The Duke Is Mine audiobook

Olivia Lytton has been betrothed since before she was born to the also yet unborn son of a duke, Rupert. Thanks to a promise made between her father and Ruperts father when they were friends in Eton, she has been 'duchified' since she was a child, along with her twin sister Georgiana. Olivia knows all the proper rules and etiquette but it is just not her personality. Olivia is bawdy, sarcastic, and far too witty to truly be contained in a perfect duchess box. But as she was born seven minutes earlier than Georgiana, who is exactly what one looks for in a duchess, she has accepted her fate to marry the five years younger Rupert. Olivia knows she will bear the marriage to the much simpler Rupert as she plans to dower Georgiana right away so her perfect, beautiful sister can find her true happiness. As the betrothal papers are signed, as Rupert is finally eighteen, and scandalous promises are made by Ruperts father, one of the funniest scenes in this book happens. As Rupert heads to war to achieve the glory he so desires, Georgiana is invited to the home of Tarquin Brook Chatfield, Duke of Sconce by his mother as a potential new wife for Tarquin. Georgiana, with Olivia at her side, heads to his home with hope alight in her heart.After his disastrous and heartbreaking first marriage, Quin knows it is his duty to remarry and he is more than willing to turn the process of choosing a wife over to his mother. She invites out two prospective women and is intent of putting them through a series of tests. It becomes clear quickly that Georgiana is the obvious choice but his mother continues on with her tests and in the process, asks Quin to entertain Olivia who is not in the running being betrothed already and totally unsuitable. The slight problem with that is Quin is quite attracted to Olivia but knows it can never be but the more time they spend together sparring and trading wits she slowly uncovers Quins hurtful past and together their hearts know they belong together. But the road to happiness has quite a few hurdles to overcome including Rupert, Georgiana, Quins mother and even Olivias belief that she is not good enough.This is a fun, quirky, delightful retelling of the fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea. I adored the beginning, it had me laughing quite a bit. Olivia is smart, sassy, and unconventional but honest, fierce, and protective at the same time and it was a delight to meet her. Quin is a bit proud and stuffy but he suffered a great loss and Olivia is the perfect balm for his heart and she, along with some words from Rupert, makes him complete again. I am sure there will be a bit of discussion about the situation that Quin and Olivia find themselves in. She is engaged to Rupert who is off at war and Georgiana thinks that Quin will be the perfect husband. But, I have to say in my opinion, Eloisa James handled the delicate situation well and the resulting actions are something that I could believe happening. I do not want to say to much because I don't want to give away to much of the storyline and I want you to be able to judge for yourself, but I believe fans will be happy with the situations. And then we get to the ending and it ties it all up perfectly. I was wondering how a pile of mattresses would fit in with this story but Eloisa James found a perfect solution so fairy tale fans will be pleased. Overall, a true delight that will make you laugh out loud. sigh, and root for this couple. 4 1/2 starsI received this ebook from Avon via netgalley.com

The blurb and cover don't do this novel justice. Here's my rewrite:Olivia has been engaged since birth to Rupert, an affable dolt who will make a terrible husband — but who will also make her a duchess. Her twin sister, Georgiana, was made to suffer through childhood “duchification” lessons alongside Olivia, and she’s grown up to be perfect duchess material: thin, elegant, refined, and a dab hand at the harpsichord. Olivia, on the other hand, is fat, bawdy, and completely uninterested in becoming a duchess.She is also awesome.When Georgiana is invited to the estate of Tarquin, Duke of Sconce, as a candidate to become his bride, Olivia tags along to help. Which is all very well until she falls in love with Tarquin and he falls in love with her back (or, as he puts it, he falls in “compulsive lust” with her). Will they be able to resist their passion for the sake of their families and propriety?In a word, no.This book is so much fun. Olivia is hilarious, and perhaps the most flat-out likeable heroine I’ve ever read. Quin is abstracted, with an autism-spectrum-ish inability to understand or connect to most other people’s emotions. He can read Olivia, though, because everything she thinks and feels is written all over her face. Quin’s rather desperate, deeply inconvenient desire for Olivia — and his enjoyment of every aspect of her person and personality — is made all the more delectable by her plumpness. It’s so refreshing to see an overweight heroine objectified. I swear, by the time the novel ended, Quin had made me want to schtump Olivia.The Princess and the Pea aspect of the plot didn’t do much for me, but I did enjoy how far The Duke Is Mine departs from the conventional romance structure. The plot wanders off to France to rescue Rupert at the end, just after one might think the happy-ever-after ending had already come and gone.I was quite happy to wander off with it.

