9780062252791
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When the Duke Returns audiobook

  • By: Eloisa James
  • Narrator: Susan Duerden
  • Category: Fiction, General, Romance
  • Length: 11 hours 5 minutes
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Publish date: September 11, 2012
  • Language: English
  • (7086 ratings)
(7086 ratings)
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When the Duke Returns Audiobook Summary

The Duchess of Cosway yearns for a man she has never met . . . her husband.

Married by proxy as a child, Lady Isidore has spent years fending off lecherous men in every European court while waiting to meet her husband. She’s determined to accept him, no matter how unattractive the duke turns out to be. When she finally lures Simeon Jermyn back to London, his dark handsomeness puts Isidore’s worst fears to rest–until disaster strikes.

The duke demands an annulment.

Forsaking his adventuresome past, Simeon has returned to London ready to embrace the life of a proper duke, only to find that his supposed wife is too ravishing, too headstrong, and too sensual to be the docile duchess he has in mind. But Isidore will not give up her claim to the title–or him–without a fight.

She will do whatever it takes to capture Simeon’s heart, even if it means sacrificing her virtue. After all, a consummated marriage cannot be annulled.

Yet in forcing Simeon into a delicious surrender, will Isidore risk not only her dignity–but her heart?

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When the Duke Returns Audiobook Narrator

Susan Duerden is the narrator of When the Duke Returns audiobook that was written by Eloisa James

Eloisa James is a USA Today and New York Times bestselling author and professor of English literature, who lives with her family in New York, but can sometimes be found in Paris or Italy. She is the mother of two and, in a particularly delicious irony for a romance writer, is married to a genuine Italian knight. Visit her at www.eloisajames.com.

About the Author(s) of When the Duke Returns

Eloisa James is the author of When the Duke Returns

When the Duke Returns Full Details

Narrator Susan Duerden
Length 11 hours 5 minutes
Author Eloisa James
Category
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date September 11, 2012
ISBN 9780062252791

Subjects

The publisher of the When the Duke Returns is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Fiction, General, Romance

Additional info

The publisher of the When the Duke Returns is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062252791.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Julie (jjmachshev)

January 26, 2009

Reviewed for queuemyreview.com; book release Dec08Just how long is ‘too’ long to wait for your man? In times of yore (it’s a historical!) there existed a practice of marriage by proxy. Meaning one member (usually the man) wasn’t actually present at the ceremony but the couple was considered legally wed. Then once the absent member showed up and consummated the marriage, all was normal. Eloisa James uses the concept of a proxy marriage in her latest book, “When the Duke Returns”. Her heroine has waited twelve years for her husband the Duke to return and validate their marriage. Twelve years?! Isidore is a Duchess…well, kind of…and she’s fed up with waiting for her errant husband to come home to England. Her plan is fairly simple. She will feign misbehavior to bring him home and then seduce him. It doesn’t really matter what he looks like, after all he is a Duke. She won’t have any problems seducing him, after all she’s been lauded as a beauty since she first put her hair up. She’ll have her children, do Duchessy things, and then, as far as Isidore is concerned, her husband the Duke can go right back to Africa or wherever. She’ll continue her London life fully invested as a Duchess. See, simple plan. What man doesn’t want to ‘do it’?Simeon has returned to England to take over his duties as the Duke. His first duty is to take charge of his wife, er…future wife. See, Simeon wants to get to know and develop feelings for his ‘wife’ and then remarry before consummating their union. He has held on to his chastity to stay healthy but he has always dreamed of what his wife would be like. She’ll be quiet, demure, and docile and he’ll have no problems keeping to the philosophy of ‘the Middle Way’…no strong feelings like anger, lust, or fear. When he first catches sight of his ‘wife’, he’s pretty sure he just lost the ‘lust’ part of his ‘Middle Way’. And after only a few meetings, he’s pretty sure that with Isidore, anger and fear won’t be far behind. I spent quite a bit of time laughing as I read about the titanic struggle between these two. Their verbal exchanges were sharp and scintillating, but it was the author’s revelation of their inner dialogues that explained the most about their motivations and intentions. The plot intensifies as each character figures out what they really want as opposed to what they’d always ‘thought’ they wanted…and why. Very nicely done. There are also several appearances by (mostly) heroines from earlier books who help move the plot along. An evolving secondary romance is just the icing on the cake.Eloisa James’ historical romances are always a treat to read. The witty wordplay between primary and secondary characters and her wonderfully descriptive period vocabulary draws the reader into the world of her heroes and heroines…and it’s a very fun place to visit. “When The Duke Returns” is another engaging story from one of historical romance’s bigger names.

