Kudos to Michelle Willingham for creating an unusual heroine
with a very real mental illness. In UNDONE BY THE DUKE,
heroine Victoria Andrews can't leave her home in Scotland.
Agoraphobia hadn't been recognized by doctors in 1810, but
Victoria has all the symptoms -- she starts to panic when she
even thinks about walking out the door, and she doesn't like
crowds or strangers. That begins to change when a man she
doesn't know is brought to her home with a gunshot wound.
An angry boy mistook Jonathan Nottoway, the Duke of
Worthingstone, for someone else, and shot him in the leg. In
pain and afraid to trust the locals, Jonathan doesn't tell
anyone his title, allowing them to believe he's just a
landowner. He soon realizes that he has a unique opportunity
to woo a woman without worrying that she's just after his
title and money.
They begin to trust one another -- a little -- and Jonathan
begins trying to help Victoria overcome her anxiety about
leaving the safe confines of her home, but they both have
still more secrets and fears they'll have to beat, if
they're to make a life together.
UNDONE BY THE DUKE has a lot of layers. Victoria and her
sisters are running a covert business to help the family
finances. A mercenary earl and his servant are terrorizing
the countryside. Victoria's father is gone to war and no one
has heard from him in months. This is the first in a series,
so in addition to introducing potential heroes and heroines,
several major plot points remain unresolved at the end.
I did feel that some parts of the story felt repetitive.
Some of the repetition comes from taking little steps to
ease Victoria outside her comfort zone, however, I would
have liked to see Willingham give us more sense of time and
place. Victoria could have read a newspaper with reports of
the war where her father is fighting. She and Jonathan could
have talked about Scottish-English relations and how they're
connected or not with the refugees living on her property. I
know many people don't want a history lesson when they read
a romance, but when current affairs are related to major
plot points, I'd like to have more history woven in.
It will be interesting to see where the other books in the
series lead us.
Victoria has a secret...
Reclusive designer Victoria Andrews
hasn't gone outside in five years, though she yearns to
escape the prison of her house. She designs sensual lingerie
for the most exclusive dressmaker in London, although she
has never known a man's touch.
A Duke in disguise...
Wounded
and stranded in Scotland, Jonathan Nottoway, the Duke of
Worthingstone, is avoiding the murderous scandal that
darkened his family name. As his wounds heal, he spends
several sensual nights with the beautiful seamstress who
knows nothing of his true identity.
A passionate awakening
Can a woman trapped by her emotional scars be able to love a
duke, when it means abandoning her safe world to embrace the
life of a duchess?
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