For other fun, bookish stuff, visit my blog! The Duke Is Mine is inspired by “The Princess and the Pea.” Just like in the original tale, the heroine arrives at a manor one stormy night soaked through to the bone. In James’s version, her destined duke greets her at the door and is immediately wildly attracted to her—a sodden gown clinging to every curve will do that. 😉 Too bad she’s engaged to a simpleton and is really only visiting the duke’s estate as her sister’s chaperone; it’s the sister who is being tested as the possible duchess-to-be.I really liked this book; the female MC is sassy yet honorable. I’m a sucker for sister relationships in stories, and this one is really cute. It also handles neurological disorders in a sensitive, sensible matter. The duke love interest has an Asperger’s-like disorder, and the MC’s betrothed, who is mentally handicapped due to a temporary loss of oxygen at birth, is depicted respectfully. Out of the three here, I’d say this book is great for a first impression of James’s work.

At times poignant, at times laugh-out-loud hilarious this is Eloisa James at her playful best. The voluptuous heroine, Olivia, with her penchant for limericks and bawdy jokes is the perfect foil for the serious-minded, yummy mathematician, Tarquin. I especially loved how Quin broke down Olivia's defenses about her body, helping her see how much he appreciated her curves. And how Olivia helped him come to terms with his past. Intertwined with the romance was a colorful cast of characters, including a flea-bitten dog named, Lucy, a musical young fellow with a flair for fashion, and a sweetly innocent marquess determined to find glory on the battlefield. Charming, sexy, and just plain fun.

I loved this book. It was entertaining, light, flirtatious and just fun. Twins Olivia & Georgiana Lytton was daughters raised and trained to be duchesses. Well, Georgiana took to her lessons, Olivia clearly had a rebellious streak that made her fight against all things proper.Georgiana ended up betrothed to the Duke of Canterwick, who went off to fighting in the war defending England. Now Olivia is trying to help her twin make a match with Tarquin, The Duke of Scones.The only problem is that the Tarquin feels an attraction for Olivia and vice versa. So what's a girl to do? Should Olivia ignore her heart and push Tarquin towards Georgiana or should Olivia hold on to the passion she has found with Tarquin?Olivia and Georgiana were both characters I enjoyed. They loved each other, but they were opposites. Olivia was the "peach", plumb and round while Georgiana was the celery, tall and lanky.Olivia learned the crude jokes and Georgiana learned mathematics and science. But they still had each others back.Olivia and Tarquin felt seamless as couple. They fit, they were fun and they had witty banter. I enjoyed the way the author worked them towards each other considering Olivia's engagement, the mother etc. It made the book a tad angsty which added to the suspense. I love historical romances because they are romantic but Eloisa James has a way of interjecting humor, a little history, and great interpersonal relationships. The only reason I am not giving this story a full 5-star is the last few chapters with Olivia's fiance were superfluous. There could have been less dramatic ways of ending the engagement and Quinn not feeling like stole someone's woman. Still their love story made this book an awesome audiobook experience that I will be finishing the series soon.

É uma história "suave" que nos prende desde o início.