Hannah

February 23, 2022

✨I am delicious. I am expensive.✨I mean at this point thank god I didn’t like that one Eloisa Rapunzel book bc I SWEAR I’m not biased and being like every Eloisa book is the greatest and deserves five stars for shits and giggles bc she’s Eloisa like no they’re actually SO GOOD (sans Rapunzel sorry babes) and it’s a lil cheeky bonus that they’re all by Eloisa. I really mesh with her humor and writing style and the SEX I love that she full sent back then (sad that era is over but at least we have these beauties).Cosway definitely had a temper as soon as he met Isidore idk why she was like he doesn’t have a temper! He’s so mild! The man’s been a boiling pot of passion the entire book??? He’s been Darcy’s flexed hand for as long as we’ve known him. Also this is exactly how to write two virgins having sex! It was HOT because they TALKED and the man had enough faculties to understand that she still needed to COME and I loved how he went about 🤌finessing🤌 a do-over. They took turns learning what pleasured the other and yup it was hot as shit. It was so much better than the horrible situation in Eloisa’s Rapunzel book that also includes two (unfortunate) virgins. I also loved their first kiss and second kiss the revelations they brought on🕺 I think it could’ve used one more scene all together.Ballomal? (Idk how to spell it I listened to the audiobook) Hot girl shit. It’s like an uno reverse safe word so whenever they’re in public and he says the word she’s gotta drop everything now and meet her lord of the bedchamber in the pouring rain. I loved when Villiers tricked Cosway that he was going after Isidore. Like yes that’s so hot sorry I’m very attracted to cavemen (thank you Brendan Fraser) and the whole possessive jealous she’s MINE men. Also I loved the audiobook and the narrator and will be listening to every Eloisa audio from now on. I think I was able to enjoy the ride that this book was as an audiobook. I was never bored and had Great Fun listening to sex scenes at the grocery store. Milk. Eggs. Big horny virile virgin. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 🌶🌶🌶.5/5

Julie

July 02, 2016

Ah, Eloisa James. What can you say? She knows her history. This book, " When the Duke Returns" is a part of the Duchess series. ( can be read out of order). This is a light historical romance set in the late 1700's, regency England. Lady Isidore was married by proxy as a child. Her "husband" Simeon never came to claim her on her 16th birthday. She is now 23 and the Duke has finally shown up. However, he has been changed by his "middle way" life in Africa. He attempts to control his feelings, anger and lust. Isidore however is a passionate young lady who has had to run an estate alone after her parents death and without her husband. So, she's grown quite independent. The sparks fly of course. The second part of the story involved Isidore's good friend, Jemma and her husband, Elijah. (these two will be featured in the next book in line in this series.) Jemma advised Isidore when all hope seems lost. The story is really light, no dark, heavy drama. There are laugh out loud moments involving awkward first time attempts at lovemaking. The sensuality is PG13/R. Very little violence. The moral of the story for me is was that even though Simeon was calm and thought matters through, and Isidore made impulsive decisions, the still loved each other and would work through those differences. Everyone has insecurities and we must all be sensitive to those in our relationships with others. The book in paperback format is 373 pages long. There are some interesting historical facts in this novel as well, regarding " water closets". These gave our Duke a great deal of problems in this story. I had never heard of this attempt at indoor plumbing before reading this book. Clearly, I love this book and intend to add more historical romances from this series to my list.

