The Duchess War (Brothers Sinister, #1)

by Courtney Milan

[Angie]

I really liked The Duchess War, and would have rated it higher had it not been for one major annoyance, which I will get to later. I absolutely adored Minnie and Robert. Separately and together! Minnie is quiet and wishes not to be noticed, but that's not to say that she's timid. Minnie has lots of ideas for social reform, which she is active in, and she's super smart although she downplays it to keep eyes off of her. Robert is the duke, and he also has ideas for social reform, but he's more vocal about it, at least in secret. He's printing pamphlets under a false name, and the authorities suspect it's Minnie. She wants the attention off of her, and cleverly figures out that the real person responsible is Robert. Both have their secrets, and both have the means to expose them. Game on!

Even though I've only read two books by this author, I have noticed that she focuses on more real life problems of the era than other romances. The Duchess War talks a lot about the unclean working conditions and how peers aren't tried for crimes like the lower class is. Minnie and Robert both want to change these things, and have their own strategies for doing so. While I did enjoy the plot at first, it did drag at the end, and I was a bit annoyed at the change of pace.

My only issue with The Duchess War was that there is no way it was 265 pages. It was at least twice that long! I was reading it ALL day, and I can normally finish 500-600 pages when I read all day. Not just one book that's supposedly under 300! It's not that I didn't enjoy what I was reading, because I did. But at around two-thirds in, everything had happened already. Minnie and Robert came together, broke up, made up, and were getting married. What else is there? Well, that's where it went more into the social injustice plot and then made more problems for our happy couple, which they solved in no time, because it really wasn't a problem at all. I could have done without that last 30%, because it really added nothing to the story for me, despite it being interesting.

Other than it's length being a total lie, I enjoyed The Duchess War a lot. Mostly thanks to the huggability of Minnie and Robert. Both of them have had horrible things happen to them, and they just want more, despite thinking they don't deserve it. I wanted to gather them up, bake cookies, and hug them! They're such sweet people and none of the other characters really appreciated them.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.