Product Description

Amelia Willoughby has been engaged to the Duke of Wyndham for as long as she can remember. Literally. A mere six months old when the contracts were signed, she has spent the rest of her life waiting. And waiting. And waiting . . . for Thomas Cavendish, the oh-so-lofty duke, to finally get around to marrying her. But as she watches him from afar, she has a sneaking suspicion that he never thinks about her at all . . .

It's true. He doesn't. Thomas rather likes having a fiancée—all the better to keep the husband-hunters at bay—and he does intend to marry her . . . eventually. But just when he begins to realize that his bride might be something more than convenient, Thomas's world is rocked by the arrival of his long-lost cousin, who may or may not be the true Duke of Wyndham. And if Thomas is not the duke, then he's not engaged to Amelia. Which is the cruelest joke of all, because this arrogant and illustrious duke has made the mistake of falling in love . . . with his own fiancée!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128003 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-30
• Released on: 2008-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 370 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060876111
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author

Julia Quinn started writing her first book one month after finishing college and has been tapping away at her keyboard ever since. The New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels for Avon Books, she is a graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest.

Customer Reviews

Déjà vu?
This is the second book of the Two Dukes of Wyndham Series. However, this can not be described as a sequel as it takes place at the exact same time that the first book did, The Lost Duke of Wyndham (Two Dukes of Wyndham, Book 1).

At first I was a tad confused. It took me a good chapter or two before I realized this wasn't a brief recap, and suddenly Grace is single and Thomas is still a Duke. I have to admit I am not thrilled with the way she decided to write this series. A lot of what I read in this book I had already read in the previous book, albeit occasionally from a different perspective, it was still repetitive information. It also took away a lot of the enjoyment of reading as there were little to no surprises and I already knew how it was going to end. Having read the previous book I knew who the true Duke was, knew how it was discovered, etc.

While the previous book concentrated on the romance between Grace and Jack and his discovery of his family ties. This book concentrates on the same discoveries but from the romantic views of Thomas and Amelia. Two people who have been betrothed since the cradle.

I think it was an interesting idea to try to have two stories in one series, both taking place at the same time... Had the whole Duke thing not been the center of each story, it may have worked. But what was exciting and mysterious in the last story, just proved much too monotonous in this one. Entire scenes are reused from the first book leaving me in a consistent state of déjà vu while reading.

Thomas and Amelia are wonderful leads and their relationship was fresh and new, thank goodness, so this book wasn't a total loss as I enjoyed their romantic part of the tale, immensely. With all that said... I can't help but feel a little cheated as the author chose to only write a half story. Had I not read the first book I probably would have rated this one a lot higher. Instead of making two books out of one story she should have combined them making it one book/one story with two perspectives. Would have made a more compelling tale and would have saved a tree or two in the process. ;)

Cherise Everhard, October 2008

Quinn's earlier works are MUCH better than this!
I'm upset and disappointed that I couldn't even finish the book. If you have read the Lost Duke of Wyndham, then you have already read HALF of Mr. Cavendish, I Presume. The Cavendish book parallels the Lost Duke book so closely, that you are literally re-reading scenes that you already know from the other book! Grant it, there is a different angle to some of it, because there is a different heroine in the new book, but I found myself skimming and skipping several pages just because I didn't see the need to re-read what I had already read.

A part of me wants to finish the book just to see how the story (and this two book series) end, plus the epilogue makes reference to the Bridgertons! But a part of me also wants to know what Quinn and Avon Books were thinking!

Now, I'm not telling anybody to walk away from this author! She is still definitely one of my favorites! But read her earlier works! I loved all her other books. "Everything and the Moon" and "How to Marry a Marquis" being my two personal favorites. Unfortunately, this two book series was definitely the worst of her fare and seemed like a joke compared to the caliber of her earlier works.

Quinn tried an experiment -and it failed.
It'll come as no surprise to those who read my review of Quinn's last book that my expectations for THIS one were very low. And Quinn still didn't manage to meet them. That's how bad this book was.

In general, I think that this premise is a good premise. I mean, if I happened along a romance novel with this sort of plot, I think I'd be intrigued. I love the whole concept of arranged marriages and the wonderful ways in which romance novelists can bring freshness to the genre.

Quinn, however, fails to deliver anything remotely resembling freshness or even ROMANCE to this plot. It's a train wreck... one that I felt compelled wade through and finish, because I felt like I just couldn't look away.