4.5

Well wasn't this a surprise! I have to say this was really enjoyable and it made me miss Eloisa James's writing. I miss this series! I went into this with very low expectations and part of it was because of the low ratings this received and one review in particular that completely turned me away from reading this. I usually try not to let reviews/ratings sway my decision on a book but it happened here unfortunately. I blame it on my 'spring cleaning' of my towering to-read shelf.lol EJ is the very first historical romance author I read and she wrote the wonderful Pleasure trilogy which I loved so much so I do feel a sense of loyalty to her. She has her moments of eccentricities in her writing style and sometimes silly characters and plots, but still she can write wonderfully beautiful in-depth stories with endearing characters, witty brilliant dialogue with a ton of angst thrown in there. I will be honest the first few chapters of this I struggled to get into and it didn't seem very promising. The heroine Olivia wasn't winning me over with her snarky indifferent personality while her twin sister Georgiana kept fussing and scolding over her poor manners. It got tiring. And their parents were no better with their self-serving deluded ways (forcing your daughter to have sex with her betrothed to ensure a possible heir if he doesn't return from war...are you serious?? disgusting). Olivia and Georgie's twittering jokes over Rupert's limp celery episode was in poor taste and made me wish EJ didn't go there but it was all in good fun and not meant to be mean. As the story progressed my opinion changed about Olivia. I started to understand Olivia and come to love her and she isn't as indifferent and careless as others peg her for. I fell hard for the hero Tarquin 'Quin' real quick. I was expecting a brooding indifferent jerk but he surprised me (I'd still like to know when exactly Quin was a 'jerk' in this story?). He broke and melted my heart. He's incredibly intelligent, has a surprisingly great sense of humor and very tender passionate vulnerable heart. And oh yeah, excuse my girly moment but he's drop dead gorgeous! :D LOVED him! While I don't mind love-triangles, I was leery and nervous over the set up in here. The duke falling in love with a woman who's already betrothed to be married and also happens to be the sister of the woman his mother plans for him to possibly marry. I loved this couple so much and their story was very enthralling.This book needs to be given more credit than deserved IMO. Let me get this out because there are quite a few misconceptions about this book that I feel needs clearing up after reading a few reviews on here. First of all, the hero Quin absolutely does NOT have Asperger's syndrome or made fun of like one reviewer vehemently accuses James of doing and is what originally turned me away from reading this. The only 'difficulty' Quin suffers is struggling to read others emotions and sometimes putting his thoughts into words, which anyone healthy or otherwise, suffers on a daily basis. That is not an ailment IMO and the author never describes him as having one. Quin is perfectly fine and acts like any quiet grieving man would act. As for Rupert, Olivia's 18 year old fiance, he's described as having social difficulties and very emotional, he's labeled as being mentally handicapped something he apparently suffered when he was born. His traits could be *similar* to Autism but it's never pin pointed and it's definitely NOT Asperger's. So I have to ask the reviewer what the hell they are talking about??! Cause I saw none of that in this book. To each his/her own but I like to call out bull when I read it and the author supposedly making fun of someone with Asperger's syndrome in this story is pure fiction and a load of bullshit if I may be frank. I even googled Asperger's syndrome to see if it was something I missed and none of that was in this book. In fact, Rupert's personality and how he behaves is the exact opposite of AS. Also, this is set in the 1800s so if you expect aristocratic England society to be so accepting, knowledgable or advanced medically of learning disabilities or handicapped of any kind that's not accurate or realistic. I went into this expecting the worse, a selfish cruel heroine poking fun of a mentally-handicapped man and I saw none of that in here. The only ones who maligned Rupert are those who didn't know him.As for Olivia and how she treats Rupert? She was his champion through most of this book. She protects his name, encourages his poetry, faces down others including a stuanchy Doweger who insults him, takes care of his dog Lucy, and goes all the way to France to save him and nearly dies while doing so. What part of this is considered cruel or selfish? That's quite brave and selfless in my book. And I have to point out none of her actions were out of obligation, she vehemently refuses to leave Rupert alone in France and insists on going all the way there with or without Quin. She genuinely seemed to care, love and worry for him. I don't know what readers expect from this girl, she made some tasteless jokes in the beginning and is labeled as a cruel selfish heroine. I disagree with that completely. She had some growing up to do and she does plenty of it in here. And as for "stealing" her sister's fiance, considering the fact that Georgie and Quin were never betrothed or even courting to begin with and Georgie gives her sister her blessing to go after the man she loves, there was no stealing to be had in here like some reviewers keep insisting. Georgie tells Olivia point blank she doesn't have feelings for Quin and pushes her sister to go after him. The few times Quin confronts Olivia and pleads with her to let him court & woo her, she turns him down putting her sister's feelings and Rupert's ahead of her own wishes so again, I saw nothing of a selfish heroine in this. She was willing to sacrifice her own happiness for her sister and Quin respected her wishes. He too felt guilt ridden for falling for a woman who is already betrothed and feels he owes something to Rupert. This whole situation could have painted both the hero and heroine in a not-so-favorable light but James handled it beautifully. There is a lot of angst, longing, guilt shared between the two so I can't label this couple as selfish or careless. Not even close. But that's just me. I went into this with a somewhat skewed negative perception given all the comments and low ratings I saw on here and was amazed with what I got. A lonely duke who isolated himself after losing his wife and young child and believes he can never love again and doesn't have the capacity for it. A beautiful incredibly insecure woman who loves her sister more than anything and hides behind silly jokes and naughty limericks and thinks she's the 'imperfect' fat twin. I call out characters when they act a' fool and neither of these two were. They were very open and honest from the very start with each other, no games, no lies or tricks. Honest, open and up front from the start. I was surprised with how playful, affectionate and passionate (my damn) Quin was with Olivia. *fans self* Wooh! He made me melt. Olivia clearly made him happy and he wanted so very badly be with her. For a mathematical genius who's supposedly not good with words (I beg to differ), he's quite the romantic. They fell for each other quite easily and openly and tried very hard to fight it out of respect for other parties involved. I generally like to go into books with a clear head and no preconceived ideas of what to expect and I always like to be 100% honest when leaving reviews whether it's an absolute favorite author of mine, or a new author to me. It goes without saying (or repeating in this case) that this book is highly underrated book in Eloisa James's Fairy Tale series. She is not for everyone, like I said before she has her own eccentric style of writing that works in some cases and in others not so much. You never know what to expect from her which is part of the reason why I can never give up reading her work, her characters are one of a kind and far from conventional HR characters. Her characters and stories are always colorful and very unique and I've always admired that. I enjoyed this book so thoroughly and was charmed by every aspect of it. I didn't want it to end. And this bares repeating: The author does not in any part of this book disparage or make fun of a character who is mentally handicapped and there is no character in here that can be labeled as having Asperger's. It's a skewed false statement to make. In fact Rupert is the hero of the story who both Olivia and Quin go to a great deal to bring back home like the war hero he is. So I guess I fail to understand what was so incredibly awful about these two or the story. I'm guess I'm in the minority on this one. :P

