Ebook The Duke Governess in Disguise Fairfax Twins Book 2 edition by Claudia Stone Romance eBooks

Product details File Size 2639 KB Print Length 200 pages Publication Date March 15, 2019 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B07PNWNNSH

The Duke Governess in Disguise Fairfax Twins Book 2 edition by Claudia Stone Romance eBooks Reviews

• The story itself is delightful. I enjoy “prince and the pauper” stories. My three stars is due to some glaring editing problems.
  1. In chapter ten it states that “David escorted his brother and sister to the school room”, but they are his niece and nephew.
  2. One entire scene is repeated a second time 200 pages later. The dinner scene with the older half-brother, when the Emily plays Lacrimosa on the piano. Chapters nine and ten.
• I did feel a bit frustrated reading repetitive scenes on the dinner table and playing of pinaforte afterwards! Almost same words ! I would have thought as this book was second of the Fairfax twins the story of Ava would be finished. It seems like both stories were taking place at the same time. It was confusing. I don't think I will be able to read second book although I have it in my library. I did like the romance in this book though.
• This and Book 1 are cute, if rather unbelievable, stories. Nicely written, and the characters come across well, despite the contrived plots of twins separated at birth, one to an orphanage, the other to a titled family, changing places.
• Great story of twins separated by birth and finding each other after grown up. They find family and love! This is a great read.
• Love how the sisters traded places and that she found her true love
• This is one of two books that tells the story of two sisters who were separated shortly after they were born. A marquess's wife nearly died after giving birth to her only daughter. The infant died that night, and not wanting his wife to be broken hearted at the child’s passing, he arranged for a servant to acquire a replacement infant from the seamier side of London. The servant chose a not-quite-on-the up-and-up orphanage, where twin girls had just been born. So the servant took one of them back to the marquess. The first couple of chapters after this setup detailed the charmed life Lady Emily led. Unfortunately, her mother died; her mother's fondest wish had been that she marry a duke. Of the two available young dukes, one is a notorious London rake, so her father--in hopes of fulfilling her mother's desire--sets her up to marry the other duke. Lady Emily is not entirely pleased with this, as it appears that the duke is only looking for a pedigreed broodmare. One day, she goes out shopping and happens upon a young woman who looks exactly like her. They determine that they must be sisters. Almost immediately, Lady Emily hatches a scheme where they will trade lives for one month so she can escape marriage to the duke.
  
  What she doesn't know is that she's going to be sent to the home of the other duke. The Duke of Hemsworth was given the charge of two young children after their parents, Lord and Lady Dunstable, died in a carriage accident; he was best friends with their father. Ava, the sister who had grown up in poverty, had contracted to become his wards’ governess. Lady Emily takes her place, going to Kent to fulfill her sister's obligations.
  
  Robert, the duke, and Lady Emily as Ava nearly collide in the road as she approaches his ducal seat. They both have a flash of attraction, of course, but he not only has just taken a vow of celibacy after a rather tawdry split from his most recent mistress, but he is also aware that he shouldn't allow romantic feelings for his wards’ governess. How will this all play out? Will he be able to keep his feelings and inappropriate thoughts in check, or will they grow? Will Lady Emily tell him that she is not Ava but nobility herself? What are the strange things that seem to be happening around the house? Is someone trying to poison James, the young Lord Dunstable, the duke’s ward? What's going on with the wards’ much older brother and uncle?
  
  As you might be able to tell, this is a rather complicated story with multiple plotlines. The author actually did an excellent job of juggling them. I found it interesting that she actually made the duke a true rake. Quite often in these Regency tales, a gentleman who is said to be a rake merely is just a misunderstood young man either by his design or by society’s incorrect judgment. Not in this case. In fact, the first chapter told from the duke’s perspective shows the roguish character the man is as he grapples with the image of the man he wants to be. Even though he wants to improve, he still definitely has moments where that rake comes through, and it is very well done and quite amusing.
  
  I thought that the setup for the premise of the book was rushed. The two young women meet and question each other a little bit and then immediately decide that they have to be sisters. Not only does that seem improbable, but then they decide instantly to do Lady Emily's swap scheme. It was just too neat, tidy, and convenient. The book also felt rushed in the end, both in finding out what happened to the other sister as well as resolving Lady Emily’s plotline.
  
  Aside from the issue of the rushed setup and end, the story itself was quite engaging. The wards, James and Cressida, are delightful, James with his sweetness and Cressida with her reticence yet longing for connection. The duke is at his best, too, when he is trying to learn how to be a proper guardian to these two lost young Souls.
  
  The book has an alarming number of issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage. The author didn't seem to understand punctuation beyond the basics much at all. Commas were not only misused in the usual ways; they are also misused in new and creative ways. Sometimes they were improperly placed so that they chopped up a sentence and hindered meaning. Multiple times they were improperly used in dialogue, including at the end of an action near dialogue that wasn't a dialogue tag as well as improperly bracketing a dialogue tag/action between two complete sentences of dialogue. Capitalization in quotes was often wrong as well. Semicolons, too, were randomly thrown into the work when a comma should have been used. Sometimes spaces were forgotten between a comma and the next word. Occasionally, too, there was a misspelling or wrong word; even one of the character's name was misspelled. This disregard of punctuation, in particular, was really quite distracting.
  
  The story itself was complex and enjoyable. I just wish I wasn't so distracted by all of the errors.
  
  I received a free advance copy of the book, but obviously this did not affect my review.
• I highly anticipated this story after reading the first book, but I was so disappointed. First, there was an entire section that seemed like an editing error, but then I noticed it was from the Dukes perspective. It was not done well as I thought I’d fallen asleep and backed up the book or an editing issue occurred (as they do).
  My biggest struggle though was I didn’t like either character. Both came across as selfish snobs, that even by the end had minimal redeeming qualities. Emily was still a self-absorbed, brat, with unhealthy coping mechanisms (run away or emotional eating). You just found your TWIN sister, and after using her poor twin the LEAST she could of done was invested some time in that relationship instead of flirting around stuffing her broken heart. The author expounded in how this Twin LOVED reading, but showed very little practical knowledge, must of just read novels. The Duke, who didn’t show any sign of a major shift in character from the rake he was (minus an apology to a former lover). After his “vow of celibacy” he still acted like a domineering cad. Sure, he stayed home and interacted with the wards more, but not for their sake but to be closer to the “forbidden fruit” of the governess. Sure, he tried to make amends about asking/demanding she be his mistress (all the while talking over her), but the fact that he even considered having a mistress AND a different “socially acceptable” wife just turned me off him entirely (even though it was the norm). There was no “ah ha” that may not be right, acceptable to my love, etc moment...just brushed it off. Heck, she’d almost died the day before saving his wards and the first thing he did was try to lock her down; and then had the balls to be surprised she left. Bleh. Yeah, wallow in alcohol (another stereotypical coping mechanism).
  Overall, I was just hugely disappointed. I wanted to be invested with these two as I was with the characters in the first book. These two were too traditional to the norm of the members of society at that time (no matter their protests to the contrary). I was somewhat hopeful about the story of Eunice, but already we’ve been left with a “pitty” feeling based off her description and circumstances she was already in (nothin like an unattractive female falling for the classical blindingly attractive jerk). It doesn’t boad well.