclusion thinking that he didn’t reciprocate her feelings, he didn’t try to explain himself either, sooo they simply went their separate ways for a while.
Two years later, they met again in Viena. Leo wanted to propose to her because he regretted not telling her how he truly felt, but by that point, it was already too late. Juno didn’t want to feel rejected a second time around so she pretended to be over him and apologized for her childish infatuation with him, saying that she only sees him as a dear friend.
Btw, we the readers didn’t get to see any of this, we were only told in a short summary how everything unfolded.
Anyway, right around the time he wanted to propose to her, we weren’t given a specific time frame, Leo sees Juno in the arms of another man, passionately kissing one another! He was completely devastated by that!
And you guessed it, in order to forget all about Juno, he starts a life of debauchery (because of course, duuh 😏😂) and he meets a woman named Erika, who promises to make him forget all about Juno! Erika, who later became his wife. Yep, he married another woman out of sheer stupidity while being in love with Juno and he divorced said woman a couple of years later after she cheated on him. 🤓
Ok, but that’s not even what bothered me the most, because I would normally enjoy something like this, it would be the perfect angst feast!😂
What truly annoyed me was that Leo & Juno feelings for each other weren’t fleshed out at all. I didn’t feel their anguish, their hearbreak!
I usually try to be as objective as I can in my reviews and I try to respect the plot that the author went with! If that’s the way she wanted the story to go, I totally respect that.
But if you want the reader to be emotionally invested in a love story that is supposedly so strong that it survived a 10 year long separation and a divorce, you have to give me more than curiosity and indifference, more than what I’ve seen from these two. Because Leo & Juno behaved like mere acquaintances who oscillated between attraction, curiosity and indifference towards each other. Nothing else. And I wanted passion, I wanted draaaama, pining, I wanted…I don’t know, MORE! This would have been the perfect setting for such a passionate story.
Listen, these two weren’t unlikeable characters or anything, they just didn’t do anything for me, they were just THERE!🤷🏻♀️
Some 1/2 stars reviewers complained about Leo, that he wasn’t good enough for Juno, but I completely disagree! I didn’t get the feeling that Juno cared nearly as much for Leo as he cared for her! Or maybe she didn’t want to show her true feelings, Idk..
I mean she was kind, funny, vibrant, all qualities that I love in my heorines, but she also seemed indifferent when it came to her friendship/relationship to Leo. Which completely ruined the romance for me!😂🙈 And I totally get her fear of being rejected a second time, but it felt like she would be just fine if he decided to marry someone else. 🤔
Also, another thing that didn’t sit well with me and that solidified my opinion that she didn’t particularly care for him, was that Leo only slept with his ex wife (that’s what we were led to believe up until that point, I don’t know what was said after the 27% mark), while Juno had many other lovers. She said that it was perfectly normal, she sounded almost proud of herself.🤷🏻♀️
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those readers that expects the fmc’s to remain completely celibate during a long separation while the hero sleeps with numerous other women. No, I would have been completely fine if we were told that she had 1 or 2 lovers during those years but she was portrayed as this blasé women who had sex with anyone and everyone without a care in the world. Which was weird, unrealistic and a bit far fetched for that time period, even for an eccentric like her.
So that’s the premise of our story! It’s a second chance romance between two friends that got separated because of a misunderstanding. Normally, I would eat this up, I would have finished it in a day, but not this one.
Idk…
Give it a try, maybe you will like it more that I did. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace for this… who knows!? 🤷🏻♀️😂
Sorry for the long review!😜😂
Ps: English is not my first language, so I apologize for any grammatical errors ✌🏻
December 22, 2024
This is my fifth favorite of the five books and novella in this series. Juno and Leo are friends, and when they are 19 & 17 they kiss and she tells him she loves him. He freezes then stammers a bunch of stuff about future ducal duty, and she knows he's saying she isn't good enough for him. "Do you think me so simple? I KNOW we can never be together." and she runs off to study art abroad. Cut to ten years later and they are friends, both desperately and secretly in love with the other. He's had a marriage and divorce, she's been single but taken lovers. So she's an artist, and she talks about Leo like he is art "He was so carefully curated" and its miscommunication and building protective shells around that miscommunication all the way down. Not really my favorite trope AT ALL. Vincy does her typically excellent job with the story and plots, and I don't want to spoil anything here. And the inevitable exchange where they realize they had both spent the past ten years in missed opportunity and misbegotten ideas of the other is a gut punch. "For ten years, that was the truth by which she had defined the course of her adult life. For ten years, she had been wrong."
