Romancing the Duke (Castles Ever After)
by Tessa DareAvon, 2014The narrative of Isolde Ophelia Goodnight's life has paused; it hangs over the void of 'what if,' and the slightest nudge could send it toward a wide variety of unhappy endings. Izzy is the heroine of Tessa Dare's new novel, Romancing the Duke, the first volume in her new "Castles Ever After" series, and when the story opens, her affairs couldn't look much darker: her father, the popular author Sir Henry Goodnight, has died suddenly of apoplexy, and she has nobody else in the world. Her spirits are undaunted, but the money is almost gone when suddenly she receives one of those unlooked-for twists of fate for which her father was so famous: a note arrives informing her that her father's patron the Earl of Lynforth has died - and that he's left her a bequest.At this point Izzy will gladly accept just about any legacy, no matter how small. The note instructs her to travel to Gostley Castle in Northumberland and meet with a certain Lord Archer, who will make all the details known to her.By the time she arrives at the dilapidated castle, it's late, she's famished, and it's starting to rain. And so, despite the groans it'll elicit from some of her readers, despite the disdain with which Izzy herself views the ploy, Dare has her faint into the arms of the castle's sole inhabitant, the muscular, brooding Duke of Rothbury. Dare's uncontrolled propensity for groan-worthy old cliches like this is her biggest weakness (this is the author who gave us The Wanton Dairymaid series, after all, a trio of tales worthy of P. G. Wodehouse's Rosie M. Banks), but her sheer zest in telling her tales almost always compensates.Izzy awakens to find herself in the care of the Duke, who's as brusque as he is alluring, and who, she quickly discovers, is blind (the opening section of the book, told from his point of view, is very neatly done - unless you're paying close attention, you won't realize for pages that the character isn't actually seeing anything he's describing). Rothbury has no idea why she's been summoned to Gostley; he's been living there for some time now in dejected self-pity, with only a rough manservant and an enormous dog for company. But soon Lord Archer shows up and clears everything up with an astounding revelation: the eccentric Earl of Lynforth's bequest to his "goddaughter" Izzy isn't a few pounds or even a few hundred pounds - it's Gostley Castle itself. Apparently, Lynforth bought the place during Rothbury's wounded absence, unbeknownst to the Duke himself.Before he departs, Lord Archer has to ask Izzy about something, and she sees it coming; it's not only her own life that's been hanging on 'what ifs,' after all - everybody in England still wants to know how The Goodnight Tales actually end:
"Say, I know you must be asked this all the time. But my nieces would garrote me with their skipping ropes if I didn't try. I don't suppose your father ...""No, my lord." Her smile tightened. "I don't know how Cressida escapes from the tower. And I'm afraid I've no idea of the Shadow Knight's true identity.""And Ulric's still dangling from that parapet?""As far as I know. I'm sorry."
This kind of interrupted-fairy tale setting is appropriate to Dare's novel, which despite being published by Avon, with its long history of sparkling Regency romances, is itself a kind of fairy tale. That the story takes place "in olden days" can be discerned from the hoop skirts and the horse-drawn carriages and the general lack of iPads, but like so many "historical" romances being published today, the story has nether a date nor any strictly accurate historical details - it's a Disneyfied view of the past. Which may be all the more fitting for a character like Izzy, whose whole life has been bounded by stories.In the ensuing inevitable clash of wills, readers learn all about Rothbury's tragic, dynamic past, and Dare unfolds a plot that's both pleasingly complicated and comfortingly predictable. Any romance reader worthy of their Mudie's ticket will be able to guess how it all comes out, although Dare throws in some delectably cutting asides along the way, like her arch mockery of the standard condescensions of book critics toward lady romance novelists. Once Izzy finds her vocation as a writer, she sets herself up for some of that condescension, and it has an accurate ring to it:
"[the book] isn't without its faint glimmers of promise, however. With maturity and time to hone her craft, perhaps [the author, our Izzy] can aspire to be half the writer her father was - and that in itself would be a genuine accomplishment for any writer so young, and so female."
At which point any review of Romancing the Duke should probably blush and fall silent - and wait for the next installment of "Castles Ever After."