Felicia

June 12, 2009

Well...I think my cravings in this genre are satisfied. I was a little yawnsville because I read 3 of them in a row. Don't get me wrong, enjoyable, but not challenging. This is a series I might pick up sporadically when I'm bored because the world is interesting enough fluffy-guilty pleasure.

Teresa

October 15, 2018

** spoiler alert ** In some ways, this book could be hard to read because of notions that do not fit with current times... and especially since those current times are in the extreme at the moment. But I felt they fit the time period, the character development, and was written at a different time about a much different time, so it all worked for me in the end. And really, the joy of this one came in going back to the earlier book formats where we continue the story of the Duke and Duchesses of Beaumont and the Duke of Villiers, so it was an overall happy experience for me. Especially knowing that the next two books are about those characters and I cannot wait.

Katie

January 09, 2016

This was a pretty good one! I liked that both characters had rather wrong expectations of each other and weren't entirely sure they wanted to make their marriage work. And I liked that they were both virgins.I liked the central conflict of the hero thinking all successful marriages involve a "biddable" wife (!!!) and the heroine being like, "Uh, no," but I don't think it was ever quite resolved. In real life, I'd need a lot more from him.The portrayal of "The Middle Way" that the hero followed way vague and not very sensitive. So that's not good.

Kathie (katmom)

April 08, 2014

I found this one on a VIRGIN HERO list. Yep, Simeon is 30 and a virgin. And yet, very hot...his wife, by proxy, is 23 and has been married to him since she was 12. Don't worry...he's been GONE this entire time.To say they were both PRIMED by the time they actually meet would be an understatement.Their snark was run to read.

K

May 02, 2019

3,8

Angie ~aka Reading Machine~

September 13, 2015

Duchess of Cosway, Lady Isidore hatches a plan to bring home her errant husband Simeon Jermyn from his travels abroad. Lady Isidore didn't know that to expect in her husband yet promised herself that she'd make it work for the both of them. When Simeon retrieves his wife Lady Isidore from Lord Strange's home finds that she isn't what he expected in a way. Simeon proposes that they get an annulment since the marriage isn't consummated. Isidore is floored at Simeon's suggestion without even trying to be a couple.. Dowager Duchess has left alot of estate business lack into a jumble of chaos and thensome. Meanwhile Simeon sets out to make things right. Isidore takes a tour of her home only to discover it is in dire need of repair. She sets about getting her home presentable for Simeon. Will either Simeon or Isidore accept each other as a couple? Will Simeon bring chaos to order? Your answers await you in When the Duke Returns.This charming installment to The Desperate Duchess Series has been a long awaited story in need of telling. Poor Lady Isidore just wanted her husband to come but he kept himself away far too long. The story is about heartbreak, frustration, misunderstandings, misconceptions, and plain old stubbornness. The characters are real, humble, honest, raw, compelling, down to earth, and delightful too. I look forward to reading more in this series.

Vicky

May 24, 2016

Of the first 4 books, When the Duke Returns comes in as my second favorite after Desperate Duchesses. Isidore is my favorite lead heroine thus far in the series (though I suspect Jemma might oust her from that position as I continue to her book), she's a fiery Italian with a big heart and some realistic insecurities about her husband of eleven years that she's never met! Simeon has spent those years adventuring in Egypt and picking up some eccentric behaviors (in the mind of the English court at least).I liked that this was an atypical scenario for romantic fiction. Rather than the love-at-first sight trope, the book focuses more on Isidore and Simeon working each other into the control they each possess over their separate lives.

Susan (susayq ~)

October 15, 2012

4.5 stars Why has it taken me so long to get back to this series? I think this is my favorite so far. Isidore and Simeon demonstrated the old adage of opposites attract to perfection. She tried his patience and his calm with her fiery personality. They had me laughing at their snarky conversations. If you've read my reviews for the previous books in this series then you know of my love for Jemma, Duchess of Beaumont. She once again shined in this book. As did Villiers. I'm excited that her book is next. I've been waiting for it.

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