Review: One Night with the Duchess (Widows of West End #1) by Maggie Weston

                                                     

Print Length: 272 pages

Publisher: Harlequin Historical (October 22, 2024)

From Goodreads.com: Widowed duchess and virgin Isabelle must prove her loveless marriage was consummated or face losing her title and stepson! Her plan? Seek out a notorious rake to bed her!  

Her first stop is the famously indecent Lord Ashworth, who reluctantly agrees, to save her from the more debauched rogues on her list…  

Despite their fiery encounter making her feel wanted for the first time, Isabelle resolves never to seek him out again. 

Yet when their worlds collide once more, she’s hiding a secret that would bind them forever…

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My Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

For an author's debut novel, this one had a lot of potential. However, if I EVER see the word Duchess again it will be entirely too soon. 

I mean I get it, at the start it seemed like it was an odd term of endearment that he had given her in deference to her rank. But then Matthew just keeps referring to her thusly. Even when  it seems like she is at death's door, it would seem he would rather refer to her as Duchess than Isabelle. Each time he did so was an immediate turn off for me because I felt like despite everything that they had been through he still didn't see her as Isabelle, even though he claimed to love her. 

Aside from the overuse of that word, this novel just.... didn't make sense from a time-period standpoint. Isabelle loses her virginity to Matthew because she somehow has to "prove" that she and her late husband consummated their marriage in order to keep guardianship of her step-son. The actual reason is never made clear and in fact, the "cousin" she is so worried about doesn't even come back into play until near the end. 

However, her liaison with Matthew results in her having his child (not a spoiler as far as I am concerned considering the synopsis alludes to it as well). Ok cool. This should make for a good plot point right?  Except even though the child looks NOTHING like her late husband, and enough like Matthew that he and his mother both clock her true parentage from the moment they see her, we are led to believe that NO ONE ELSE in society does? His mother even says that little Sera is the spitting image of Matthew's sisters with the same dark curls and stormy gray eyes, and not one gossipmonger in the entire ton put two and two together? 

I was willing to overlook this however because when we did see these two together there were moments of undeniable sweetness and chemistry. I enjoyed watching Matthew interact with his daughter, and all of the little things that he did to try and prove to Isabelle that she could trust him with both herself and their daughter. 

Well, at least until they finally slept together again. At which point it became easily skippable pages and pages of them having at each other. Which if you're invested in that part of the story might add something to it, but if you're like me and just want them to have their happily after you can do without. 

But wait we need some drama! Poor Sera gets sick. And just as she is starting to get better, her mother falls ill. And when I say ill, I mean she's overcome with fever, can barely walk on her own, but yet can still get married?! This still has me reeling because while I can understand someone wanting to get their affairs in order, I cannot understand why her solicitor would be pushing her to get married when she's supposedly so ill she's practically on deaths door. How can she consent to marriage?  Honestly, it just seemed like an easy out especially since it solved none of the issues that Isabelle was worried about (speculation from the ton, their daughter being ruined etc). 

After that, the rest just seems rushed, but at least things are settled. I do wish we would have seen more of them in their new lives together, but as it stands, I will read at least one more book from this author as I am curious to see how they take constrictive criticism from this novel and apply it to future stories.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.