Review: Forever Her Duke (Dukes Most Wanted #1) by Scarlett Scott

                                                         

Print Length: 153 pages

Publisher: Happily Ever After Books, LLC (November 28, 2023)

From Goodreads.com: Vivi, the Duchess of Bradford, loved her husband from the day they first met. She was an unabashed hoyden. He was the heir to a dukedom and her older brother’s best friend. She vowed to marry him, but she never could have imagined just how dreadfully that youthful promise would go awry, shattering her hope for a future.

Having spent the past year in England while the duke has been abroad, she has thrown herself into a cause that won’t lead to more sorrow. She’s content with her growing circle of friends in the Lady’s Suffrage Society and is doing her utmost to banish the Duke of Bradford from her heart and mind for good.

Until she discovers she has an unexpected guest at her country house party, and it’s the husband who left her. Not only is he back, but Court is far more sinfully handsome than she remembered, and he wants the one thing she isn’t prepared to give—her complete and utter surrender.

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My Rating: 1 star out of 5

I'm starting to notice something about this author. They are a REALLY big fan of husbands getting married and then leaving their wives for an entire year while they go off and do whatever they please. As a matter of fact, this is the third book with such as premise that I have read from the author, and they NEVER get any better. 

So let's jump on in. 

To begin with, I am not sure if I have met a more insufferable character than Vivian. I get it, she had been in love with her husband since she was a child (he was her older brother's best friend), and she was heartbroken not only over the death of her brother, but at the fact that her husband told her their marriage had been a mistake right before he left her for an entire year. And during that year, word of his exploits had reached her ears. So it was understandable that she was not exactly pleased when he showed up two weeks before her annual house party completely unannounced. However. She seems to be under the delusion that the house she lives in belongs to her. For example, she tells Court that they were in her library and that he was not welcome in it. And when he counters her saying that he was starting to think he wasn't welcome anywhere within the walls of his ancestral home she dares to ask him why he should believe that he was. 

Maybe because it is his home? Maybe because according to the rules of the time he would have been well within his rights to order her to pack her things and ship her off to any one of his other properties and she could do nothing about it? Who did she think she was to try and get him to leave his own home no matter how wronged she felt. I mean it least she's honest in her assertation that she doesn't want him there so she has that going for her. 

To be fair, Court isn't much better as he warns her that she's going to have to resign herself to the fact that he intends to assert his husbandly rights at some point. Like dude, maybe chill for five seconds? Let her get used to you being back? Maybe woo her as you claim you want to do. I mean he even goes so far as to somehow convince Vivi's best friend to help him in his cause to win over his wife, claiming to be in love with her (which I don't believe for a second because I just don't see it). 

But here is where the story falls apart for me. While his reasons for leaving her made sense, they also didn't. He too was mourning the loss of her brother, but he had also made a promise to said brother that he would not lay a hand on Vivi, which he did hence how they ended up married in the first place. But instead of then doing everything he could do honor Percy's memory by making his sister Vivi happy, Court fled. And when he comes back, he just expects her to fall into his arms. 

Which of course she does. You see, when he enlists her friend for help it is to lure Vivian to a picnic under false pretenses (mainly the invitation comes from her friend so she believes it is her she is meeting). And while they two are somewhat able to start mending bridges by talking about the past, it begins to rain soaking them both to the bone by the time they make it back to the house. So he gets her into the bathroom, and after realizing that she's afraid of water (and somehow bathes in three inches of water) he helps her get over her fear by bathing with her. Which of course leads them to having sex. By this point he has been home for maybe two days? 

And here is where my biggest pet peeve comes into play. As soon as she gives in and they sleep together that becomes the main focus of the story. Sure we are told they have feelings for each other. We are told a lot of things. But we never get the chance to really see it or feel it. Instead these two are sneaking off to sleep together every chance they get, while the rest of the story bounces around. We have Vivi waking up extremely late on the day her house party is to begin, followed by a tense luncheon. Then it jumps again to after the house party where apparently all of Vivi's friends are now engaged? I mean I get that this is a novella, but I expected to see at least a little bit of the house party considering how many times it had been mentioned.

I might check out some of the synopsis of the other books in this series and see if any of them mention the house party (so maybe I can get more details about that), but it will be some time from now as I need a break from this author.