Duchess by Design audiobook

4.5 stars!!!! Quick fun read!! Highlights situations that are still present today! Having to laugh at bad jokes by paying customers lol! Loved the premise & authors writing style! Very well done! I did not give it a 5 star as it was very cliché which is not a bad thing, but highly predictable & the ending felt rushed literally few pages to the end & still the misunderstanding of will I won’t I kinda thing! I knew it would end happily every after that part was a given, but did not get to really rejoice with our leading characters to celebrate as much as wanted! Now thinking about it seems more I didn’t want the story to be over that I’m feeling cheated which makes no sense as any great story just as in life eventually comes to an end! Granted she did add a few pages of épilogue ten years down the road which helped give a few more glimpses into their new lives!! Witty banter & great details of the era! Pockets...greatest invention in a females outfit!!!! 🎉😂😂😂🤩😍Highly recommend this novel!

4.5 stars, rounded up.Brandon Fiennes, The Duke of Kingston needs to find a rich bride, he inherited a failing estate, two unmarried sisters and a mother with an expensive sense of style. He consults with his cousin Freddie and is told that if he wants a heiress, New York is the place to go hunting.Adeline Black is a seamstress with dreams of opening her own shop and creating her own designs, her dreams do not include love, marriage or handsome dukes - until a chance meeting in a hotel lobby. She is attracted to the stranger, who must be the duke the papers have been writing about, but dukes don't marry seamstresses and she tries to put the encounter out of her mind and concentrate on her goal - to convince the heiress Harriet Burnett to go with her dress designs, including her signature - pockets! Kingston cannot believe his luck, he meets the woman of his dreams his first day in New York, she is lovely, poised, intelligent AND an heiress! He sends a note to the suite she entered, asking her to meet him in Central Park. She is going to refuse until she reads a description of her outfit in the paper - this could be her break! She agrees to meet him and the attraction between them is red hot. But he still thinks she is an heiress...When he learns the truth, he confronts her, she never lied to him, he never asked. She tries to walk away, but he follows her and his attention causes her to lose her position at Madame Chalfont's shop. He feels badly and offers to help her - she refuses and tells him, that he has no idea what it is like to be poor - he may think he is poor, but what he really is, is entitled.Adeline spends the next week trying to find work and Kingston tries to find a bride - he narrows his choices down to two. Adeline gets an intriguing offer when she runs into Harriet at a speech in Union Square. Harriet and several friends have a club - Ladies of Liberty, they help women find work, they offer to fund her dream, but she must swear to keep their secret.While out with Freddie, Kingston happens upon her shop - she refuses to see him - hilarity ensues! When she gives him the heads up about the two women he is considering for his duchess, he asks for her help. He invites her to the opera, she will wear one of her creations and get free advertising when the papers write about it. She agrees and at the opera, suggests a potential duchess, Miss Alice Van Allen.Kingston can't seem to forget about Adeline and wishes he could marry her, but he has responsibilities to his title, family and tenants - he can't let them down, even at the cost of his own happiness. He begins to court Miss Van Allen and she is all he could ever hope for in a duchess, but his heart is not in the courtship - it is with a dressmaker who has no desire to marry and has no fortune. Things start to take off for Adeline, her shop is a success and when she receives another letter from Kingston saying he has met Alice and yes she is perfect, but he thinks he should consider a few more ladies and asks her to attend a ball with him. She agrees. They attend and she tries not to feel hurt when he spends time with Alice and leaves her with his cousin Freddie. She doesn't like Freddie, he is handsy and makes her uncomfortable, she is angry because she cannot completely rebuff him, his wife is a client and he has yet to pay his bills - she cannot afford to anger him and it makes her more determined to remain independent. Kingston makes assumptions about her and Freddie and is jealous. On the way home, he realizes that he will marry Alice, but a part of his heart with always be with Adeline.They have no contact for weeks and then have a random meeting on a rooftop garden. He misses her and again wishes that there was a way they could be together. The arrival of his mother and sisters remind him that he must propose to Alice, but he continues to stall.When they meet again at a masked ball, sparks fly and he makes a decision. When Adeline leaves the ball, he follows her, knowing everything will change. She takes him to the bowery, hoping to scare him away, but they end up sharing their pasts and spend the night together. When he asks how she got the money to start her shop, they fight and she leaves, hurt.Kingston follows through with his new plan and the fall out threatens Adeline's dreams. Can there be a HEA??I loved this book, it was almost unputdownable - I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about him actively trying to find a bride who was not Adeline, but found that it didn't bother me at all. I loved Adeline and her friends and thought Harriet and the Ladies of Liberty were wonderful. I loved watching Kingston begin to envision a different future for his duchy - to let go of the past and bravely embrace the changes happening in his world. He and Adeline together were magical, she was exactly the duchess he needed - he just had to be brave enough to take the risk and she in turn had to be brave enough to trust him with her heart and dreams. There were a couple of title errors and typos that I assume will be corrected by publication - but overall, this was an outstanding start to the series and I highly recommend this book and can't wait for the next book in the series!!*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an Uncorrected eARC that was provided to me by Edelweiss and the publisher.*