~~ WARNING: SPOILERS IN REVIEW ~~


The plot is fairly simple: Thomas Cavendish has been either heir to the Duke-dom or a Duke for most of his life. This means that he's used to being lord of the manor, has a lot of responsibilities and is very much secure in his identity. Does he want to travel and does he feel like it's a huge anchor in his life? Sure... but a Duke's gotta do what a Duke's gotta do. And part of that is marrying a fiancé he's had since he was a little boy - and she was just a mere six months old. Amelia (the fiancé) has spent her whole life pretty much just WAITING for him to get around to marrying her. If his identity is "Duke" then her identity is "future Duchess". This being a romance novel (and a fairly predictable one at that) we know what happens: The second they decided they're in love, it turns out that they can't get married. In this case, the fact that Thomas' long lost cousin has shown up - and it turns out that he's more than the likely the Duke - is what causes them problems. Add in the fact that Jack (the real Duke) is in love with Grace (a friend of Amelia's sister and companion to Thomas's grandmother); Amelia is under the impression that Thomas is in love with Grace (as she rightly should be); and Amelia's father wants her to marry the Duke -no matter which man he turns out to be. Well, we know from the beginning that Jack is the Real Duke, so the plot is pretty much focused on Thomas having a breakdown and Amelia wondering what's going on, since no one will tell her anything. And, of course, the two have a few love scenes that are not very sexy or romantic. (I won't even go into the fact that Thomas has more chemistry with Grace and Grace has more chemistry with Thomas, than Jack.)

Basically, this book (and its companion book, "The Lost Duke of Wyndham") seems like an experiment. Like Quinn sat down one day and said, "I'm kind of bored and I'm going to try something new." Both books take place over the course of the same time period; have almost the exact same scenes (from different POVs); have the same characters; and the same conflicts. And they're both written terribly, with cardboard cut-outs for characters, and have pretty much no romance or fun in either of them.

I'm not even sure I'll explain this well, but here it goes: Quinn breaks the story down the middle and only gives you half the story in each book. To find out what Jack/Grace are thinking, you have to read Book 1. To find out what Thomas/Amelia are thinking, you have to read Book 2. The problem is - ALL four of them are boring and annoying, so by the end of it all, you could care less what ANYONE is thinking. Not to mention the fact that she spends so much re-treading scenes you've already read (depending on which one you choose to read first - it doesn't really matter, honestly) that you feel like you're re-reading the book, even though it's first time you've read it. She doesn't add in anything new into Book 2 that she didn't already cover in Book 1. And when she does, it's a bit of a letdown. For example, there is a key scene in which Amelia has to explain to Grace that she has to lie for Amelia. I was annoyed in the first book, because Grace was completely zoned out during Amelia's part of the convo and I wanted to know what Amelia was saying - she was by far more interesting than Grace, anyway. Well, in this book, I found out. And I didn't care. Yes, that's right - I just didn't care, because I pretty much detested Amelia by that point, anyway. She was just as bland and boring as Grace was in the OTHER one.

Which leads me to the characters: I'm not sure how Quinn managed to pull this off, but I was more interested in the OTHER couple in both books. So, as anyone who has read my last book can attest to, I hated Jack/Grace in Book 1. I really liked Thomas/Amelia. In this book, though? Suddenly, Jack/Grace were looking a lot more interesting because Thomas/Amelia were that boring!!!

I'm not sure what made Quinn want to try her hand at this - one of her biggest strengths is her ability to write supporting characters that are full of warmth, humor and personality. By choosing to write these two book as only "half" of one whole book, she actually took away her biggest strength. I've been a fan of Quinn's for years and - until recently - I've cut her slack. I was one of the minority who enjoyed "The Secret Diaries of Miranda..." because I felt that she wrote a good heroine and some excellent supporting characters. I also gave her a huge amount of leeway with "On the Way to the Wedding" because I figured the poor woman was probably all Bridgertoned out by the time she got to Book 7 and she only wrote it because of pressure from the fans. So, even though I thought it was her weakest book, I shrugged it off.

But this? This is just craziness... what was Quinn thinking and will she, PLEASE, stop thinking it? Go back to doing what you do best - write stories about fun heroines and likable heroes. Give us great supporting characters that make us love them so much that we're begging you for a book of their own. Don't just FORCE us to read about them in another book by withholding every ounce of information about them in the current book. If you sketch them properly enough, we'll love them for their own value... and, also, DON'T overlap time-lines. The biggest problem with these two books was that you wrote the same story TWICE. I'm not sure why you wanted to, but readers don't want to read it twice. Especially when it was painful the first time.

In short: I can't recommend either one of these books. Is Quinn still on my auto-buy list? Yes, amazingly enough, she is. Why? Because I'm chalking these two books up to Quinn being bored and wanting to experiment a little.... She failed in her experiment, but I'm not going to hold it against her forever. The sheer number of her good/excellent books outweigh these two TERRIBLE books. Meaning: I'm going to pretend that I never read them or that someone other than Quinn wrote them. However, if Quinn's NEXT book - a stand-alone, I believe - is also this terrible? Then there's no hope.