Author: Courtney Milan
Original Title: The Duchess War
Release Year: 2012
Literary Genre: Romance
Setting: England, victorian age
Series: 2° of The Brothers sinister series
Vote: 9/10
I liked it very much, especially the
characters and the last seventy/eighty pages, they are splendid.
In the first part we find nice and
entertaining moments but there are others which mostly fill the plot,
mind you, they aren't boring but neither amazing. I must say though
that with the second part the recovery is surprising.
For those who haven't already read the
first novel of The Brothers Sinister (The governess affair), aka
the prequel to all the series stories, everything revolves around the
Duke of Clermont.
In The
duchess war (settled almost
thirty years later the events of The governess affair)
the title has been inherited by the only Duke's legitimate son,
Robert, who unlike his father, is good, gentile, altruistic and
lacking of any kind of malice in his blood; is life, since he was a
boy, has been totally devoid of affection from both his parents: his
father, not particularly smart, spendthrift and mean, married
Robert's mother to restore his financial problems but when his
father-in-law refused to keep paying for the Duke's bad behaviours
which only made her daughter miserable, Clermont started to
blackmail her wife, using their own son in exchange for more money.
Unfortunately the extortion made the Duchess cold and detached
towards her son, leaving him at his father's mercy.
Robert grows up in loneliness...until
one day at school he meets the one person who will become the most
important for him: his stepbrother Oliver Marshall, born from his
father's violence towards a governess, Serena (The governess
affair).
Robert is a twenty eight man clearly
looking for someone who can feel some kind of affection for him,
despite her mother is alive, their relationship has never changed
from his childhood.
During a ball he casually happens to be
in the same room with a young woman and while he is eavesdropping
some conversations about her he hides himself to look at her
reactions to the slanders spoken against her; instantly he decides to
approach her and try to be comforting but her reaction his completely
unexpected: Wilhelmina “Minni” Pursling is a proud woman,
apparently cold, definitely resolute and despite her undeniable
attraction for the kind and handsome man in front of her, she avoids
him without a second thought.
When, shortly after the same night, she
is accused of being a subversive and the author of some anonymous
fliers which want to arouse the masses to rebellion against the
impossible work hours and conditions, Minni decides to find out the
real author identity so she can be freed from blame. The subversive
is the Duke of Clermont.
When she tackles him to try to convince
him to stop his campaign, Robert understand that she is extremely
smart and witty but with a secret that she's hiding really carefully
and which is the reason of her defensive nature.
Claremont won't leave his “war” and
in the meanwhile he is growing more and more attracted to Minni and
he craves her attentions.
Unfortunately the secret Minni is
guarding so passionately is potentially so explosive to completely
overturn her life and those of whom is close to her; that's why
Minni, who is growing fond of the Duke and won't involve him in her
problems also if this means to abandon all her dreams of happiness.
But Robert is quite tenacious in wanting her.
I love Robert, he's sooo sweet. When he is
with Minni he is clumsy and sometimes ironically inappropriate. He is
extremely devoted and protective, he wants Minni's love but doesn't
know how to let her know. I liked Oliver and Sebastian too.
I was happy about how Robert and her
mother succeed to overcome their sorrows and to go on as well as they
can. In the same way, maybe more, I really appreciate that finally
Robert and Susanna (Oliver's mother) can understand and talk with
one another almost as a family.
I adored, truly adored, the scene in
which Robert declares his love for Minni with the alphabet letters.
Just in case, her name isn't actually
Wilhelmina Pursling but Minerva Lane, she changed it because of
her secret.
Buona lettura!
M.E.G.
The Brothers Sinister: 1. The Governess affair (Susanna, Hugo)
2. The duchess war (Robert, Minerva)
3. A kiss for midwinter (Lydia, Jonas)
4. The heiress effect (Oliver, Jane)
5. The countess conspiracy (Sebastian, Violet)
6. The mistress rebellion (Frederica, ...)
La bibliografia di Courtney Milan
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