Great stuff and clever use of POV throughout the book. There's a scene where they are hiding in cramped quarters and the POV switches paragraph by paragraph with neutral POV in between describing the action. Vincy does the thing I love, (but several times, possibly too much) where the chapter change has same thought from different POV "But how on earth was she to find him in this crush? How the devil was he to find her in this crush?"
Basing this on nothing, I feel like possibly Vincy had some writers block or petering out of inspiration for this series? She masterfully deploys a few different and very familiar tropes and plot lines here, and while I found this series excellent, I did have to push myself to complete it. That said, I can think of several side characters off the top of my head I'd like to see novellas for!
Great stuff and clever use of POV throughout the book. There's a scene where they are hiding in cramped quarters and the POV switches paragraph by paragraph with neutral POV in between describing the action. Vincy does the thing I love, (but several times, possibly too much) where the chapter change has same thought from different POV "But how on earth was she to find him in this crush? How the devil was he to find her in this crush?"
Basing this on nothing, I feel like possibly Vincy had some writers block or petering out of inspiration for this series? She masterfully deploys a few different and very familiar tropes and plot lines here, and while I found this series excellent, I did have to push myself to complete it. That said, I can think of several side characters off the top of my head I'd like to see novellas for!
January 3, 2025
Mia Vincy is very good at this writing thing.
Another book with another set of horribly unlikable characters who have hurt each other deeply (shades of Sherry Thomas), and an absolutely magnificent look at the depth of human nature. It's a second chance romance that doesn't feel second chancey.
Juno is an artist, and a poor relation to an aristocratic family. When, at age 17, she is rejected by her friend Leo, heir to a forum dukedom, she runs away to the Continent to become an artist. Ten years later, a now divorced Leo is determined to make a better second marriage, though he knows it still cannot be Juno he marries, because his foundation requires funds and he requires a duchess.
I think what has amazed me most about this series so far is the way in which Vincy utilizes her character development through her intimate scenes. These are not merely spicy, they are truly revealing of the nature of who these characters are. Each book has felt different, and yet a perfect match. And in all four I've read so far, it's taken until the very end to find a true, hard earned HEA.
Another book with another set of horribly unlikable characters who have hurt each other deeply (shades of Sherry Thomas), and an absolutely magnificent look at the depth of human nature. It's a second chance romance that doesn't feel second chancey.
Juno is an artist, and a poor relation to an aristocratic family. When, at age 17, she is rejected by her friend Leo, heir to a forum dukedom, she runs away to the Continent to become an artist. Ten years later, a now divorced Leo is determined to make a better second marriage, though he knows it still cannot be Juno he marries, because his foundation requires funds and he requires a duchess.
I think what has amazed me most about this series so far is the way in which Vincy utilizes her character development through her intimate scenes. These are not merely spicy, they are truly revealing of the nature of who these characters are. Each book has felt different, and yet a perfect match. And in all four I've read so far, it's taken until the very end to find a true, hard earned HEA.
did-not-finish
January 24, 2023DNF at 6%. I just don’t have it in me to read about two friends who have pined after each other and haven’t found a way to be together… finally getting together. I know it’s going to be a slog and I just can’t do it.
March 27, 2023
audio - 4.5/5. this was angsty and I liked it. my only complaint is that I'd like a little more HEA, which I think I say about all Mia Vincy's books. I just love the characters so much, I want a little more time with them.
October 1, 2022
I’m at 4.5. Leo has a moment in Chapter 25 that had me like 🥹 and may be single-handedly responsible for the half star. And Blaise? I’m ready for that book right now. She had me at the possibility of a historical himbo with hidden depths.
These are just a pleasure to read. There’s a trope that plays very heavily in this book that will not work for some but it doesn’t bother me, so I just had myself a fine time with Vincy’s lovely writing.
These are just a pleasure to read. There’s a trope that plays very heavily in this book that will not work for some but it doesn’t bother me, so I just had myself a fine time with Vincy’s lovely writing.
October 18, 2022
I really love Mia Vincy's prose. She has a way around romantic scenes that really imbues them with a sense of enchantment. Her characters are drawn with a sensitive touch and their emotions deeply felt through the story.
September 25, 2022
I didn’t enjoy as much as the first three
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