A DUKE TO REMEMBER by Kelly Bowen

PUBLISHER: Forever, 7/2016
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1819
SERIES: Season for Scandal, #2
AUTHOR SITE: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Elise deVries is not what she seems. By night, the actress captivates London theatergoers with her chameleon-like ability to slip inside her characters. By day, she uses her mastery of disguise to work undercover for Chegarre & Associates, an elite agency known for its discreet handling of indelicate scandals. But when Elise is tasked with locating the missing Duke of Ashland, she finds herself center stage in a real-life drama. Noah Ellery left the glamour of the London aristocracy to pursue a simpler life in the country. He's managed to avoid any complications or entanglements—that is, until he lays eyes on Elise and realizes there's more to this beautiful woman than meets the eye. But when Elise reveals her real identity—and her true feelings for him—the runaway duke must confront the past he left behind . . . to keep the woman he loves forever.

MY THOUGHTS/SPOILERS: This story was interesting enough and was more romantic suspense than romance. The plot was pretty simple and easy to follow along with. No complicated subplots to distract from the main one. I liked both lead characters alright.

The synopsis isn't completely accurate and it's the publishers fault. It states that 'Noah Ellery left the glamour of the London aristocracy to pursue a simpler life in the country' but that's false. At the age of ten he was forced into an insane asylum for absolutely no reason, then escaped a few years later. He had no choice but to go into hiding. He didn't chose to leave 'the glamour of the London aristocracy'. He was forced to live a secret life for fear of being caught and sent back against his will. 

Some things I didn't like. I find it very hard to believe that Elise found Noah right away without even looking for him. I find it hard to believe too that Noah's friend Joshua, the one he escaped with when he was fifteen and hasn't seen since, was also involved in finding him. I don't find it plausible at all that Elise could be masquerading as a man sometimes without anyone suspecting she's female. I'd have liked for Noah's evil cousin Francis Ellery to have been in the story a lot more instead of just being at the beginning and end. His involvement in this story was far more interesting to me than that of Elise and Noah and far more interesting than the sex scenes.

I'm disappointed that Noah didn't converse with his mother about being sent away all those years ago. I was hoping she hadn't been involved in the plot, in fact I was assuming we'd find out she hadn't been, but they never even spoke to one another.

I think Noah's thirty-five years old but I'm not sure and I have no idea how old Elise is. We got no backstory at all on her. I don't think I'd read this author again.

Lastly, there's a line in the story (page 137 of the ARC) where Noah said, "I.Don't.Want.The.Title'. Please keep that awful modern-day way of typing out of historicals.

I received this from the publisher in 2016 in exchange for an honest review.