Once upon a time, a duke befriended a mere Mister at Eton, and the two young men made a pact that the duke’s heir would marry the daughter of his friend. The young Mister hopped right to it, got hitched, and promptly produced (well, his wife did) twin daughters, the eldest of whom is Olivia. The happy parents, armed with a really stuffy etiquette book written by the Duchess of Scone, proceeded with a “Duchification” program (intensive training to make their daughters, both the elder, and—"just in case"—the younger, worthy of being duchesses). Five years later, the duke’s bride gives birth—unfortunately there is a problem in the birthing room, and both mother and son are deprived of oxygen for too long. As a result the duke is married to a woman who is bedridden and doesn’t recognize him, and has a son who turns out to be “differently clued.” RowanRupert (the duke’s son) is the kind of boy who weeps at the sight of a fallen sparrow and makes up poetry that makes no sense to anyone but him. He is also every bit as stubborn as his dukely da. So when Rupe comes of age (18), despite all arguments, he is determined to fight in the war, and he refuses to marry until he can return home “trailing glory.” The best the duke can do is get Rupe to sign formal betrothal contracts with Olivia before he goes. The Duke and Olivia's parents then conspire to coerce her to seduce Rupe. They cite old laws that say that, because of the betrothal, any child born now would be legitimate (tho Olivia herself would still be ruined). In other words, if she gets knocked up, there’s at least a chance of an heir before Rupe goes off and gets himself killed. The two dutiful kids toss back some brandy in Olivia's father’s library and give it a go, but "little Rupe" was apparently deprived of oxygen also (we're told Rupe's celery is wilted). Olivia can’t convince Rupert to fib, so she has him recline with her on the couch, and then persuades him to tell his father that the two of them did "lie together."And then off Rupe goes, but first he extracts a promise from Olivia that she’ll keep Lucy (the mangy dog) by her side at all times. As part of the bribe to get Olivia to sacrifice her virtue to the dukedom, the duke recommends her twin sister Georgia to the Duchess of Scone, who is looking for a second wife for Tarquin, the dowager's widowed son. Quin’s first marriage was a love match—and a disaster. Burned once, Quin's gonna go about it logically this time. He’ll let Mummy decide who he should marry.Georgia and Olivia to attend a small house party at the Scone residence, chaperoned by a woman named… Cecily Bumtrinket (YES, that IS her name!). Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, Quin’s mum is the same Duchess of Scone who wrote the infernal etiquette book. And naturally, Olivia has to bring Lucy. Georgia is the ideal woman straight from the pages of the duchess’s etiquette book. Olivia is irreverent, fond of earthy limericks, betrothed to someone else and theoretically carrying his baby—and Quin’s mother doesn’t approve of her or her little dog. All wrong, in other words. TOTALLY wrong. You can guess where it goes from there, but there are some nice twists along the way. This gets four stars, because A) I'm in a generous mood, B) the author has a helluva sense of humor (character names like Cecily Bumtrinket and Bartholomew Fopling are worth a few giggles--and then there are the silly insults that Olivia and Quin's cousin exchange, such as "Turdy-fancy-nasty-paty-lousy-fartical rogue!”). And then C) there's a little (not a lot but a little) adventure. Last note: If you can come up with a limerick involving the name Bumtrinket, please do share!