Romancing the Duke

Over Thanksgiving, Matt and I went to go see Knives Out with my sister and brother-in-law, and we loved it so much we saw it again over Christmas, this time with my parents. In it, Chris Evans plays a lazy ne'er-do-well named Ransom, who has just been cut off financially by his wealthy grandfather, who was then discovered dead in his study later that night. It's a lot more complicated than that and it's an excellent movie, with all the characters having great motives and lying about their whereabouts and stabbing each other in the metaphorical back.

ANYWAY. One of Matt's favorite characters is this lady:


The decrepit mother of the dead man. One of her few lines, said in a rather scratchy, creaky voice: “Ransom? Are you back again already?”

The hero's name in Romancing the Duke is also Ransom. So every time Matt asked me how the book was going, he followed it up with his own croaking rendition, which made both of us laugh.

This was not my favorite by Dare. The ending felt rushed, and like the main plot of Ransom's solicitors stealing from him got shunted to the side in favor of a dumber climax. There were some ... problematic things the Duke did that could be read as ... kind of rape-y. (I'm thinking of the scene in the library; anger is not an excuse for threatening assault.) Still overall a good story, and I enjoyed the audiobook, but a story can be gothic and moody and have a miserable hero without him throwing red flags all over the pages. I liked Izzy, but thought the plotline with the cosplayers was a little over the top.

(We didn't see Knives Out a third time when it came to the local theater. That might have been Too Much.)