Sarah Mac’s Reviews > The Duke's Sister and I > Status Update

Not getting why everyone hates Cecil so much & acts like he’s some Big Bad Baddie. Dude’s a blustering blowhard who thinks entirely too much of himself, but there are lots of people like Cecil floating around in the world. Being a self-important mansplainer is annoying, yes, but it’s not villainy per se.

‘Charlotte felt exposed & sensitive, like a peeled fruit. There was no tough exterior to protect her now &, depending on what Loretta said next, she could end up bruised.’

‘That might have been enough to dam Loretta’s stream of thoughts, which was always rushing beneath the surface but never shared. It might have been enough, that was, if not for the smile that curved into Charlotte’s round face like a crescent moon in the early dawn sky. And all at once, beneath that moon, Loretta’s thoughts & wants & very being were as helpless as the tides.’

‘In the shadow of this perfect Loretta’s glowing skin & effortless beauty, & the tightly styled hair that spilled no stray curl, the Loretta of the unpainted world felt bare. Inadequate. Scrutinized by a better version of herself. This was the image she was meant to portray &, with effort, the image she would someday become.’

‘Had Charlotte been a man, some might have called her a rake, a rascal, even a scoundrel. But Charlotte was not a man, & there was no equivalent word for women with devilish desires. There was no word for women with desires at all.’