The Duke Who Didn't
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Average rating4.1
Miss Chloe Fong has plans for her life, lists for her days, and absolutely no time for nonsense. Three years ago, she told her childhood sweetheart that he could talk to her once he planned to be serious. He disappeared that very night.Except now he's back. Jeremy Wentworth, the Duke of Lansing, has returned to the tiny village he once visited with the hope of wooing Chloe. In his defense, it took him years of attempting to be serious to realize that the endeavor was incompatible with his personality.All he has to do is convince Chloe to make room for a mischievous trickster in her life, then disclose that in all the years they've known each other, he's failed to mention his real name, his title... and the minor fact that he owns her entire village.Only one thing can go wrong: Everything.
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Series
2 primary booksWedgeford Trials
Wedgeford Trials is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2020 with contributions by Courtney Milan.
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Second chance isn't usually my thing, but I definitely enjoyed this one - loved the setting and the side characters, and the reveal of Jeremy's dukedom was amazing.
(2022 Summer Romance Bingo: second chance. Could also work for mistaken identity, property inheritance, maybe high tea.)
I need to admit something that is possibly terrible: this is my first Courtney Milan book.
I have no excuse for this! I follow Milan on Twitter, and thus have a big crush on her brain. I also have The Brothers Sinister Series boxset, which I've been told by every Romance enthusiast is phenomenal, so my neglect of Milan's work feels particularly egregious.
(Side note: Amazon tells me that I purchased the boxset in February 2018 (!!!), along with Sarah Maclean's A Rogue by Any Other Name. Which I also haven't read. This is very embarrassing, and my only defense is that between my book-hoarding tendencies and my ADHD, it's a miracle that I finish anything before I'm crushed under the weight of my TBR pile. I beg your forgiveness, readers.)
At any rate, I've meant to get started on her books, and having read The Duke That Didn't, I understand now how much I've been depriving myself by not acting on that intention. At the risk of gushing: this is a wonderful book.
At the center of The Duke That Didn't are Chloe Fong and Jeremy Wentworth, childhood sweethearts who team up every year for a few days for the centuries-old Wedgeford Trials, a day-long game hosted by their village that attracts crowds from all over Britain. That is, until two years prior to the beginning of the story, when Jeremy just stops showing up.
That first year he had not come to the Trials, she had waited eagerly—anxiously, even. She'd put him on her list, and the item had remained stubbornly undone, unable to be completed in his absence. Rationality had set in after that first disappointment. Think about him only once today had been on her list for months before she accomplished it even once, and she found herself consistently, illogically, backsliding. At this point, he'd skipped two years of Trials; this would make year three. He wasn't coming back.
He'd told her how he felt, but somehow, whenever he looked at her, his thoughts never came out as something sober and intellectual like I respect the things that matter to you. No. Instead, everything he felt got tied up and turned around into I genuflect to the sovereignty of your list.
The Duke That Didn't
The Duke That Didn't
“I'm sorry,” she started to say, “I shouldn't have said—I didn't mean to ruin—”
He cut her off with a kiss. “You should have said,” he whispered into her mouth. “You must say; I can have it no other way. You see, I have been imagining this with you every day of my life, and you must give me the opportunity to make you desire me as much as I want you.”
He pulled back. She had a smile on her face, but her eyes glistened.
“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for trusting me to be good to you.”
The Duke That Didn't
The Duke That Didn't
