Dukes Prefer Blondes (Dressmakers, #4)

by Loretta Chase

[nitzan_schwarz]

OKAY, I AM CONFLICTED!. On the one hand, I highly enjoyed it and I really loved the two of them together by the last third of the novel. On the other, I wanted to smack Raven so many times while reading this for all of his "you're smart... for a female", "the female brain, such as it was...", "silly girl, use your brain, you do have one, right?" and etc (paraphrasing here).

Like, I get it. At this time in the world's history, people (and by that I mean men) didn't think women were capable of much. Even though they held the household together, and gave birth to their children, and were responsible for taking care of those children. Because that's such easy an easy job anyone can do...?...

And I get that a huge part of this novel is being like "yes, women ARE capable and they ARE smart and the ARE courageous and fuck you for even thinking otherwise". But why did you have to make the hero the one so obnoxious about it?? And I never felt like he understood women, as a people, are better than what people make of them, only that he happened to have a wife that despite being a female was also smart and intelligent. It pissed me off!!

And again, I LOVED them together. The banter was high quality and a lot of fun. But... but... still. STOP SAYING THOSE INFURIATING THOUGHTS FOR GOD'S SAKE!

So yeah. I enjoyed it, but the feminist in me that thinks women are fabulous and brilliant and a person as clever as Raven should be the first to notice this instead of dismissing it rebelled at his character.