This was such a fun, insightful historical romance! When it wasn't making me swoon, it was making me cheer on the inclusion of pockets in dresses and female empowerment in the Gilded Age.Adeline was a winner of a heroine. She was so determined to become a dressmaker and for her designs to come to life. I loved the way she talked about fashion and the way she could show others what power lies in the way clothing is designed and who's wearing it. Fashion isn't just fashion and a dress is so much more than a dress. It reveals so much about us and what we want from life and this was especially true during this era. It was so moving to see the ways clothes could transform the characters we meet.Kingston is dashing and charming but he has so much to learn about life in New York City and especially about what life is like for those less privileged. He's a Duke, and a recent one at that, so he's never really had to consider what other people's lives are like. Some people have felt like Adeline had to do a lot of emotional labor in order for Kingston to learn. However, I didn't feel that way. He listens and even if he doesn't initially agree or understand, he still honors Adeline's point of view and always ends up coming around. Honestly, I wish more men today would follow his example.Adeline and Kingston were on fire together, whether bantering or wooing. The HEA seemed impossible, for not only class and financial reasons but because Adeline is dead set against ever marrying. But I trusted Maya Rodale would make it happen and the ending was so satisfying.I highlighted so many passages. It was an absolute delight to read and I adored the sense of humor. The Ladies of Liberty society was a fantastic addition and I loved learning that such societies existed back then. Such moxie!CW: sexual harassment, sexism (which is challenged)

3.5 rounded up. I am very impressed with this author's writing! And while this had a few issues for me, overall it was very enjoyable and I'm excited to read more from her.

I have read quite a few historical romance novels, but only one other that was set in the Gilded Age. When I found out about Duchess by Design being set in America as opposed to the usual setting of Britain, I was quite intrigued. Duchess by Design was a surprising read for me. I loved the focus on independence, feminism and chasing dreams. Brandon, Duke of Kingston, is broke and is in desperate need of a wealthy wife to make amends on his estate. His search for a bride brings him to America where he stumbles upon Adeline, a seamstress with aspirations of becoming a dressmaker. When Kingston approaches her with a deal that would allow her to showcase her gowns at glamorous events in return for insight into the heiresses he intends to woo, she can't refuse him. Adeline was the star of this novel for me. She stole every scene that she was in. She was fierce, independent and resilient. As a woman of that era, she encountered many unfortunate obstacles, but she always rose up from them stronger than ever. She was brilliant in every way and very much of an admirable sort. Her passion for dressmaking truly shone through. It was very encouraging to watch her meander through society and charm all the rich ladies with her gowns with pockets, paving the way for her success. I also liked Brandon a lot. He was a little bit stubborn and snobby at first, but a sweeter facet of his personality emerged as the story progressed. It was great to watch his views about women slowly change into something more progressive as he got to know Adeline better and I was totally rooting for him. I didn't particularly find Adeline and Brandon's romance to be life-changing or swoon-worthy - it was a somewhat of a gentle and quieter romance - but I found it to be quite sweet. The two made for a compelling couple especially as they were willing to listen to each other. I would have liked to see them interact a bit more and for the book to have focused more on their relationship. Instead of the romance, Duchess by Design was centered around the themes of feminism and Adeline's career aspirations. I'm not complaining, however, as I found the book to be enjoyable in every way. I was particularly into the book because of the Gilded Age Girl's Club and all their efforts into helping and allowing women to be a more productive part of society. They were such an interesting group and I'm looking forward to learning more about them. I also thought Maya Rodale did a wonderful job at making the Manhattan setting come to life. Everything was just luscious and glitzy - I loved it!Though not the most romantic book out there, Duchess by Design was a great novel. I'm excited to see what Maya Rodale has in store for readers with the rest of this series.

A progressive, romantic gem.

Who would have thought our dashing, old fashioned, stick in the mud Duke would fall madly in lust with an intrepid, brilliant, focused dressmaker who is determined to change the world? Changing the world is easy, getting the Duke to see the world in a new way, now that is challenging indeed. Lots of fun, a great read!

If you’re looking for a historical with a somewhat different flair, look no further. Duchess by Design features the requisite duke the title suggests, but it takes us out of Regency England to New York’s Gilded Age, while he searches for his bride. It’s fresh and fun, and it’s filled with the kind of feminism and empowerment that made me want to cheer out loud.Brandon is the stereotypical impoverished duke, in need of an heiress to help fill the coffers of his estate. The well of women who fit the bill in London is running dry, so he travels to America to take advantage of the surfeit families with new money. It’s when he first arrives that he lays eyes on Adeline. Since she is well dressed and appears to be staying in his high-class hotel, he believes her to be the kind of lady he’s searching for. But that would be too easy. Adeline is actually a seamstress visiting a client at the establishment.The two flirt in an elevator, but Adeline instantly recognizes the duke from the gossip pages, and she knows nothing can come of it. She is blunt and irreverent, and Brandon is floored to be finally treated like a regular man. He ardently pursues Adeline, and by the time he learns she is without the funds he needs, his affections are already engaged. The story follows his attempts to stick to his original plan, even when he can’t stop thinking about the appealing woman from the elevator.Adeline is a fashion visionary who dreams only of making beautiful dresses and being self-sufficient. She has no plans to marry and put her future in the hands of a man. But her livelihood is threatened by her connection to the duke. Her boss sees him trailing at her heels and assumes she is behaving inappropriately… which gets her fired. Thankfully, she encounters a group of women dedicated to lifting each other up and she gets an opportunity to start again.I love the female camaraderie here and the message that feminism and female empowerment are far from new notions. I love how Adeline sees the power of dresses and the freedom and vehicles of expression they provide for women who have no other voice. I love that she makes dresses with pockets! But perhaps, best of all, I love how Brandon listens to what she says… that he is willing and able to learn that there is more than just the way of the world he has always known. He adapts and evolves because he is able to see through a new lens.Engaging, easy reading with a couple I could get behind and an HEA that satisfies.Rating: B+/A-*ARC provided by publisher