A Duke in Disguise (Regency Impostors, #2)

by Cat Sebastian

[celinenyx]

Verity Plum is a printer/publisher, and Ash is her best friend and illustrator. The setting of A Duke in Disguise is fabulous, and I enjoyed reading about tradespeople in Regency era. Verity is bi, which - for once - isn't an actual problem in the book. There was a lot about the story that I enjoyed, except for one major issue: the reason the main characters keep pushing each other away doesn't make much sense.

The trope A Duke in Disguise is built on is "we're best friends and we shouldn't ruin the friendship", which... I guess is valid? But at the same time, it's a very boring push-and-pull to read about, when there is no actual reason for them not to become lovers. There is a lot of moping and sulking and other not very productive behaviour, and though they're not particularly awful to each other, I also found myself getting annoyed at their imagined difficulties. An actual barrier to their relationship is revealed when Ash turns out to be a duke (not a spoiler, it's in the title), but this was resolved too easily without much conversation. The early sex scenes were rather lackluster and random in their timing, as I didn't buy into their wild lusting after each other. On the bright side, we have a male protagonist who held out for a woman for once - Ash has never taken a lover, while Verity has.

There is a lot that I like about Cat Sebastian's writing, and I LOVED the historical background she gave to this one, but the pairing wasn't to my taste. I never felt like I truly knew Verity nor Ash, and their characterizations didn't "click" for me.

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Trigger warnings: (attempted) murder of family member, heavy domestic abuse, childhood abandonment, ableist language (the protagonist has epilepsy).