Along Came A Duke by Elizabeth Boyle (Rhymes With Love #1)

• Release Date: March 26th, 2013

• Pages: 384

• Genre: Historical Romance

• Publisher: Avon

Along Came a Duke is a historical romance with the heart of of a modern day romcom. Tabitha Timmons has come into a large inheritance that can get her out of her evil aunt and uncle's grasp, the catch is she has to marry a man pre-picked out for her. The only problem is she can't stop thinking about the trouble making Duke of Preston.

Tabitha is the usual sensible country girl who doesn't' want to be saved and Preston is your basic rake (he bankrupts a man) with a heart of gold (he literally saves a box of kittens or puppies or something). They fit the tropes to a T and personality wise they felt like place fillers

Boyle has a very distinct writing style. Her dialogue and style felt very of the time and she makes sure to use the slang of the era as much as possible. I could make a drinking game over how much the phrase "Good God" "bit of muslin" ad "cry off" are used.

As the characters work and scheme to get Tabitha out of her arrange  marriage and to her true happy ending I found a lot of the character types I 'd expect to see in a romcom. The supportive best friends, dog with great comedic timing , overbearing parental figures and affable spare fiance.  My favorite trope being the bromance Preston shares with his constantly hungover gambling scatter brained friend, Roxley, who is always on the run from his fussy aunt.

I couldn't unsee this when characters said "Good God"

The book has a leisurely pace to it, I usually like a lot more shenanigans in my plotting, but what kept me listening was Susan Duerden's performance on the audiobook. Scribd has a whole feature on her and I wanted to find out why. When I first heard her narration I thought she sounded a but stiff,but on second listen I realized her performance sounded nothing like her narrating voice. I like how she laughs and sighs when the text calls for it. Duerden makes the difference between a good narration and a great performance.

I like the side characters and Duerden's performance so much I can see this series being my go-to car audiobook. Something light and mellow I can enjoy on the commute home.

I'm not sure why this series is called Rhymes With Love. I mean the heroines names are alliterations and the titles are derived from Nursery rhymes, but I don't see the connection within the story. I guess it's just good marketing ? Either way, I'm sold.

Side Note

The heroine actually wears the dress on the cover. I always like that.