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A useful fact.

Jane Austen could not make Mr. Darcy duke because authors were not allowed to use the actual English nobility in their works fiction. That is why in the gossip columns they would say the D*** of M was with…
Our reality today seeks out Hollywood, celebrity, gossip, people in extremist, people doing strange and weird things, and that’s what we live on

This plot started with pride and prejudice, and an error in describing that unparalleled work of Regency fiction. And now the main characters in this disjointed and very unsatisfactory narrative are comparing themselves to Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Sacrilege. But for a fifth grader? In this period of time they are mature enough to read the original.

Finally we get the simplistic Gouey ending after the stiff cliffhanger when she leaves. On this page he comes back. And I am glad he came back because I cannot take too much more of this

He whipped his clothes off quickly, and she was so overcome with her pleasure, she could barely take in his rapid movements.

And the reader is O so lucky that it was quickly, and we didn’t have to suffer long

Chapter 17
Standing before the crackling fire, she abandoned reason and gave away the passion.

Need I say more? Fifth grade

Oh, if only she could be a strong as these flowers. What would she dare?

That’s a sample

The more I read the lower the grade level. We have gone from high school, to middle school, to grade school. Now it is a sixth grade level. Maybe not even that. Sentence structure nonexistent. Fatuous, a narrative of fatuity

The book club is formed. They shake hands on it. Boring boring boring

The Duke said shall we form a book club?

That has to be a sincerely stupid line even though the author modifies it with the Duke teasing her, can you imagine a Duke saying that?

The dialogue between them sounds like conversations of a boy and a girl in high school looking to seduce one another

The relationship which is being built between the Duke and Miss Sharpe feels tortured, contrived, with only mediocre dialogue. It is frustrating

The first printing in three volumes had 853 pages as did the second, the third printing had 634 Pages. So the Duke saying, it is not very long, seems a careless fault it could have been corrected. If you are going to mention a title of classic literature get your facts straight

You would expect a prestigious bookshop to have a first, and second printing in inventory. But if Miss Sharpe brought a single volume, than we are dealing with a time period following on 1817.

Pride and prejudice was first issued in 1813, in three volumes. It was immediately reprinted because it sold out, again in three volumes. In 1817 the third printing appeared, and that was a single volume, and it was not small. So perhaps even Devon should have done better research considering that a character in her narrative is a bookshop

I am not being petty for cushion coverings of a Regency carriage would never be made of brocade silk which would tear so very easily they were made from velvet or leather
The author has not done her homework and it shows in a dozen ways

This is going to be a slug. The writing is unremarkable, rather pedestrian, and even with the sop of the pretense of biophilia, it does not get to the finish line. From the first introduction of the Duke, and now the first interview in his presence, what comes to mine is the hologram projected over the heads of Dorothy, the tin man, and the cowardly lion of the Wizard of Oz. That disembodied long face…

Sir Thomas More used the legal maxim "Qui tacet consentire" ("silence gives consent") during his 1535 treason trial to argue that his refusal to speak against the Pope or take King Henry VIII's oath could not legally be treated as a denial or act of treason

For the privilege of their custom, rare book sellers would often visit librarians at the Home institution. It was always a treat when a book seller would bring a small lease filled with rare tomes to the historical library at the school of medicine. It was considered improvident for the reverse, because the librarian might have their own particular and personal interests, and thus their visit would be compromised

If we can get beyond the amazingly offputting cover, and then realizing that this is just a ploy of using a Bookseller as the first victim in a wallflower series, we begin to read, hoping for the best