Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • Leaderboard
    • The CBR Team
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us

Open Registration for CBR13 ends Jan. 31! Sign Up Today!

> FAQ Home
> Genre: Fiction > A ray of golden light in these dark and depressing times

A ray of golden light in these dark and depressing times

The Duke Who Didn't by Courtney Milan

October 4, 2020 by Malin 1 Comment

This was an ARC sent to me by the author. I had already pre-ordered the book, and the free copy has not influenced my review in any way.
Official book description:
Miss Chloe Fong has plans for her life, lists for her days, and absolutely no time for nonsense. Three years ago, she told her childhood sweetheart that he could talk to her once he planned to be serious. He disappeared that very night.
 
Except now he’s back. Jeremy Wentworth, the Duke of Lansing, has returned to the tiny village he once visited with the hope of wooing Chloe. In his defense, it took him years of attempting to be serious to realize that the endeavor was incompatible with his personality.
All he has to do is convince Chloe to make room for a mischievous trickster in her life, then disclose that in all the years they’ve known each other, he’s failed to mention his real name, his title… and the minor fact that he owns her entire village.
 
Only one thing can go wrong: Everything.
 
Chloe Fong is seen as strict, stern, intimidating, and demanding by everyone in the little village of Wedgeford Downs, where she lives with her father. Chloe’s mother died when she was a baby, and Chloe’s father was taken advantage of by unscrupulous businessmen, who have now gotten rich because of the sauce he developed for them. Chloe wants to help her father perfect his new sauce, launch a rival sauce production company and eventually achieve revenge over the men who left her father to fend for himself once he had used his culinary skills to their advantage. Her father is just as much of a perfectionist as she is, and loathe to accept help from anyone, least alone the child he promised her mother he would provide for and keep safe.
The only man who ever seemed to show any romantic interest in Chloe was Jeremy Yu, also affectionately known in Wedgeford Downs as “Posh Jim”. For nine years, he would come to visit during the big festival, charming everyone in general and Chloe in particular. However, once she asked him to go away until he could be serious, he disappeared, and for the last two years, despite Chloe trying to pretend that she doesn’t miss him, he has stayed away. Now, when Chloe is facing possibly the most challenging weekend of her life, when the decades-long plans of her father and her may come to fruition (she just needs to figure out a name for the sauce first), he suddenly shows up again, and asks Chloe to make him a list. A list to help him find a wife…
The man known as Jeremy Yu or “Posh Jim” in Wedgeford Downs has several secrets. The fact that he is absolutely besotted with Miss Chloe Fong isn’t really a secret to anyone who has ever seen them together, except to Chloe herself. No, his biggest secret is that he is, in actuality, Jeremy Wentworth, the Duke of Lansing, he owns the village of Wedgeford Downs, and everyone who lives there probably owes him about forty years worth of back rent. Jeremy was only a teenager the first time he came to Wedgeford during their famous Trials festival, and he was warmly accepted by everyone there and felt a sense of belonging he hasn’t felt anywhere else, so he couldn’t very well confess his true identity then. And with each passing year, confessing the truth became harder and harder.
Now Jeremy’s aunt wants him to settle down and find a wife, and for him, there is only one candidate. He went away to try to be serious for Chloe, but can’t seem to stop making jokes and looking for the positive in every situation. Jeremy knows he will need to tell her the truth about himself and his title before he proposes, but he is also aware that asking Chloe to become a Duchess is no easy thing. His mother hated the way she was treated by British high society and went back to China as soon as she could after his father’s death. Nevertheless, if he must marry, Chloe is the only one he could imagine spending his life with. In order to get to spend as much time with her as possible, he promises her ten pounds if she’ll write him a list with all of her qualities, as the only woman he’d consider marrying needs to have ALL of her qualities. He also insists on helping her and her father with their many tasks in preparing for the festival and the launch of their (hopefully soon to be famous) sauce.
Full review on my blog.

Filed Under: Fiction, History, Romance Tagged With: #food, ARC, cbr12, Courtney Milan, historical romance, Malin, The Duke Who Didn't, Victorian, Wedgeford Trials

Malin's CBR12 Review No:71 · Genres: Fiction, History, Romance · Tags: #food, ARC, cbr12, Courtney Milan, historical romance, Malin, The Duke Who Didn't, Victorian, Wedgeford Trials ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

About Malin

CBR13 participantCBR12 participantCBR11 participantCBR10 participantCBR  9CBR 8CBR 7CBR 6CBR 5CBR 4CBR 3CBR 2

Constantly overworked Norwegian secondary school teacher, Geek and reading enthusiast. Married. Mother of little boy, born February 2018. Two cats. The Cannonball-veteran (the only participant - as far as I know - who has participated every year since CBRII). Loves fantasy, kissing books and YA. Strongly opinionated about many things. Perpetually behind on reviews. View Malin's reviews»

Comments

  1. J says

    October 5, 2020 at 8:23 am

    This book is such a delight. Low on externally-driven angst, and it’s easy to like all the characters. Except, you know, the two you’re supposed to dislike.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • Malin on If you are getting another cat, read this book. Heck, if you have a cat, get this book.Ponyo is just as cute as her namesake. This book sounds really useful, I suspect my husband and I are not giving our cats all...
  • msvreadsbooks on The Last Resort – Meh.Thanks, all! I'm excited to get started on this journey and to read more reviews from my fellow Cannonballers (is that what we're called?).
  • msvreadsbooks on The Last Resort – Meh.Then this book is for you! Haha. It's not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
  • andtheIToldYouSos on Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.ONE OF US ONE OF US
  • andtheIToldYouSos on Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.I let the art come my way through the Tor instagram...if I sought it out, I'd never stop!
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in