Nisha's Reviews > The Runaway Duke

This is truly an unique book. Starting with the characters, Connor Riordan, who is actually heir to a dukedom, decides to shed himself of his name after his supposed death and masquerades as a Groom for 5 years. Rebecca Tremaine, is supposed to be a genteel lady, but her thirst for knowledge makes her atypical and a task for her parents. Rebecca is compromised by a dandy, who she absolutely detests and asks her favorite companion, the Groom to help her out. They have a relationship that starts when Rebecca was only 13, and they have always been close, but they slowly realize that what they share is love.

There was a bit of good and bad throughout this book. I liked how negative characters were given actual characters and even our protagonists, are not picture perfect. Unfortunately, Ms Long decides to abandon this by the end of the book. Which is rather unfortunate, because it dumbs down the story at the end.

The build up between the H/H was decent, a little slow, but thoroughly understandable considering their age difference. But I was expecting more - more tension, more trust on Connor's part, I think.

Its truly a decent read with an unique story line, but there was something off about it. Maybe it was the age difference between Connor and Rebecca that really bothered me - 29 and 17. There was also Connor's inadequate reason for abandoning his title, especially for his age. He would have been in his early 20s, by which most men have a decent sense of honor and duty instilled in them.

Throughout the book, Connor tells Rebecca that he plans to go to America. And when they get engage, it appeared as if they could have gone together, both pursuing their respective dreams. I thought this was ingenious and reminded me a bit of 'Far and Away'. Unfortunately, I knew this was regency HR romance, which would invariably mean that a title would be highly preferred in the ending. True to that, Connor does become the Duke and Rebecca, his Duchess, but it did not fit with either of their personality types that were developed earlier.

But in the end, it was just all so disappointing and too cliche, as they both become what was expected of them. And all too neatly, ignoring all shreds of the gray characters that were produced early in the story.

A 3 1/2 stars is the most I can give. Maybe I was expecting to much.